News
Bloomberg | Mortgage-Tax Break Curbed by Housing Slump The cost of one of the country’s most expensive individual tax breaks is shrinking as the number of Americans who own homes declines and mortgage rates hover near historic lows.
NY Times | State Tax Collections Pass Peak From Recession’s Start State tax collections, which during the recession experienced their steepest and longest drop since at least the Great Depression, have been climbing back for the last two years and finally surpassed their previous peaks as 2011 drew to a close, according to a report issued on Thursday.
National Journal | House Passes Small Business Tax Cut; Senate Democrats Push Alternative The House passed a 20 percent tax cut for small businesses on Thursday, a bill panned by Democrats as a handout to millionaires but one that could live on as the Senate considers a more narrow alternative.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Forbes | Team Obama: Tax Predators On The Prowl According to the Internal Revenue Service, a record number of people renounced their U.S. citizenship last year—with many experts citing excessive taxation as the cause of the exodus—yet their renunciation may not provide the tax haven they seek.
NBER | The Incentive Effects of Marginal Tax Rates: Evidence from the Interwar Era This paper uses the interwar period in the United States as a laboratory for investigating the incentive effects of changes in marginal income tax rates.
WSJ | Bipartisan Tax Gimmickry Senate Democrats lost their latest attempt at tax flim-flam on Monday when their 30% minimum tax (the Buffett rule) went down to easy defeat. House Republicans plan to counter as early as today with their own tax gimmick, albeit a business tax cut. They are both walking advertisements for tax reform.
Blogs
The American | Geithner inadvertently makes the case for anti-tax absolutism Always more. Never enough. Here’s a fun fact: Annual federal spending on Medicare, Social Security, income security, and various education and training programs—in inflation-adjusted terms—rose by 175% to $1.4 trillion from 1977 to 2007. Yep, a wafer-thin safety net.
Library of Economics | The "Buffett Rule's" Marginal Tax Rates I've been trying to figure out what marginal tax rates would be if the so-called "Buffett Rule" were passed. There's an actual Senate bill out there but, as with almost all bills, you have to look at previous law--and know how to read dense laws--to understand what it means.
