Direct, immediate stimulus payments would do far more to reduce immediate hardship and buttress an economy that faces serious risk.
off the charts
POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
Tax Code Can Do More to Narrow Racial Gaps in Income and Wealth
July 25, 2019
The federal tax code can affect racial disparities in both income and wealth and, while the current code narrows those disparities somewhat, the 2017 tax law marked a step in the wrong direction, our new report explains (see graphic). Certain types of federal tax reforms, however,...
Infrastructure Investments Should Focus on Low-Income Communities
April 4, 2019
As federal policymakers consider investments to address the nation’s pressing infrastructure needs, a core priority should be to direct substantial resources to low-income communities, our new report shows. Decades of policy choices and insufficient public and...
TPC: Impacts of 2017 Tax Law’s SALT Cap and Its Repeal
October 2, 2018
The $10,000 cap that last year’s tax bill placed on the federal deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) overwhelmingly affects people at the top rather than the middle, new Tax Policy Center (TPC) estimates show, mirroring...
Indexing Capital Gains Would Be Yet Another Tax Cut for Top 1 Percent
August 1, 2018
President Trump’s Treasury Department is reportedly considering issuing a regulation to index capital gains for inflation, which would cost perhaps $100 to $200 billion in the first decade and deliver 86 percent of its benefits to the top 1 percent of tax filers. Along the same lines, House...
GOP’s Stated Concern for Promoting Work Absent from 2017 Tax Law
May 4, 2018
Republican policymakers claim that the damaging changes they’re proposing to SNAP (formerly food stamps), housing assistance, and...
Permanent Extension Would Double Down on 2017 Tax Law’s Fundamental Flaws
May 2, 2018
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said this week that the Trump Administration would like to “make the middle-class tax cuts permanent,” presumably referring to the 2017 tax law’s individual tax provisions, most of which are set to expire after 2025. But they’re not “middle-class tax cuts”: extending them, as many...
Senate Hearing Testimony Highlights 2017 Tax Law’s Fundamental Flaws
April 25, 2018
We’ve previously explained that the 2017 tax law disproportionately benefits the wealthy, is fiscally irresponsible, and ...
Tax Cuts Must Be Judged by Their Effect on Typical Households
April 25, 2018
The Washington Center for Equitable Growth’s Greg Leiserson provides must-read guides to assess the economic impacts of the 2017 tax law in a new paper and associated...
Hassett Changes Story on “Repatriated” Foreign Profits Under New Tax Law
February 27, 2018
With new reports that companies are using their windfall from the new tax law in ways that mostly benefit wealthy investors rather than workers, Council of Economic Advisers Chair Kevin Hassett has revised his explanation of how companies will use foreign earnings they “repatriate” to this country...
