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Lawmakers Consider Untested and Complex Policies to Fund Reconciliation Bill

Congress is debating new ways to raise revenue that would make the tax code more complex and more difficult to administer. The new proposals—imposing an alternative minimum tax on corporate book income, applying an excise tax on stock buybacks, and, at one point this week, a tax on unrealized capital gains for billionaires—are unreliable and highly complex ways to raise revenue.

10 min read
Do tax increases reduce inflation. See higher taxes inflation policies and cause for inflation amid looming recession

Taxing Decisions, 2021: Minisode 2

President Biden and Congressional Democrats introduced a scaled-back proposal of their reconciliation package, with House leadership saying they hope to vote on this new trillion-dollar package ASAP. We talk through what made it into the deal, what was cut, and what the impact of these tax changes would be.

Lawmakers Could Pay for Reconciliation While Improving the Tax Code, pay for reconciliation tax proposal

Lawmakers Could Pay for Reconciliation While Improving the Tax Code

With corporate and individual rate hikes potentially out of the Build Back Better (BBB) reconciliation package, lawmakers are weighing alternative options to raise revenue. Rather than come up with untested proposals and complicated changes to the tax base, they should prioritize options that raise revenue while improving the structure of the tax code.

4 min read
Child Tax Credit debate Biden Democrats Child tax credit expansion, affect labor supply work requirement and incentive Manchin

What’s Going on with the Child Tax Credit Debate?

President Biden expanded and fundamentally changed the Child Tax Credit (CTC) for one year in the American Rescue Plan (ARP) passed in March 2021. Policymakers are now deciding the future of the expansion as part of the proposed reconciliation package, but a wide range of estimates for the effects of a permanent expansion is confusing the debate.

7 min read
Federal cigarette tax harm reduction efforts, federal cigarette tax proposal House Democrats tobacco tax New Year's Resolutions for tax policymakers. New Year's Resolutions for tax policy

Should Tax Policy Play a Role in Tobacco Harm Reduction?

In an effort to raise roughly $100 billion, the House proposal would double cigarette taxes and increase all other tobacco and nicotine taxes to comparable rates—a strategy with severe unintended consequences.

5 min read
Business tax hikes Some Corporations Pay Zero Federal Income Taxes—and That Is Not a Problem Democrats child tax credit plan. tax administration issues, tax complexity cares act. trump tax cuts who benefited taxpayer subsidies for drug ads

Which Industries Would the Tax Hikes Target?

Using Tax Foundation’s Multinational Tax Model, we estimate the effective tax rates on controlled foreign corporation (CFC) profits under current law and under each of the proposed plans for business tax hikes.

9 min read
House Republicans' American Families and Jobs Act includes the Build It in America Act and Tax Cuts for Working Families Act. Explore House GOP tax plan.

Federal Policy is Hard

Federal policy is hard. Federal health care policy during reconciliation while governing with razor-thin margins is really, really hard. We break down the debate on Capitol Hill over drug pricing and what the tradeoffs would be of having the federal government set prescription drug prices.

2019 local income taxes 2019, local income tax rates

Federal Plastics Tax Is Not a Good Revenue Raiser

One of the Senate’s proposals to pay for the Build Back Better Act is a federal excise tax on virgin plastics, which are plastics that are not reprocessed or recovered.

4 min read
Deteriorating federal budget deficits highlight need to stabilize federal debt. See federal deficit taxes contextualized amid push to balance the budget

Taxing Decisions, 2021: Minisode 1

We discuss where the reconciliation package on Capitol Hill stands and talk through recent Tax Foundation modeling, which found that the plan may not have the economic boost its proponents have claimed.

Debt ceiling deal debt limit 2023 Ways and Means plan The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly House Democrats tax plan

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of the Ways and Means Plan

The latest version of the Biden Build Back Better agenda, released last week by the House Ways and Means committee, is dense, with too many provisions to flesh out completely. Here’s a rundown of the good, the bad, and the ugly of it.

7 min read
Omnibus Federal Spending Deal: Retirement Savings Tax Treatment global minimum tax build back better revenue global minimum tax revenue and build back better act revenue potential domestic minimum tax

Wake Me Up when Reconciliation Ends

Reconciliation. One word that drives D.C. crazy, yet has been the way some of Congress’s most monumental bills have become law. We discuss why this complex budget process is back in the mix as Congress gears up to advance President Biden’s multi-trillion-dollar tax agenda.