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The Cost of Unstable Tax Laws

1 min readBy: Arthur P. Hall, Ph.D.

Download Special Report No. 41

Executive Summary

The Internal Revenue Act of 1954 was landmark legislation that, for the first time, placed the income tax at the core of the federal taxA tax is a mandatory payment or charge collected by local, state, and national governments from individuals or businesses to cover the costs of general government services, goods, and activities. system. In the 40 years since the passage of that Act, 31 significant federal tax enactments have taken place. On average, that amounts to a substantial amendment to the federal tax code every 1.3 years. Such instability in the tax code creates economic uncertainty among taxpayers, which, in turn, generates economic costs.

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