As we explained earlier today, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that only 1.2 percent of the population will pay a...
off the charts
POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
10 Things You Need to Know About the Capital Gains Tax
July 2, 2012
You can get a head start preparing for Congress’s upcoming debate on the capital gains tax by reviewing our new chart book, 10 Things You Need to Know About the Capital Gains Tax.
Those ten things are:
- Capital gains tax rates are the lowest since the Great Depression.
- There’s no evidence that a low ...
How Much Would Raising the Bush Tax Cut Threshold Cost?
June 5, 2012
As we reported last week, the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) calculates that letting President Bush’s income tax cuts expire for families making over $1 million would save only 56 percent as much revenue as President Obama’s proposal to let the tax cuts expire for families making over $250,000.
It has also been...
The Dividend Tax Cut: Not Supporting the Stock Market or the Economy
May 15, 2012
President Obama’s proposed budget would move toward past practice by taxing dividend income for higher-income earners at the same rate as ordinary income, beginning in 2013 (see chart). The change would reduce deficits by $108 billion (including interest on the debt) over ten years.
Some claim this would...
A “Small Improvement” Worth Making
May 9, 2012
The Buffett Rule, which says that millionaires should not pay a smaller share of their income in federal tax than less well-to-do Americans, would provide a “small improvement” in the nation’s tax system, billionaire investor Warren Buffett told Politico recently. As he argues, it’s an improvement worth making. The common...
The Reality of Raising Taxes at the Top, Part 6: How to Raise Taxes at the Top Consistent with Economic Growth?
May 2, 2012
This blog series and our new report have shown that tax increases on high-income people of the magnitude under consideration would not change their behavior in ways that would hurt economic growth. Moreover, the...
The Reality of Raising Taxes at the Top, Part 5: Can Tax Increases Help Economic Growth?
May 1, 2012
In this blog series, and in our new report, we’ve considered how raising taxes at the top might affect economic growth. We’ve found no convincing evidence that raising taxes at the levels that policymakers are considering would negatively affect high-income...
The Reality of Raising Taxes at the Top, Part 4: Would Tax Increases Affect Small Businesses and Entrepreneurship?
April 30, 2012
This blog series looks at how tax increases at the top affect economic growth. Today, we test claims that raising taxes on high-income people would heavily and adversely affect small businesses and entrepreneurs.
The claims don’t hold up against the evidence, as our...
The Reality of Raising Taxes at the Top, Part 3: Would Tax Increases Affect Savings and Investment?
April 27, 2012
The second installment in this series on how tax increases at the top might affect economic growth noted that changes in tax rates don’t substantially affect high-income people’s decisions...
The Reality of Raising Taxes at the Top, Part 2: Would Tax Increases Affect Work Effort?
April 26, 2012
The first installment in this series on how tax increases at the top might affect economic growth explained that while high-income people reduce their taxable income in...