Tax — Federal News feed http://www.cbpp.org/research/?fa=topic&id=30 en-us Copyright 2008 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. All rights reserved. Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:00:03 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss An Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) modeled on the federal program of the same name is now offered in 23 states and the District of Columbia as a way to reduce taxes and supplement wages for low- and moderate-income working families. A large body of evidence has shown that the state and federal EITCs serve a number of important public policy goals. States that enact EITCs can reduce child poverty, cut taxes for low-income families, and increase the incentive to work.… http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/V3_iTTABm2w/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2987 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:56:40 -0500 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2987 A 5.4 percent surcharge on couples with incomes over $1 million, a key financing feature of the House health reform bill, is sound and well targeted. It would affect just a fraction of 1 percent of taxpayers, a group whose incomes have soared and tax burdens have fallen in recent years, and would have only a modest impact on small businesses. Reforming the health care system to provide universal health coverage and slow the growth of health care costs is an urgent national … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/zwg5-hOTukQ/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2984 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:09:15 -0500 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2984 A new estate tax bill introduced by Representative Shelley Berkley (D-NV) and others would cost $119 billion more over the first decade (2012-2021) than extending the tax under its current rules as the President has proposed, yet would benefit only the nation’s wealthiest 0.2 percent of estates since they are the only ones subject to the tax under the current rules. In subsequent decades, the Berkley proposal (H.R. 3905) would be even more expensive compared to … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/mjea-S9_o0s/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2972 Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:57:23 -0500 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2972 Executive Summary Members of Congress are considering extending — and possibly substantially expanding — the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. The credit, which is available to first-time homebuyers with incomes up to $150,000 (up to $75,000 for individuals), expires on December 1 of this year. The evidence strongly indicates that Congress should show restraint, especially in considering … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/pb_xGoQ6sNE/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2965 Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:38:52 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2965 An excise tax on very high-cost health plans, which the Senate Finance Committee included in its health reform bill, represents a sound way to help pay for health reform. The excise tax finances nearly a quarter of the costs of the Finance Committee bill over the first ten years ($201 billion out of $829 billion) and makes a major contribution to the deficit reduction that the bill would achieve in later decades. It would help to slow the rate of health care cost … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/nZ-WOIe9k8Y/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2957 Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:12:24 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2957 To help pay for health care legislation that extends health insurance to all Americans and slows the growth of health care costs, Congress should consider reversing the substantial real decline in recent decades in federal excise taxes on alcohol. This paper, which is part of a series of papers on proposals to help pay for health reform, outlines three options Congress could consider for increasing alcohol taxes that would raise $27 billion to about $100 billion over ten years.… http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/5jMgNPmQz28/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2828 Wed, 27 May 2009 17:33:39 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2828 Congress should consider scaling back or eliminating health care flexible spending accounts (FSAs) [1] as part of its effort to pay for health care reform. This paper, which is part of a series of papers on proposals to help pay for health reform, outlines several ways in which Congress could curtail FSAs. FSAs are designed to allow employees to pay out-of-pocket health care costs with pre-tax dollars. Employees have a set amount … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/-abK4eKEa8I/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2829 Wed, 27 May 2009 17:36:42 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2829 Limiting the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance could provide significant revenues for health reform without eroding employer-sponsored insurance or causing other undesirable side effects — if the cap and the rest of the health reform legislation are well designed and contain several key features that past proposals have lacked.    Limiting the tax exclusion deserves serious consideration for several reasons. First, the exclusion is poorly designed, … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/Mrebj1z5nyk/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2832 Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:32:46 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2832 The federal government provides substantial tax subsidies for health insurance, especially for high-cost insurance plans for people with high incomes. The Senate Finance Committee is considering placing an excise tax on insurance companies that offer very high-cost health insurance plans. This proposal would help achieve two important objectives: It would provide a significant source of funding for subsidies to enable families of modest means to afford health … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/4g9nEZ1dYlc/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2887 Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:27:19 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2887 Chuck Marr, director of federal tax policy, discusses the need for health reform and one option to help pay for it: a surcharge on high-income households under consideration by the House of Representatives. Duration: 4:43 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/sidersbOvdI/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2897 Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:29:58 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2897 A fundamental principle of the bill that the Senate Finance Committee approved today is that it is budget neutral — that is, its costs are fully offset. It pays for the costs of expanding health coverage to the uninsured by redirecting spending and tax subsidies from less productive uses elsewhere in the health sector. Several of the offsets are likely to help slow the rate of growth of health care costs over time. For example, the bill would impose an excise tax on … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/tRHLUc8IJLQ/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2920 Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:28:32 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2920 The health reform proposal by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus would place a 35-percent excise tax on the value of health plans in excess of $8,000 for singles and $21,000 for families, starting in 2013; these thresholds would be indexed for inflation in later years. The excise tax is a sound way to help pay for health reform, but it has some shortcomings that can and should be addressed. Policymakers should modify the proposal to avoid unfairly affecting … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/m1D6YR2-O7c/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2924 Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:21:04 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2924 A coalition consisting of several trade associations for foundations and some nonprofit organizations along with a number of large charities has raised objections to a proposal that would help finance improved health coverage for low- and moderate-income people by maintaining the value of itemized deductions for wealthy Americans at its current level. Under current law, the value of those deductions is scheduled to rise after 2010 when the 2001 tax-rate reductions are slated … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/I3QbaehRaMk/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2934 Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:39:47 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2934 By establishing a tax on high-sugar soft drinks, Congress could help finance health care reform that extends health insurance to all Americans and slows the growth of health care costs, while also improving Americans’ health. This paper, which is part of a series of papers on proposals to help pay for health reform, outlines issues related to such a tax. Depending on how it is designed, such a tax has the … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/s3QcqY4mljs/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2830 Wed, 27 May 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2830 Summary A draft amendment to the Travel Promotion Act of 2009 (S. 1023), which the Senate plans to take up in early September, would ban state and local taxation of hotel room rentals when booked by a travel agent or through an online travel company (OTC) like Expedia or Priceline. In its current form the amendment would immediately deprive states and localities of more than $680 million in annual hotel tax receipts. It would also prevent them from collecting at least … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/qzf_lxJAk9c/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2903 Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2903 Reforming the health care system to provide universal health coverage is an urgent priority. But, facing huge projected budget deficits that have the nation on an unsustainable fiscal path, the White House and Congress must enact a health reform plan that is also fully financed and that reduces the growth rate of health care costs over the long term. Policymakers have been considering two major proposals to help finance health care reform that represent sound tax policy: … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/ysXoi_xFIh8/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2874 Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2874 Director of Federal Tax Policy, Chuck Marr, discusses the basics of the estate tax and the debate about it in Congress. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/9VVa4d79LEk/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2873 Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2873 Despite questionable reports to the contrary, repealing the estate tax would weaken the economy by adding nearly $800 billion to budget deficits over 10 years, thus reducing national saving and leaving fewer funds for investment that leads to higher productivity in the long run. Two recent reports from the American Family Business Foundation, a group funded by wealthy families that stand to receive large windfalls if Congress repeals the estate tax, implausibly claim that … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/iFCza1muzws/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2861 Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2861 If Congress rejects the President’s proposal to help pay for health care reform by limiting the value of itemized deductions for high-income filers, it should at least prevent those subsidies from expanding in 2011, as they would under current law. Simply keeping the value of itemized deductions for filers in the top two brackets at their current levels of 33 and 35 percent, rather than allowing it to expand when those tax rates rise to 36 and 39.6 percent respectively, would raise $68 … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/mGX1rTqR6aA/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2838 Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2838 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/B7AjNzPiiGM/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2808 Fri, 08 May 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2808 The Administration’s proposal is a welcome step forward in tax policy because it would make the tax code more balanced, support research and development, and promote fiscal responsibility. Specifically, it would tighten lax international tax rules and crack down on foreign tax havens, and it would use the resulting proceeds to finance a permanent incentive for companies to invest in research and development, as well as for … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/mcYLygg31vU/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2804 Mon, 04 May 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2804 The budget resolution Congress adopted last week for fiscal year 2010[1] largely reflects the proposals in the preliminary budget President Obama submitted to Congress in February. Under the budget resolution: Deficits will be very high by historical standards in the next several years but will decline substantially by 2014. Over the 2010-2014 period as a whole, deficits will be $824 billion lower than if no … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/6WnSNmuDWz4/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2802 Mon, 04 May 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2802 New data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show that in 2006, the top 1 percent of households had a larger share of the nation’s after-tax income, and the middle and bottom fifths of households had smaller shares, than in any year since 1979, the first year the CBO data cover. As a result, the gaps in after-tax incomes between households in the top 1 percent and those in the middle and bottom fifths were the widest on record. The data reveal starkly uneven income growth over … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/6m1eOk3cq1Y/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2789 Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2789 Earlier this month, the Senate voted on an amendment to the budget resolution, offered by Senators Jon Kyl and Blanche Lincoln, to shrink the estate tax in various ways. A number of major newspapers, including the New York Times and Washington Post, editorialized strongly against this proposal. Senators Kyl and Lincoln wrote letters to these newspapers in response.[1] These letters are significant because they concisely crystallize the key arguments that proponents of … http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/uX0PduEAI5w/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2788 Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2788 "...Is this the time to spend about $90 billion over the next decade to give the nation's wealthiest households a new, multi-million-dollar tax cut? The U.S. Senate apparently thinks so." Read more http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CBPP-TaxFederal/~3/4tmZmjkJsok/ http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2784 Mon, 13 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=2784