Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Gov’t Reports
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New CBO Report Confirms Reduced Inequality And Increased Progressivity Of Federal Tax System
Following up on last month's post, The U.S. Tax System Is Getting Even More Progressive: Tax Foundation, New CBO Report Shows Pandemic Response Sharply Reduced Inequality, Increased Progressivity in 2020: The pandemic led to one of the largest fiscal responses in U.S. history, impacting households across the income distribution. A new report from the Congressional Budget…
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Crane Reviews Congressional Research Service’s Corporate Tax Reform: Issues For Congress
Charlotte Crane (Northwestern), What Do We Know About The US Corporate Income Tax? (JOTWELL) (reviewing Jane Gravelle (Congressional Research Service), Corporate Tax Reform: Issues for Congress (RL34229 2021): : In the most recent update of the Congressional Research Service pamphlet, Corporate Tax Reform: Issues for Congress (RL34229 2021), Jane Gravelle presents a survey of the…
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GAO: Lack Of Data Limits Research On Tax Equity
GAO, Tax Equity: Lack of Data Limits Ability to Analyze Effects of Tax Policies on Households by Demographic Characteristics: The U.S. has a large and increasing gap in income and wealth by race, ethnicity, and sex. However, little is known about the effects of tax policies across demographic characteristics. The tax code does not tax…
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CRS: 250 Tax Expenditures
Congressional Research Service, Tax Expenditures: Compendium of Background Material on Individual Provisions, S. Rep. No. 45, 112th Cong., 2d Sess. (1065 pages): This compendium gathers basic information concerning approximately 250 federal tax provisions currently treated as tax expenditures. They include those listed in Tax Expenditure Budgets prepared for fiscal years 2011-2015 by the Joint Committee…
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ObamaCare Tax Increases Are Double Original Estimate
Following up on Tuesday’s post, House Holds Hearing Today on The Tax-Related Provisions in the President’s Health Care Law: Tax Foundation, Obamacare Tax Increases Will Impact Us All: The Joint Committee on Taxation recently released a 96 page report on the tax provisions associated with Affordable Care Act. The report describes the 21 tax increases…
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TIGTA to Investigate Whether IRS Improperly Steered $500 Million in Contracts to Computer Company
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has agreed to investigate whether an IRS employee improperly steered more than $500 million in government contracts to Signet Computers, after receiving this letter from House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chair Darrell Issa. Washington Post, House Committee Investigating $500 Million in Contracts Between IRS, Computer Company:…
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TIGTA: IRS Wastes Millions in Internet Access Fees for Employee Laptops and Blackberrys
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration today released Inadequate Aircard and BlackBerry Assignment and Monitoring Processes Result in Millions of Dollars in Unnecessary Access Fees (2013-10-010): In Fiscal Year 2011, the IRS had approximately 35,000 active aircards and more than 4,400 BlackBerrys assigned to employees, providing them with mobile Internet and e-mail access. TIGTA found…
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CBO Rejects GOP Charge That It Slanted Report on Taxing U.S. Multinational Corporations
The Congressional Budget Office yesterday doubled down on its report, Options for Taxing U.S. Multinational Corporations, in response to a January 24, 2013 letter from House Ways & Means Chair Dave Camp charging that the report was "heavily slanted and biased": This letter responds to concerns you raised about the CBO's report, Options for Taxing…
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GAO Removes IRS Modernization, Keeps Tax Gap, as High-Risk Area
The Government Accountability Office yesterday released High-Risk Series An Update (GAO-13-283), in which the GAO removed one tax area from its list of 30 high-risk areas: IRS Business Systems Modernization. The IRS made progress in addressing significant weaknesses in information technology and financial management capabilities. IRS delivered the initial phase of its cornerstone tax processing project…
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Joint Tax Committee Releases Tax Expenditure Estimates for 2012-17
The Joint Committee on Taxation has released Estimate of Federal Tax Expenditures for Fiscal Years 2012-2017 (JCS-1-13): Tax expenditure analysis can help both policymakers and the public to understand the actual size of government, the uses to which government resources are put, and the tax and economic policy consequences that follow from the implicit or…
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CBO: Refundable Tax Credits
Congressional Budget Office, Refundable Tax Credits: The number and total costs of the refundable credits in the income tax system have grown considerably since 1975. The number of credits peaked at 11 in 2010 before dropping to 6 in 2013 (see Figure 1). Their total costs (that is, the reduction in revenues and the increase…
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GAO: IRS Faces Challenges Providing Service to Taxpayers
The Government Accountability Office has released IRS Faces Challenges Providing Service to Taxpayers and Could Collect Balances Due More Effectively (GAO-13-156): While there have been efficiency gains and efforts to improve service, the IRS faced challenges providing telephone service and responding to correspondence, continuing trends experienced in recent years. In 2012, 82 percent of individual…
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TIGTA: IRS Has 60% Error Rate in Policing Noncash Charitable Contribution Deduction
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration yesterday released Many Taxpayers Are Still Not Complying With Noncash Charitable Contribution Reporting Requirement (2013-40-009): TIGTA estimates more than 273,000 taxpayers claimed approximately $3.8 billion in potentially erroneous noncash charitable contributions in Tax Year 2010, which resulted in an estimated $1.1 billion reduction in tax. … IRS controls…
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Tax Foundation Gives F Grade to CRS Report on Tax Rates and Economic Growth
Tax Foundation: CRS Study on Tax Rates and Growth Still Flunks the Test, by Stephen J. Entin: Studies issued by the Congressional Research Service are intended to inform the Congress as it develops public policy and enacts legislation. A recent CRS publication on the effect of the top statutory tax rates on economic activity [Taxes…
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GAO: Evaluating Tax Expenditures
The Government Accountability Office has released Tax Expenditures: Background and Evaluation Criteria and Questions (GAO-13-167SP): Tax expenditures are reductions in a taxpayer's tax liability that are the result of special exemptions and exclusions from taxation, deductions, credits, deferrals of tax liability, or preferential tax rates. Similar to spending programs, tax expenditures represent a substantial federal…
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CBO: Options for Taxing U.S. Multinational Corporations
Congressional Budget Office, Options for Taxing U.S. Multinational Corporations: In 2008, 12% of all federal revenues came from corporate income taxes; about half was paid by multinational corporations reporting income from foreign countries. How the federal government taxes U.S. multinational corporations has consequences for the U.S. economy overall as well as for the federal budget.…
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GAO: IRS Could Significantly Increase Revenues by Better Targeting Enforcement Resources
The Government Accountability Office has released IRS Could Significantly Increase Revenues by Better Targeting Enforcement Resources:(GAO-13-151): The IRS spends most of its enforcement resources on examinations. Correspondence exams of individual tax returns, which target fewer and simpler compliance issues, are significantly less costly on average than the broader and more complex field exams. GAO estimated…
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CBO: Taxing Businesses Through the Individual Income Tax
Congressional Budget Office, Taxing Businesses Through the Individual Income Tax: Since the individual income tax was instituted in 1913, the profits of most businesses have been allocated, or “passed through,” to their owners and subjected to that tax—rather than to the corporate income tax. However, most business activity (specifically, the total revenue that businesses receive…
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TIGTA: IRS to Issue $21 Billion in Fraudulent Tax Refunds From Identity Theft Over Next Five Years
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration today released There Are Billions of Dollars in Undetected Tax Refund Fraud Resulting From Identity Theft (2012-42-080): Undetected tax refund fraud results in significant unintended Federal outlays and erodes taxpayer confidence in our Nation’s tax system. Our analysis of tax returns using characteristics of identity theft confirmed by…
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TIGTA: IRS Did Not Follow Law in 22% of Seizures of Taxpayers’ Property
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration today released Fiscal Year 2012 Review of Compliance With Legal Guidelines When Conducting Seizures of Taxpayers’ Property (2012-30-072): TIGTA reviewed a random sample of 50 of the 747 seizures conducted from July 1, 2010, through June 30, 2011, to determine whether the IRS is complying with legal and…
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GAO: The Role of Appraisals in the Estate, Gift & Income Taxes
The Government Accountability Office yesterday released Appraised Values on Tax Returns: Burdens on Taxpayers Could Be Reduced and Selected Practices Improved (GAO-12-608): Misstated appraisals used to support tax returns have long caused concern. In 2006, Congress adopted the Pension Protection Act, which changed the criterion for when appraisals are considered to be substantially misstated and…
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GAO: Tax Deadbeats Got $1.4 Billion in Stimulus Loans
The Government Accountability Office today released Tax Debtors Have Received FHA Mortgage Insurance and First-Time Homebuyer Credits (GAO-12-592): The Federal Housing Administration insured over $1.44 billion in mortgages for 6,327 borrowers with $77.6 million in federal tax debt who benefited from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Of these borrowers, 3,815 individuals claimed and…
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GAO: IRS Continues to Put Taxpayer Information at Risk; 89 of 105 Internal Control Weaknesses Remain
The Government Accountability Office yesterday released IRS Needs to Further Enhance Internal Control Over Financial Reporting and Taxpayer Data (GAO-12-393): IRS implemented numerous controls and procedures intended to protect key financial and tax-processing systems; nevertheless, control weaknesses in these systems continue to jeopardize the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the financial and sensitive taxpayer information…
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CBO: Choices for Federal Spending and Taxes
Douglas W. Elmendorf (Director, Congressional Budget Office), Choices for Federal Spending and Taxes (Presentation at Harvard University) (Feb. 24, 2012): By the end of the coming decade, unless we cut federal spending apart from Social Security and the major health care programs below the unusually low share of GDP it is already projected to reach,…
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GAO Seeks to Hire Director of Tax Policy and Administration
The Government Accountability Office seeks to hire a new Director of Tax Policy and Administration: This individual will be responsible for leading GAO reviews of tax policy and tax administration, specifically analyzing whether specific provisions of the tax code are achieving their purpose and whether those involved in tax administration are efficiently meeting their responsibilities.…