Econ Comments & Analysis
Politico | Obama aligns with GOP on tax extenders
It’s a year-end tradition that’s as deeply ingrained as the lighting of the National Christmas Tree: a last-minute, feverish lobbying campaign to keep billions of dollars in temporary tax breaks on the books.
LA Times | Soaking California taxpayers, again
Now that they have filed their income tax returns and written their checks, many Californians are starting to realize that government greed is no laughing matter.
Washington Times | The 1-percenter who doesn’t pay his ‘fair share’ - President Obama
Resolved: No American citizen shall be required to pay federal income taxes at a rate higher than the country’s millionaire president pays.
NBER | The Welfare Impact of Indirect Pigouvian Taxation: Evidence from Transportation
A basic tenet of economics posits that when consumers or firms don't face the true social cost of their actions, market outcomes are inefficient. In the case of negative externalities, Pigouvian taxes are one way to correct this market failure, where the optimal tax leads agents to internalize the true cost of their actions.
CATO | Thursday Is Tax Freedom Day
Most of us think of April 15 as “tax day,” but, of course, that doesn’t end our tax agony. Tax Freedom Day comes three days later, when the average American has stopped working to pay his taxes and starts working for himself and his family.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Why We Pay the Income Tax
As millions of Americans scrambled this week to get their taxes filed on time, they probably didn’t spend much time wondering how we got here. But the modern income tax, with the federal government drawing most of its money from payments by citizens, is relatively new.
