Disclaimer
The views expressed in books, articles, op-eds, letters to the editor, blogs, blog comments, and other sources linked to and excerpted on TaxProf Blog are those of the authors and are not those of AALS and its member schools, Paul Caron, or Pepperdine University. Inclusion of links to and excerpts from books, articles, op-eds, letters to the editor, blogs, blog comments, and other sources does not constitute an endorsement by AALS, its member schools, Paul Caron or Pepperdine University.
Treasury Secretary John Snow released this chart today, showing the growth in federal tax revenues since the 2003 Tax Act.
54 responses to “Growth in Federal Tax Revenues Since 2003 Tax Act”
Worst. Economy. Eveh.
Thanks to TaxProf. Who also rounds up coverage of the House’s passage of, yes, even more tax cuts….
Worst. Economy. Eveh.
Thanks to TaxProf. Who also rounds up coverage of the House’s passage of, yes, even more tax cuts….
Tax, Spend, & Milton Friedman:
Paul Caron has a chart on the increase in federal tax revenues since the 2003 Tax Act. The Angry Bear has an informative
Tax revenues have increased since 2003
So if Bush is doing the ‘tax cuts for the rich’ thing, why are tax revenues actually increasing? TaxProf has the numbers.
In other news…I sucessfully def…
Lower Taxes, More Revenue
Via TaxProf, a graph of federal receipts since the 2003 tax cut – if only Congress could restrain spending
…
Next thing you know, they’ll be telling me that there’s gambling going on at Ricks….
Quite an impressive chart.
Bush should hold a press conference standing before a giant version of that chart.
Charts should be shown from zero. Otherwise, it makes it seem like revenues tripled.
Now if we could just do something about that spending…
Um, wasn’t Bush’s first tax cut in 2001? How come that wasn’t the turning point?
Why the US economy is through the roof
Yahoo! News takes a stab at detailing the reasons. Related: The UK’s Guardian Limited is wrong again. This chart shows federal spending in context with previous years. And, TaxProf shows how Bush’s tax cuts have now resulted in the highest level of F…
Congress is now moving yet more tax relief. WashingtonWatch.com reports that the foregone revenue amounts to nearly $750 per U.S. family.
http://www.washingtonwatch.com/ww/sum.php?cn=200500303
Will this too save taxpayers money and increase receipts?
Whos The Better Proprietor?
Cross-posted over at Nobrainers place.
I know that Nobrainer enjoys a good economic discussion just about as much as anyone, so I thought Id add my own humble contribution.
TaxProf has a very interesting graph noting that, in the wake of…
Whos The Better Proprietor?
Cross-posted at Literal Barrage.
I know that Nobrainer enjoys a good economic discussion just about as much as anyone, so I thought Id add my own humble contribution.
TaxProf has a very interesting graph noting that, in the wake of the Bush ta…
Actually the fall of Baghdad was probably the real turnaround point for the economy, since it removed a huge amount of uncertainty, with companies and persons willing to make big-time capital purchases again. Sec. Snow can try to claim pivot on whatever he wants but honestly it takes a couple of years for economic policy to filter through the system. There’s no question that the activity today is largely due to the Bush policies, but the mere passage of that one act certainly wasn’t responsible for the immediate turnaround.
So, Bush’s tax cuts hurt the federal govt, limiting the money it had to spend?
NOT So, the decline that began under Clinton, hit it’s nadir in 2003, when Bush put in place his job recovery plan and a few more tax cuts. Look where it’s gotten us….In the words to the Puppy Blender, heh
What’s the point? That the 2003 tax cuts caused this? Then what about the 2001 tax cuts? Did they cause a fall in revenues?
More likely, the pickup in revenues is due to (gasp) coming out of a recession. It’s what we call the business cycle.
Laffering All The Way…
The relationship between tax rates and tax revenues commonly referred to as the Laffer curve could be more correctly graphed as a surface. There are several possibilities for the other axis; mobility of taxpayers suits my worldview. In any case,…
Too bad a certain segment of society believes the only way to raise more money is to tax more.
Heck if America went Fairtax, it’s coffers would probably overflow. Could you imagine a world without income tax? I knew you could.
Since it does not say, I must assume these numbers are not inflation-adjusted. If this is so, how useful is this information?
If someone tells you that tax cuts don’t work….
….tell them, yes they do! The bottom line? “Ideas and policies have consequences. The correlation between tax relief and a growing economy is certainly …
Tax the Rich! Tax the Rich!
The fat sheep flee the herder!
Call your Senator! —sire or bitch—
They’re getting away with murder!
Letter the Editor! show your spleen!
Let’s stop this vile unfairness!
Boost their percentage to heights unseen,
(Be damned to fiscal awareness!)
Tax the Rich! Tax the Rich!
Demand a committee hearing!
With your percentage a chronic itch,
The fat sheep need more shearing!
For 92 years it is safe and sound,
Well known to Pol and staffer;
That “revenue lost” is patronage found
(Be damned to Arthur Laffer)
Tax the Rich! in your envy lies
The key to this populist racket.
While productivity brings; “surprise!
You’ve moved to a higher bracket!”
Be a careful chump in demanding who
And where a levy exacts,
Soon little old you may be subject to
The Alternative Minimum Tax.
Federal Tax Receipts
As a companion note to the post below, Taxprof posts this chart of tax receipts since 2000. The scale on the left axis makes it look like the growth is much more that a 10% annual growth rate. This rate is still high considering tax rates were cut a…
The classic “How to Lie With Statistics” by Darrell Huff and Irving Geis defines a “Gee Whiz graph” as a graph that truncates the lower portion in order to exaggerate the magnitude of the movement. Tax revenue growth of 20% over 2 years is certainly excellent, but not as good as it looks in the graph.
Bankruptcy
President Bush is bankrupting the United States with his idiotic tax cuts for the rich. How can he expect this…
Bankruptcy
President Bush is bankrupting the United States with his idiotic tax cuts for the rich. How can he expect this…
Revenues rise after tax cuts?
Federal tax revenues are rising after tax cuts? Yes indeed, and TaxProf highlights the Treasury Dept. graph to prove it. This won’t be news to anyone who remembers that tax revenues rose after Reagan cut taxes.
For those in denial from the 1980s, th…
Tax Cuts Raise Federal Revenues
Federal tax revenues are rising after tax cuts? Yes indeed, and TaxProf highlights the Treasury Dept. graph to prove it. This won’t be news to anyone who remembers that tax revenues rose after Reagan cut taxes. For those in denial…
Any chance we could get a chart with revenues as % of GDP?
I’m all for limited government and thus the tax cuts, but highlighting graphs like this just make us look silly. Not shockingly, revenues rebound when the economy recovers from a downturn. There are lots of factors that explain the recovery: (1) monetary policy (2) the tax cuts (3) natural mean-reversion in the economy. More importantly, academic research documents the supply-side effect of the tax cuts is (unlikely), revequite small. My point is that unless you can attribute most of the recovery to the short-run effects of tax cuts nue would likely be higher without the cuts. That does not make the cuts bad, as they help constrain government spending, but these “laffer curve” type need to be forgotton.
Tax Cuts Raise Federal Revenues
Federal tax revenues are rising after tax cuts? Yes indeed, and TaxProf highlights the Treasury Dept. graph to prove it. This won’t be news to anyone who remembers that tax revenues rose after Reagan cut taxes. For those in denial…
I’m curious what it looks like for the last 30 yrs in real dollars. Anyone know?
This graph is interesting, but not entirely surprising to anyone who has been paying attention. It begs a few questions though.
1) Why is it that liberals are universally opposed to tax cuts, given that tax cuts clearly provide more revenue to their favorite organization, the Federal Government?
2) Is it just because they hate Bush so much? (Actually, I suspect that they hate anyone who calls himself a Republican, and that Bush gets their enmity simply because he is the Republican du jour.)
3) Is it because the rates are more important to them than the results, in other words, they don’t really want to pay higher taxes themselves, but they think the symbolism of high tax rates will advance their agenda?
I have never heard a liberal argue that the Kennedy tax cuts in 1963 were a terrible idea, which plunged the country into the quagmire of Vietnam. Does anyone doubt that if Kennedy had been a Republican (he was arguably more conservative than Nixon), this argument would have become a fixture of the liberal mindset?
“More importantly, academic research documents the supply-side effect of the tax cuts is (unlikely), revequite small.”
World results dispel that. Eastern Europe, Chile, etc.
But that depends of so much variables like tax level, justice and institutions working or not, existence of a functional market. If you have a “working” country, the answer is usually yes.
What i found amuzing is jornalists talking about “galloping economy” but with always missing a word : Bush.
For some reason i have the feeling that if it was dire it will be in every paragraph…
Isn’t it a little dumb to conclude that tax cuts caused tax revenue to increase, unless we know what tax revenue would have been without the tax cuts? Angry Bear (somebody mentioned them above) makes the pretty good point that tax revenues would have been much higher in 2005 without the tax cuts, so saying that the tax cuts caused the growth in revenue doesn’t make much sense.
http://angrybear.blogspot.com/2005/12/budgetary-effects-of-bush-tax-cuts.html
Bush Tax Cuts Worked
As we are in the middle of a strong economy and things are going pretty well in general, it is hard to believe that some people might require a shred of proof that the Bush tax cuts worked. Luckily…
Emotionalizing The Issue
Every time there is a move to get government spending under control the big-state, social marxists among us begin whining about the cuts starving the poor, etc., etc. The North Dakota Progressive Coalition is engaging in that exact sort…
JoeyZ et al.
The tax rate cuts didn’t directly cause the revenue increase. They caused an economic stimulus. This stimulus caused the economy to boom and the resulting tax revenue increase. There is a delay between the tax cut and the point when their effects can be felt in the economy (roughly 2 years).
To question what the revenue would be without the cuts, you would have to speculate on the state of the economy without the cuts (it certainly wouldn’t be as healthy as it is today). My bet would be that the economy would be in a full blown recession with rampant unemployment and that revenue chart would be somewhat different (a steady down slope comes to mind). Take a look at the 2000 – 2001 portion of the chart. There is the start of a down slope even before the tax cuts were enacted.
Tax cuts work something like the sales at the store. You go in to purchase the item on sale and next thing you know, you’ve spent a couple hundred on items you hadn’t thought to buy.
It’s (tax cuts) incentive to save, invest and spend more. All of these are activities that stir the economic cauldron. Keep people working and businesses running and both paying taxes.
Could this really be the result of tax cuts, and supply side theory working? Or is it just a side effect of the Fed’s policy encouraging Americans to stockpile debt?
The Blog Herald: more blog news more often
An issue or news story to discuss? Submit a blog entry…
Tax Cuts Raise Federal Revenues
Federal tax revenues rising after tax cuts?TaxProf highlights the Treasury Dept. graph to prove it. This…
Voodoo Economics
That this is even up for debate boggles the mind. Nobody serious believes that tax cuts pay for themselves, as I noted last week. But most senior Republicans flunk this test of seriousness. In January, George W. Bush declared that,…
Voodoo Economics
That this is even up for debate boggles the mind. Nobody serious believes that tax cuts pay for themselves, as I noted last week. But most senior Republicans flunk this test of seriousness. In January, George W. Bush declared that,…
I am conducting my Ph.D. thesis work and important part of it is concerning the impact of tax reforms on the government revenue and the agricultural productivity and farmer’s income in Sudan.
I would be most grateful if you could kindely send to me any relvant studies and related data and information.
best regards
best regards…
Sincerely yours,
MAHGOUB Emad Ahmed
Agric. res. corporation
P.O. Box 126
wad Medani,
Sudan
Mobile + (249) 9 180 70691
Email address emadahmed2001@yahoo.com
Tax Federal
They prepare for this eventuality by allowing tax pa
Re: Pelosi Mob Proposing Tax Hikes
nice graph…what does i mean?
there is no key…
look at this one
…
Re: Pelosi Mob Proposing Tax Hikes
nice graph…what does it mean?
there is no key…
look at this one
…
In this situation, the runner posts(shows) an impertinent physical condition, while the others sink into the effort. At the conclusion of the journey(running) this runner shows an exceptional state of coolness, as if he had crossed(gone through) only some kilometres.
Is there a Bush Doctrine on CO2?
Glenn Reynolds links:U.S. carbon dioxide emissions dropped slightly last year even as the economy grew, according to an initial estimate released yesterday by the Energy Information Administration.As Randy would say, Yo Dog, check it out…
Is there a Bush Doctrine on CO2?
Glenn Reynolds links: U.S. carbon dioxide emissions dropped slightly last year even as the economy grew,
First, I would like to thank the Main Stream Media for continually talking down the economy for the last 7 years. Since they have lowered the consumers and workforce expections on the strength of the economy, we were able to have very low wage inflaction over the last 5 or so boom years (the hidden boom years it should be called). Since workers were brain washed to believe they were one pay check away from being laid off, they were subdued in their demands for wage increases. Even though the job growth and unemployment statistics showed trends that should have lead to extream wage inflation, worker were rluctant to push the issue because “recession was in store for next quarter”. I have a stack of MSM articles saying since 2004 that we were on the brink of a recession. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, but while we were wating for the recession, the Stock market boomed, jobes were created, and the economy zoomed along.
The answer to the question “Isn’t it a little dumb to conclude that tax cuts caused tax revenue to increase” is:
1) effect #1 – Increased economic activety – It is better to get 10% of 1$ spent 100 times (goest to vendor 1, who buys from vendor 2- who buy from vendor 3 – that 1$ gets taxed many times over. High taxes reduces our ability to have disposible income to spend.
2) The fairnes principle as I call it. First, there is a large undergoround economy of “cash” business run by 25 million small business owners (you and I). These buinesses are less than 10 employees and are usually the sole support for a family who ownes them..barber, hairdresser, deli, bakery, ect. These small failily business usualy make less than 100K/year in “profit”. When tax rates go too high, like before reagan tax cut (70% rate), the choice was usually, pay all your leagal tax bill, or skim some of the business revenue in cash transactions (hide these revenues) as to not pay taxes on them, or pay your taxes and go bankrupt. Guess what they choose. So by lowering the rate, business are less likely to skim revenue and pay the full amount. People will not risk jail bu skimming for 15% but they will for 70%. So when you lower the rate to somthing people will accept as “fair” they will pay and not skim.
James hits an important point: voluntary compliance goes up when rates are lower. Additionally, with lower rates, people take less planning steps to avoid taxes.
Working example: In the mid 1990s, if you were going to sell appreciated real estate, you might consider engaging in a like-kind exchange in order to avoid 28% taxes. You might buy a replacement property merely to avoid the taxes, thereby accepting a lower rate of return. The tax savings justify the move. But with 15% taxes, you might choose to pay the tax, and invest in something that provides a higher rate of return. Over the long term, the cumulative weight of these decisions makes a difference. One leads to lower growth, the other to higher growth.
Tax relief help is the assistance offered by various service agencies and companies that engage in tax-related matters. These companies have specialized in personnel who are typically taxation experts and attorneys who assist taxpayers with receiving the full benefits that they are entitled to under the federal and state tax-relief programs. Even though the program introduced by the IRS in 1992 allows taxpayers who are in financial hardship to settle their tax liabilities for less than the full amount, the task of interacting with the IRS can be very emotionally draining. This is particularly so in the case of tax-relief programs since most of them are aimed at low-income persons and senior citizens.