All Tax VOX

Congress may be headed toward passing a tax cut the public is not demanding.

So far, the early debate over a 2017 tax bill has been an inside-the-Beltway game. But what will happen once the tax debate gets out of Washington? Will it engage a highly polarized and often-confused public?

What makes people think the tax system is 'fair'?

The return is a case study for why the Alternative Minimum Tax, for all its flaws, serves a useful purpose. But it’s mostly strong evidence that the basic law desperately needs fixing.

Bill Gates recently offered a simple solution to the problem of automation: Tax the robots. But that premise raises several thorny issues.

This is a cautionary tale about the dangers of rushing a major change in health and tax laws through a legislative short cut – one that may prove timely in the current debate over the ACA.

Its mission statement used to describe an agency responsible for developing 'sound, science-based standards.' But the word 'science' has recently vanished.

In addition to major revisions to Medicaid and other parts of the health care system, the new American Health Care Act proposes a number of changes to tax law. Here's what they are.

What do Russia and the Affordable Care Act have to do with taxes? Everything. 

Congress and President Trump are embarking on what is likely to be a major rewrite of the federal income tax code. Yet no one knows whether the hundreds of tax preferences embedded in the law accomplish their purpose.

The spending plan Trump aides described this week will never pass Congress, not even one where both chambers are controlled by Republicans, says the Tax Policy Center.

Some lawmakers claim a border-adjustable tax will raise massive amounts of revenue to help pay for corporate tax cuts and give a powerful jolt to US-based manufacturers. But both cannot be true.

February 15 was the first day those who claim either the EITC or the ACTC could have received their 2016 tax refunds. This is several weeks later than in past years.

A high-powered group of Republicans and business executives proposed replacing regulations for reducing greenhouse gases with a carbon tax. The two most interesting things about this initiative are who proposed it and what they’d do with the money.

Marriage gives most couples a tax cut but it can also boost a couple’s tax bill, sometimes by a lot.

On one hand, there are curbs that could not be ignored even if the US Congress changed the tax law. On the other, many clergy already engage in some campaigning. And for the most part, the IRS looks the other way.

Tax writers will have to resolve scores of legal and economic problems before enacting GOP's tax plan. Addressing any one will be a complex and time-consuming. Dealing with them all could be a policy nightmare. 

President Trump and Congress are likely to consider an historically broad range of tax and spending changes over the next year. But they’ll be doing so in the face of unprecedented long-term fiscal challenges, according to new estimates.

More than ever, it looks like Congress will settle for a big tax cut and abandon reform. 

The President wants US companies to stay put, and he vows to remember the “forgotten people,” or working class Americans. Some of those Americans are corporate shareholders. Are there ways to reform the US corporate tax system that benefits them?