Most Businesses Won’t Benefit from Corporate Tax Reform
To the Obama Administration, tax reform means corporate tax restructuring. Both the president and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner have argued that at least the first tranche of reform would scale back...
View ArticleShould We Cut Corporate Taxes By Raising Rates on Investors?
While there seems to be growing agreement in Washington that the U.S. needs to cut its tax rate on corporations, there is (surprise) no consensus at all on how to pay for this. One way: Raise taxes on...
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The Very Rich Really Are Different
“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me,” wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald. He wasn’t talking about taxes (the laws were very different back in 1926) but his assertion...
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Was Buffett Right? Do Workers Pay More Tax than Their Bosses?
When Warren Buffett called for higher taxes on the wealthy in a New York Times op-ed last week, the billionaire investor argued that he and wealthy people like him face lower federal rates than the...
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Why Investors Pay Less Tax than the Rest of Us
After I wrote last week about Warren Buffett’s New York Times op-ed on the low tax rates paid by wealthy investors, Tax Policy Center visiting scholar Brian Galle pointed out that my graph showing the...
View ArticleWill Romney’s Modest Capital Gains Tax Cut Hurt With the GOP?
Welcome to the season of jobs plans. GOP presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman offered his last week. President Obama will propose his before Thursday night’s football game. But today is GOP presidential...
View ArticleDebating the Buffett Rule
On Monday, the Administration released its deficit reduction blueprint. One part of the Administration’s proposal, which has received enormous attention, is that the Joint Select Committee on Deficit...
View ArticleObama’s Buffett Rule: Keep Your Eye on Capital Gains
President Obama didn’t quite get around to saying so when he rolled out his latest deficit reduction plan on Monday, but his Buffett Rule—that no one making more than $1 million should pay a lower tax...
View ArticleThe Democrat’s Millionaire Tax: Smart Politics, Awful Policy
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid’s plan to fund a $445 billion stimulus, err, jobs bill with a 5.6 percent surtax on millionaires is not all bad. After all, Tax the Rich does make a nice campaign...
View ArticleHiking Dividend Taxes to Pay for a Corporate Rate Cut
Finland’s government recently announced a broad fiscal reform package that cuts corporate tax rates—financed in part by higher taxes on corporate dividends. The plan makes sense for Finland and is...
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What Changes in the Mortgage Deduction Would Mean for Home Prices
Tax preferences for housing are under fire, with mounting evidence that these preferences are inefficient, unequal, and too expensive to warrant a place in the tax code. Critics of proposed changes in...
View ArticleDo Private Equity Firms and their Partners Owe Ordinary Income Tax Under...
For a decade, Congress has been debating how to tax managers of private equity firms. The argument is pretty familiar to tax wonks: Should these partners treat this compensation (commonly called...
View ArticleIncoming Senate Finance Chair Wyden Outlines His Tax Agenda
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), about to become the new chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Friday that he aims to eventually rewrite what he described as a “dysfunctional, rotting mess of a...
View ArticleCamp Defines Private Equity as a Business, Would Boost Taxes on Carried Interest
In the tax reform roadmap he released yesterday, House Ways & Means Committee Chair Dave Camp (R-MI) targeted the trillion dollar private equity industry. Not only did he propose to tax the...
View ArticleYou Could Owe Capital Gains Taxes When You Spend Bitcoin
The IRS determined this week that Bitcoin and other digital currencies should be taxed as property, not currency. This means Bitcoin transactions will be taxed as capital gains, not as ordinary income....
View ArticleA Flash Tax for the Flash Boys
Michael Lewis spotlights high-frequency traders with his new book, Flash Boys. These traders use high-speed computers and fast connections to outrace investors, and other traders, to the market. They...
View ArticleState Taxes and the April Surprise
In recent months, several governors have complained about the April, 2014, surprise in state tax revenues. They say they were shocked when personal income tax payments fell far below expectations. They...
View ArticleAbuse of financial products by hedge funds
Today, I testified before the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (the “Subcommittee”) on the abuse of structured financial products by hedge funds, in particular by the Renaissance...
View ArticleOne Downside Of Inversions: Higher Tax Bills For Stockholders
Corporate inversions are all the rage these days as U.S. businesses merge with foreign firms and then restructure the combined businesses as foreign-based corporations. That yields tax benefits and may...
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President Obama Targets the "Angel of Death" Capital Gains Tax Loophole
The President plans to announce in Tuesday’s State of the Union Address new proposals that would raise taxes on capital gains for the wealthiest Americans. The proposal would raise the top tax rate on...
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