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Evaluating U.S. Tax Reform Options & Trade-Offs

The economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic poses a triple challenge for tax policy in the United States. Lawmakers are tasked with crafting a policy response that will accelerate the economic recovery, reduce the mounting deficit, and protect the most vulnerable.

To assist lawmakers in navigating the challenge, and to help the American public understand the tax changes being proposed, the Tax Foundation’s Center for Federal Tax Policy modeled how 70 potential changes to the tax code would affect the U.S. economy, distribution of the tax burden, and federal revenue.

In tax policy there is an ever-present trade-off among how much revenue a tax will raise, who bears the burden of a tax, and what impact a tax will have on economic growth. Armed with the information in our new book, Options for Reforming America’s Tax Code 2.0, policymakers can debate the relative merits and trade-offs of each option to improve the tax code in a post-pandemic world.

Individual Income Tax Conformity by State

Pass-Through Deduction Won’t Flow Through to Most States

For policymakers in most states, the fact that the pass-through deduction doesn’t affect AGI should come as a relief. For those in the six states which use federal taxable income as their starting point for conformity, decoupling from the provision is an entirely viable option.

2 min read
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: Preliminary Economic Analysis

According to the Tax Foundation’s Taxes and Growth Model, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would lead to a 1.7 percent increase in GDP over the long term, 1.5 percent higher wages, an additional 339,000 full-time equivalent jobs, and cost $1.47 trillion on a static basis and by $448 billion on a dynamic basis.

2 min read
state and local tax deduction

Prepaying SALT isn’t an Option

As the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act seeks to simplify the tax code, a last-minute provision closed a potential new tax-planning strategy germinating before the bill even passed.

2 min read
state tax revenue decline, state tax collections, local tax collections. Sources of Government Revenue

Conference Report Limits on Interest Deductions

There is no good reason to eliminate interest deductions to permit expensing. Expensing is a key element of any tax system which seeks to put all economic activity on a level playing field.

9 min read