News
National Journal | No Specifics on Where to Close Loopholes - National Journal Tax Event
Like nearly everyone in Congress who professes a desire for tax reform through closing “loopholes,” Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, on Tuesday refused to specify which tax expenditures he would like to eliminate, arguing that naming breaks now would only politicize the issue and create “fodder for the other side” during a contentious election year.
Econ Comments & Analysis
CATO | Buffett Rule's Deceitful Consequences
President Obama released his tax return last week, showing he had an effective rate of a little more than 20 percent of his income, even though he is rich by his own definition. One of major ways the Obamas were able to reduce their tax rate was by giving away 22 percent of their income to charity, which I applaud. But their actions raise several interesting points.
WSJ | Trickle-Down Taxation
In the 2012 election year, President Obama again promises to only target individuals earning more than $250,000—but his public statements on raising taxes focus on those earning more than $1 million a year. In theory this could be a compelling argument.
Daily Caller | The tax-code mess
In recent weeks President Obama has been on a quixotic search-and-destroy mission for the few remaining millionaires who aren’t already paying a huge pile of taxes. Meanwhile, the rest of us face the real-world struggles of filing our IRS returns and dealing with the hugely complex tax system that the president has done nothing to fix.
Washington Times | Making Tax Day worse
Mr. Obama has invoked Warren Buffett’s name at 49 different events since mid-August to justify his tax-raising plans. Despite the all-out White House lobbying effort, the president’s allies in the Democratic Senate failed on Monday to get the votes needed to pass the 30 percent tax hike on income over $1 million.
CATO | Why High Taxes Will Never Soak Rich
Whether it’s through the Buffett Rule, higher income-tax rates or double taxation of dividends and capital gains, President Obama often demands that “rich” taxpayers and big corporations send more money to Washington.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Morning Bell: What Tax Day Could Feel Like in 2013
In addition to today being Tax Day, it’s also, coincidentally, “Tax Freedom Day” — meaning that it has taken from January 1 until now for Americans to earn enough money to pay this year’s federal, state, and local tax bill — 29.2% of all our income. In other words, for the first 111 days of the year, everything you earned went straight to Uncle Sam.
Tax Foundation | The Missing Facts in the Buffett Tax Debate
In 2009, the most recent year for which such detail is available, millionaires earned 10 percent of all income, but paid 20 percent of all income taxes. Although there were only about 237,000 millionaires in 2009, they paid a greater share of the income tax burden than everyone earning under $75,000 combined - a total of 109 million taxpayers.
The American | Here’s how big the potential 2013 tax hikes would be
If you combine all the other tax increases from 1980-1993, they add up to 3.3% of GDP, according to the brilliant budget team at Strategas Research.
Tax Foundation | New Tax Calculator Shows Taxpayers their Tax Bill under Many Scenarios
Today the Tax Foundation releases its latest interactive tool, an update and overhaul of its successful MyTaxBurden tax calculator. I've rewritten the calculator from the ground up and added a variety of new options and features.
