All Tax VOX

Most Social Security experts, no matter their political persuasion, know that Social Security must be redesigned, Gleckman writes. With President Obama proposing to change the way government adjusts Social Security benefits, why not redesign it now?

If Congress wants to encourage risk-taking, it may be better off focusing on new businesses, not small businesses, Gale writes.

Higher payroll taxes will take $115 billion out of workers’ pockets this year and cut consumer spending, according to the Tax Policy Center. 

Backers of a territorial tax system argue that the current worldwide system puts US firms at a competitive disadvantage since they must pay the high US tax rate on repatriated profits earned by their affiliates in low-tax countries, while multinationals based in territorial countries pay only the local tax rate on these profits, Toder writes.

Stockton, Calif., will be the largest US municipality to enter bankruptcy. The question, Gordon writes, is: Who will be left holding the bag?

Corporate tax reform is not a bad idea, Gleckman writes, but it may be harder than either President Obama or key Republicans want to admit.

Corporate tax reform in the US seems to be inevitable, Harris writes, but questions remain over how to pay for it. Finland may have the answer.

With both interest rates and prices so low, this could be the ideal time to redesign the tax subsidy for home ownership, Gleckman writes. That goes against many who say that the housing market remains so shaky that ending the deduction would send home prices back into a tailspin.

The Supreme Court will rule on two gay marriage cases this week, including the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Although DOMA is not primarily a tax law, taxes are the basis for the case going to the Supreme Court, Williams writes. 

A bold plan in California would eventually make automatic enrollment widespread and could revolutionize the state’s retirement savings landscape, Harris writes.

There is a reason for the lack of detail in the Senate Democrats' budget, Gleckman writes: Raising nearly $1 trillion by eliminating tax preferences for some businesses and a tiny slice of households is very hard to do.

That Capital gains taxes hamper economic growth is a widely held belief. The truth might not be so straightforward. 

The Ryan budget is only half-a-plan, Gleckman writes. It outlines politically attractive tax cuts but says nothing about the tax increases necessary to pay for them. 

A carbon tax isn’t perfect, Gale writes, but relative to the alternatives, a tax on carbon has an enormous amount to offer to both the economy and the environment.

Paul Ryan's tax play mimics the tactics of the 2012 campaign, Gleckman writes, promising tax reform built around wildly ambitious but gauzy rate reductions without a word about how to pay for them.

Bubbling just beneath the surface of the debate over whether states should expand Medicaid under the 2010 Affordable Care Act is an issue of trust, Gleckman writes: Would the feds keep their part of the bargain?

Republicans and many economists argue for shifting to a more accurate inflation measure, Gleckman writes, but a new report suggests that move would raise taxes by nearly as much as it would slow Social Security spending over the next decade.

The sequester is not written on stone tablets. Like every other budget gimmick Congress invents, this one can be rewritten, waived, and otherwise adjusted. And like every one before it, it probably will be.

There are many ideas for improving federal assistance for low-income college students, Rueben writes, including better targeting of higher education tax credits.

To move beyond the sequester, Republicans and Democrats must figure out what they can give up to get what they really want, Steuerle writes.