ISIL Freedom Network: United States > Scholarly and In-Depth Studies > Taxes and Taxation

An Analysis of the Taxpayer Refund and Relief Act of 1999
Source: Institute for Policy Innovation
Author: Gary Robbins and Aldona Robbins
Country: United States

Authors predict tax cut bill would create an additional 1.8 million jobs, plus more, over the next ten years. (9/14/99)

Budget balanced even without Social Security -- what excuse remains to delay tax cuts?
Source: IPI
Country: United States

With the budget in balance, the Institute for Policy Innovation warns that taxes should be cut now, or else growing revenues will just be spent. (10/25/99)

A federal catastrophe? Testimony of Tom Miller on reinsurance coverage for catastrophic losses
Source: Competitive Enterprise Institute
Author: Tom Miller
Country: United States

CEI's Tom Miller explains that reforming federal homeowners'insurance policy is fundamental to reducing post-disaster flood-plain and fault-line reconstruction. Available in Adobe PDF format. (7/30/99)

Who pays the marriage penalty? New estimates
Source: Heritage Foundation
Author: William W. Beach & Rea S. Hederman
Country: United States

This Heritage study estimates the number of couples in each congressional district and state who will pay some form of the marriage penalty in 2000. (2/8/00)

The U.S. income tax burden: An analysis of Congressional Budget Office numbers
Source: Sugi Sorensen
Country: United States

An in-depth analysis of the federal and individual income tax burden for various income brackets. The clear text and superb graphics make the principles of "wealth transfer" and "legal plunder" clearly evident. (4/00)

Why you can't trust the IRS
Source: Cato Institute
Author: Daniel J. Pilla
Country: United States

Inefficient, unreliable and abusive, the IRS is every American's nightmare, and the nightmare can be ended only by simplifying the tax code. (1995)

Reducing taxes and reforming the tax code
Source: Heritage Foundation
Author: Daniel J. Mitchell
Country: United States

Mitchell identifies ways the new administration can make the American tax system not only simple but fair. (1/26/01)

Grave Robbers: The Moral Case Against the Death Tax
Source: The Cato Institute
Author: Edward J. McCaffery
Country: United States

The federal gift and estate tax doesn't achieve its fiscal objectives. In this report, Edward J. McCaffery shows that the "death tax" is immoral, and promotes a consumption and "die-broke" ethic. The report is available in PDF format. (10/4/99)

Universal Service Tax Hike Will Hit Low- and Middle-Income
Source: Heartland Institute
Author: Bill Ahern
Country: United States

Almost three-quarters of the FCC's proposed tax hike on long-distance phone calls will fall on individuals with adjusted gross incomes of less than $75,000, and the bulk of that will hit individuals making less than $25,000. (8/99)

Federal Estate Taxes: An Egregious Undertaking
Source: Heartland Institute
Author: Kerri Houston
Country: United States

Masquerading as a formula to make the rich pay their "fair share," current federal estate tax law leads to the demise of small businesses, family farms, and timberland, and to the elimination of jobs. Bearing the brunt of this dis-humor are average, hard-working Americans. (8/99)

Taxpayers Union: death tax murders family businesses
Source: National Taxpayers Union
City: Washington, State: DC, Country: United States

The real victims of the death tax have been family businesses, says the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. Despite implications that the estate tax "only affects the rich," the greatest burden falls on "family businesses and their employees,” points out Deputy Press Secretary Jerry W. Terry. (05/21/01)

The truth about tax rates and the politics of class warfare
Source: Heritage Foundation
Author: Daniel J. Mitchell, PHD
Country: United States

Mitchell points out realities to many mythical claims made by tax cut opponents. (03/05/01)

Which tax-reform plan: Developing consistent tax bases for broad-based reform
Source: Institute for Policy Innovation
Country: United States

"Support is growing among the American public for far-reaching tax reform, but which plan? The National Sales Tax? The Flat Tax? Or the USA Tax? This report computes the tax bases of each type of tax reform, and from there determines what tax rates are necessary to make each plan revenue-neutral..." (Adobe Acrobat plugin required) (1/1/96)

Time To Sunset the Tax Code
Source: Heritage Foundation
Author: Daniel J Mitchell
Country: United States

Mitchell observes that the tax code should officially expire on a certain date like other major government spending programs, including those for highways, agriculture and education. (1/29/00)

Reducing the marriage penalty - A good way to cut taxes?
Source: Institute for Policy Innovation
Country: United States

One way of cutting the income tax is to do away with the marriage penalty, which would not only reduce the government's take, but redress an unfair burden. (Adobe Acrobat plugin required) (7/15/98)

Low-tax state? Think again
Source: Heartland Institute
Author: Bill Ahern
Country: United States

Because of differences in the way federal and state taxes are calculated, many states with overall high tax burdens actually have low tax bites when only state and local rates are considered. (8/00)

Wealth, mobility, inheritance and the estate tax
Source: NCPA
Author: Bruce Bartlett
Country: United States

The federal estate tax is clearly designed to redistribute wealth. It is currently the second highest estate tax rate of any country in the world. Yet the estate tax does less to redistribute wealth than the continual churning of the American economy. Because wealth and income are both highly mobile in the United States, most fortunes are earned, rather than inherited. (7/00)

Why congress should cut the gas tax
Source: Heritage Foundation
Author: Angela Antonelli and D Mark Wilson
Country: United States

Washington has repeatedly raised the gas tax to finance pork-barrel spending. At this point, one of the most sensible and fair steps Congress and the President can take is to reduce the federal gas tax. (3/22/00)

Abolish the tax code, not the IRS
Source: Cato Institute
Author: Theodore J. Forstmann and Stephen Moore
Country: United States

Arbitrary IRS investigations and endless tales of abuses are the fault not just of a flawed bureaucracy, but of an intolerable tax system. (5/13/98)

Senate hearings on IRS abuses
Source: U.S. Senate
Country: United States

Transcripts of complete testimony from the 1997 Senate hearings on Internal Revenue Service misconduct. See http://www.senate.gov/~enzi/irs2.htm for the 1998 hearings.

Income mobility and the fallacy of class warfare arguments against tax relief
Source: Heritage Foundation
Author: D. Mark Wilson
Country: United States

Reed argues that there is an extraordinary degree of income mobility in the United States, and that the notion that income groups are composed mostly of the same people over time is illusory. (03/09/01)

The economic and budgetary effects of economic plans from Bush and Gore
Source: Heritage Foundation
Author: D. Mark Wilson and William W. Beach
Country: United States

The authors dissect the Gore budget plan which seeks to increase the size of federal spending while providing relatively small and targeted tax cuts as well as the Bush plan that proposes the same thing, albeit with smaller increases in government and broader tax cuts.

Repeal the grave-robbing tax
Source: NCPA
Author: Stephen Moore
Country: United States

"[T]he confiscatory rates [of the death tax] penalize saving and investment and unjustly force the breakup of thousands of closely held family-owned businesses, farms, ranches and other properties." (02/14/01)

Comparing four major marriage penalty proposals before Congress
Source: Heritage Foundation
Author: Rea S. Hederman, Jr.
Country: United States

This month, "the Senate has another opportunity to address the marriage penalty when it considers a bill passed by the House, additional measures introduced in the Senate, a Democratic alternative approach, and a proposal put forth by the President in his fiscal year (FY) 2001 budget."

The economic and budgetary effects of President Bush's tax relief plan
Source: Heritage Foundation
Author: D. Mark Wilson and William W. Beach
Country: United States

According to the authors, "The preliminary results show that the Bush plan would significantly increase economic growth and family income while substantially reducing federal debt." (2/22/01)

Why the Bush tax cuts are no threat to philanthropy
Source: Heritage Foundation
Author: Stuart M. Butler PHD
Country: United States

Concerns that Bush's plan to reduce marginal tax rates and eliminate the estate tax will reduce gifts to charitable organizations are addressed by Butler who believes that it will actually create a greater incentive for giving. (03/10/01)

If you like complicated hidden taxes, you'll love phase-outs
Source: NCPA
Author: Michael Schuyler
Country: United States

"The Tax Code is littered with rules that phase out various deductions, exemptions and credits as taxpayers' incomes rise. These rules create hidden increases in marginal tax rates for unsuspecting citizens and greatly complicate tax calculations." (03/13/01)

A scorecard on death tax reform
Source: Heritage Foundation
Author: William Beach
Country: United States

"Death taxes remain the greatest threat to the success of minority- and women-owned businesses and family farms. They erode the efforts of first-generation successful Americans to provide a better economic future for their children." (04/16/01)

Fixing the saving problem: How the tax system depresses saving, and what to do about it
Source: Institute for Policy Innovation
Author: Stephen Entin
Country: United States

Taxpayer group issues 'Cost of Goverment Day' report
Source: ATR
City: Washington, State: DC, Country: United States

From Americans for Tax Reform release: "Cost of Government Day (COGD): n. the date of the calendar year, counting from January 1, on which the average American has earned enough in cumulative gross income to pay for their share of government spending (total federal, state, and local) plus the cost of regulation." (Adobe Acrobat PDF downloadable file.) (06/28/01)

Why the capital gains tax rate should be zero
Source: NCPA
Author: Bruce Bartlett
Country: United States

"Insofar as a reduction in the capital gains tax is a move toward ultimate exclusion of capital gains from taxable income, it is welcome. But supporters of a lower rate would greatly strengthen their case if they argued that capital gains should not be taxed at all as a matter of principle." (08/17/01)

Hidden taxes: How much do you really pay?
Source: Institute for Policy Innovation
Author: Bryan Riley, Eric V. Schlecht, and Dr. John Berthoud
Country: United States

Although federal taxes represent only 42 percent of the total tax burden of U.S. taxpayers, this report examines the "hidden taxes" that take a larger bite per person. (08/29/01)

How the current tax system works - foundations for tax reform
Source: Institute for Policy Innovation
Author: Gary Robbins and Aldona Robbins
Country: United States

This report presents "a starting point to assess how well proposals for tax reform measure up to the current system and to each other." It is available in Adobe PDF. (09/19/01)

Tax-favored savings accounts: who gains? who loses?
Source: NCPA
Author: Jagadeesh Gokhale and Laurence J. Kotlikoff
Country: United States

Tax deferral is said to represent an opportunity to avoid taxes when the rate of taxation is high and pay them when the rate is low. Twenty-five years ago this assumption was probably valid. But for low- and moderate-income families today, the assumption is no longer true. (01/02)

Simplifying federal taxes: The advantages of consumption-based taxation
Source: The Cato Institute
Author: Chris Edwards
Country: United States

Lobbyists continue to use tragedy to spend taxpayer money
Source: Heritage Foundation
Author: Ronald D. Utt, Ph.D.
Country: United States

An analysis of how the the $40 billion federal rescue package is being used, and taken advantage of, by some government officials who view it as an "open grab bag". (11/12/01)

Tax Freedom Day report 2004
Source: Tax Foundation
Author: Scott Hodge and Scott Moody
Country: United States

Full report on Tax Freedom Day, both for the U.S. in general and state by state. (4/04) (PDF file)

Who benefits from feds' tax-and-spend policies
Source: Heartland Institute/Intellectual Ammo
Author: Bill Ahern
Country: United States

"The federal tax burden falls much more heavily on some states than others, according to Tax Foundation senior economist Scott Moody. Comparing federal tax burden by state with the Census Bureau's year 2000 data on federal expenditures by state, Moody has identified the winners and losers in Uncle Sam's tax and spending roulette." (10/01)

Proposition 13 and state budget limitations: Past successes, future options
Source: Cato Institute
Author: Michael New
State: CA, Country: United States

Paper discussing well-designed tax and expenditure limitations on state governments can restrain spending and provide tax relief. (PDF file) (6/19/03)

State business tax climate index
Source: Tax Foundation
Author: Scott Hodge, J Scott Moody, and Wendy P Warcholik
Country: United States

Report assessing the "business friendliness" of each state's tax system. Wyoming and New Hampshire top the list, while Ohio and California are at the bottom. (PDF file) (5/03)

Jock tax spreading to other professions
Source: Tax Foundation
Author: David K Hoffman
Country: United States

"A tax that started as a petty attack on Michael Jordan is becoming a major problem for thousands of taxpayers." Hoffman documents many problems with jock taxes and calls for their repeal. (PDF file) (7/03)

The disappearing surplus
Source: Tax Foundation
Country: United States

The special report explains why no one should be surprised by wild swings in long-range projections of the federal government surplus or deficit, such as those just issued by the Congressional Budget Office. (01/24/02)

Reforming the Federal Tax Policy Process
Source: Cato Institute
Author: David R. Burton
Country: United States

This report details 13 needed reforms of the procedures used by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. The changes Burton suggests would increase the accuracy of the estimates, improve transparency of the process, and create more oversight in the development of tax policy. (12/17/02)

Cigarette taxes, black markets, and crime: Lessons from NY's losing battle
Source: Cato
Author: Patrick Fleenor
State: NY, Country: United States

"The negative effects of high cigarette taxes in New York provide a cautionary tale that excessive tax rates have serious consequences -- even for such a politically unpopular product as cigarettes." (Full report available as PDF file) (2/6/03)

An analysis of tax increment funding
Source: Heartland Institute
Country: United States

An analysis of tax increment financing, showing its problems and offering alternatives. (Full text available as PDF file) (3/26/03)

The new sumptuary laws: How MA consumption taxes hurt the poor
Source: BHI
Author: Cornelius J. Chapman Jr
State: MA, Country: United States

Study examines Massachusetts' taxes, and calls for the creation of Individual Withholding Accounts that would permit residents to earn interest on state taxes withheld from their paychecks. (PDF file) (4/14/03)

Income tax progressivity in Ohio
Source: Buckeye Institute
Author: Russell S. Sobel and Robert A. Lawson
State: OH, Country: United States

Study examining the relationship between income tax progressivity and economic growth, finding that progressive taxes have a negative impact on growth. (PDF file) (4/03)

To recommend changes in this directory, e-mail isil@isil.org.

	Search WWW Search ISIL