All Tax VOX

Just about everyone benefits from tax preferences, Gleckman writes, a conclusion reaffirmed by a new Congressional Budget Office report on the distribution of tax expenditures.

A major challenge facing tax reform that reduces itemized deductions to help pay for lower tax rates is that lots of middle-income people would lose at least some benefits, Gleckman writes. 

Apple cut its taxes with the same tools multinationals have been using for years to minimize their worldwide tax liability, Gleckman writes. Apple’s tax avoidance shop, it seems, is a lot less innovative than its phone designers.  

The Supreme Court pushed the IRS into the morass of regulating political speech with its Citizens United decision. Congress needs to pull the IRS out of the political swamp.

The IRS Tea Party scandal is a huge embarrassment for the IRS and likely to make it more difficult for the agency to police groups that have stepped over the political line, Gleckman writes.  But based on what we know so far, the IRS Tea Party debacle is no Watergate scandal.

The IRS is under investigation for illegally targeting the Tea Party and other conservative groups. Steuerle offers answers to seven basic questions about the IRS Tea Party scandal.

The IRS shouldn't have targeted the Tea Party, Gleckman writes. But the unsavory IRS actions should also shine a light on the law that gives tax-exempt status to political groups of all ideological stripes – not just the Tea Party. 

If future medical costs continue to grow at their current low rate the federal budget will be in much better shape than most analysts thought, Gleckman writes. The slowdown in health spending growth is sure to drive the fiscal debate in some important and perhaps unexpected ways.

The Joint Tax Committee’s Tax Reform Working Group Report is must-read material for tax geeks, or even normal people who want to keep up with the ongoing debate over tax reform, Gleckman writes.

If Congress allows more people into the United States, our population, labor force, and economy will all get bigger. With immigration policy up in the air, the economy's trajectory will be difficult to predict. 

Corporate tax reform is impossible without addressing international issues, Gleckman writes. Yet, this corner of the tax law is not only immensely complex but most proposed solutions inevitably run into massive political and policy roadblocks.

In spite of its widespread use and large fiscal cost, the mortgage interest deduction does little to promote home ownership, Toder writes. It provides no subsidy to the nearly two-thirds of taxpayers who do not itemize and only a modest subsidy to those in the 15 percent bracket.

Some believe the retirement of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus will increase the likelihood of tax reform, but Gleckman argues his retirement may not result in a tax code rewrite.

The Senate is close to passing a bill that would let states require online merchants to collect sales tax on their products. A few key myths about online sales tax, busted. 

Online sales tax has growing bipartisan support among the nation’s governors, Francis writes, many of whom are strapped for tax revenues.

President Obama's 2014 budget would taxes on the highest-income American households, Gleckman writes, but middle-income households would also pay slightly more in taxes than under today’s law.

Months ago, several Republican governors proposed major tax reform plans, Gleckman writes, but by tax day, two of those governors had abandoned their tax reform plans. What happened?

Congress could simplify child-care tax benefits by harmonizing the maximum allowable expenses for both benefits, or eliminating one of the benefits altogether, Maag writes.

President Obama's 2014 budget would limit tax benefits for workers with high-balance retirement saving accounts. The plan is a smart way to roll back the billions in tax breaks that go to investors who don’t need tax incentives to save for retirement, Harris writes.

President Obama's 2014 budget proposal calls for a so-called 'Buffett Rule' that would ensure that high-income households pay at least a minimum percentage of their income in taxes. It turns out that setting a floor on the taxes rich people pay is not so easy, Williams writes.