Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Think Tank Reports
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TRAC Accuses Treasury Department of Ignoring FOIA
The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University today released a report, Treasury Ignores FOIA Despite Obama Open Government Initiative: The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) has accused the Treasury Department's Disclosure Services — the department unit that processes Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests — of secretly withholding government records about how it handles FOIA…
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Donald Marron Named Director of Tax Policy Center
The Tax Policy Center announced today that Donald Marron, who served as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and as acting director of the Congressional Budget Office, will become the director on May 17, succeeding Rosanne Altshuler, who will be returning to Rutgers University after nearly two years with the Tax Policy…
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TRAC: IRS Audit Rate of Large Companies Continues to Plummet
The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University today released a report, Despite Rising Deficits, IRS Audits of the Largest and Richest Corporations Decline: Despite a growing federal deficit, IRS audit efforts aimed at the nation's largest corporations have precipitously declined in the last few years and now are at an all time low….…
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Today Is Tax Freedom Day — Earlier in AK, LA & MS, Later in CT, NJ, NY
Today is Tax Freedom Day, the day on which Americans will have earned enough money to pay all federal, state, and local taxes for the year: Tax Freedom Day will arrive on April 9 this year, the 99th day of 2010, according to the Tax Foundation’s annual calculation using the latest government data on income and…
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FactCheck.org: IRS Will Not Need to Hire 16,500 New Agents to Enforce ObamaCare
From FactCheck.org: Q: Will the IRS hire 16,500 new agents to enforce the health care law? A: No. The law requires the IRS mostly to hand out tax credits, not collect penalties. The claim of 16,500 new agents stems from a partisan analysis based on guesswork and false assumptions, and compounded by outright misrepresentation. ……
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CBPP: Let the Bush Tax Cuts Expire on Schedule
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities today released High-Income Tax Cuts Should Expire on Schedule Extending Tax Cuts for One of Two Years or Exempting “Small Business” Income Would Be Ill-Advised: Allowing the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for couples making over $250,000 (and singles over $200,000) to expire on schedule on December 31…
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TRAC Issues Annual Report on IRS Operations
From the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University: The latest information about U.S. taxpayer returns is now available on TRAC's web site. New this year is a powerful app that makes it much easier to browse through extensive information on the constantly shifting kinds of income flowing to taxpayers in the fifty states and…
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Tax Freedom Day Is April 9 — Earlier in AK, LA & MS, Later in CT, NJ, NY
The Tax Foundation today announced that April 9 is Tax Freedom Day, the day on which Americans will have earned enough money to pay all federal, state, and local taxes for the year: Tax Freedom Day will arrive on April 9 this year, the 99th day of 2010, according to the Tax Foundation’s annual calculation using…
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The Flat Tax: How it Works and Why it is Good for America
A new video released yesterday by the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation (CF&P) explains "why a flat tax would be superior to the internal revenue code. Entitled "The Flat Tax: How it Works and Why it is Good for America," the mini-documentary includes a 20-second tutorial showing the simple postcard-sized tax forms that would replace…
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Tax Foundation Publishes 2010 Facts & Figures: How Does Your State Compare?
The Tax Foundation yesterday released the 2010 version of Facts and Figures: How Does Your State Compare?, a pocket-sized booklet comparing the 50 states on 31 different measures of taxing and spending, including individual and corporate income tax rates, business tax climates, excise taxes, tax burdens and state spending.
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Health Care Law Adds Even More Taxes
The Heritage Foundation, Reconciliation Bill Adds Even More Taxes: By signing the legislation, Obama already broke his campaign promise not to raise “any form” of taxes on families making less than $250,000 per year. The reconciliation bill adds even more taxes for Americans — an estimated $52.3 billion over 10 years, according to a new…
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85% Top Income Tax Rate Needed to Close Deficit
The Tax Foundation has published Can Income Tax Hikes Close the Deficit?: Using the Tax Foundation's Microsimulation Model to analyze the deficits projected by the President's Budget, we can project how much revenue a broad-based increase in federal income tax rates would generate. As usual, the President's Budget forecasts lower deficits than any other reputable…
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Commentary on Rep. Ryan’s Roadmap for America’s Future Act
Commentary on H.R. 4529, Roadmap for America's Future Act of 2010: The Atlantic, Paul Ryan's Plan is a Trojan Horse for Conservatism Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, The Ryan Budget's Radical Priorities Provides Largest Tax Cuts in History for Wealthy, Raises Middle Class Taxes, Ends Guaranteed Medicare, Privatizes Social Security, Erodes Health Care Center on…
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Tax Foundation: 52 Million (36%) of Tax Returns Pay Zero Income Tax
The Tax Foundation has published Record Numbers of People Paying No Income Tax; Over 50 Million "Nonpayers" Include Families Making over $50,000: A record number of the 142 million tax returns filed in 2008 resulted in no tax payment, according to a Tax Foundation analysis of IRS data. That means the tax filers got back…
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Tax Foundation: Amazon Taxes Lose Revenue, Deter Business
The Tax Foundation yesterday released "Amazon Tax" Laws Signal Business Unfriendliness And Will Worsen Short-Term Budget Problems. Here is the Executive Summary: Citing significant budget shortfalls and the inability to collect sales taxes on many Internet-based transactions, a number of states are considering the adoption of "Amazon taxes." Such laws, nicknamed after their most visible…
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CBPP: 33 States Have Raised Taxes by $32 Billion/Year
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has published State Tax Changes in Response to the Recession: The national recession has had such a devastating effect on state finances that states took in $87 billion less in tax revenue from October 2008 through September 2009 than they collected in the previous 12 months. This 11…
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More Tax Return Data on the Richest 400 Americans
Following up on last week's post, IRS Releases 2007 Tax Return Data on Wealthiest 400 Americans: Income Soared 31% (to $345m), Tax Rate Fell 3.2% (to 16.6%): Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Tax Rate for Richest 400 Taxpayers Plummeted in Recent Decades, Even as Their Pre-Tax Incomes Skyrocketed: The effective federal income tax rate…
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State Tax Revenues Fall for Fifth Consecutive Quarter
The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government reported today that state tax revenues fell for the fifth consecutive quarter, down 4.1% for the final quarter of 2009: Corporate income tax: -5.8% Personal income tax: -4.5% Sales tax: -4.2% The decline was biggest in the Southwest (-18.1%); tax revenues increased 0.5% in New England. State tax revenues declined in…
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TPC: Obama’s Tax Proposals Yield $4.9 Trillion (Not the Claimed $1.1 Trillion) Shortfall
The Tax Policy Center has released a detailed 49-page analysis of the key tax proposals in President Obama’s 2011 budget: Separate discussions below describe each of the proposals including current law, proposed changes, and, when appropriate, the distributional effects. … The budget assumes a baseline in which the 2001-2003 tax cuts are permanent (including the estate…
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Senator Specter’s ‘Flat Tax’ Cuts Taxes on Richest 5%, Raises Taxes on Remaining 95%
Citizens for Tax Justice has published Senator Specter’s “Flat Tax” Cuts Taxes for the Richest 5% and Raises Taxes for Everyone Else: Since 1995, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania has introduced legislation to create a federal “flat tax” in every session of Congress, including this session. This single-rate tax would replace the existing progressive personal…
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Tax Foundation: President Obama’s International Tax Proposals Would Hurt U.S. Competitiveness
The Tax Foundation has published The Importance of Tax Deferral and a Lower Corporate Tax Rate: President Obama’s recently released budget reemphasizes the administration’s goal to curtail tax deferral for income earned abroad by American businesses, but a new Tax Foundation study argues that this would harm U.S. competitiveness in low-tax countries. … “Eliminating deferral under…
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President Obama’s Prescription for Low-Wage Workers: High Taxes, Higher Premiums
Michael F. Cannon (Cato Institute) has posted Obama's Prescription for Low-Wage Workers: High Implicit Taxes, Higher Premiums on SSRN. Here is the abstract: House and Senate Democrats have produced health care legislation whose mandates, subsidies, tax penalties, and health insurance regulations would penalize work and reward Americans who refuse to purchase health insurance. As a…
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CBPP Tax Reports
Oregon Voters' Approval of Tax Increase Noteworthy as Federal Tax Debate Opens: "Oregonians’ decisive vote last month to raise taxes on households making over $250,000 calls into question the conventional wisdom that tax-increase proposals are politically untenable regardless of their merit on economic, budgetary, and equity grounds. This has important implications for Congress, which must…
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Altshuler, Lim & Williams: Desperately Seeking Revenue
Rosanne Altshuler (Director, Tax Policy Center), Katherine Lim (Research Assistant, Tax Policy Center) & Roberton Williams (Senior Fellow, Tax Policy Center) presented Desperately Seeking Revenue at the January 15, 2010 conference on Train Wreck: A Conference on America's Looming Fiscal Crisis at USC. Here is the abstract: In August 2009, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that the federal budget…
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Escape From New Jersey (Taxation)
Wall Street Journal editorial, Escape from Taxation: A New Study Shows that Wealth Flees After Taxes Rise: New Jersey's Governor Chris Christie must be following the economic news from Greece. Its tattered reputation for fiscal control has turned Greece into an international financial nightmare and laughingstock. Perhaps tiring of New Jersey jokes, Governor Christie this…