Federal Tax Policy

Federal Tax Policy: News Analysis

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Budget Surpluses, Deficits and the National Debt

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News

Lack of Action in Congress on Pivotal Fiscal Policy Issues 04/29/2008
Congress continues to wrestle with a number of high-profile budget and financial bills that will have broad impact on citizens throughout the United States and around the world, including legislation on war funding, economic stimulus, housing, and the last budget of the Bush presidency. Despite significant congressional rhetoric and media coverage of these efforts, Congress has made little real progress on reaching compromise or instituting policies. Read More

Housing Crisis Legislation: A Tale of Two Houses 04/15/2008
By fits and starts, Congress is moving toward a legislative response to the housing sector crisis — the biggest sectoral crisis to afflict the U.S. economy since the technology stock bubble burst earlier this decade. In what might turn out to be a case of the tortoise and the hare, the Senate has jumped out front with a housing bill that enjoys little if any support in the House or the Bush administration, while the House has embarked on a schedule of hearings and mark-ups of a much-praised bill of a wholly different nature. There is a widely shared consensus that, with elections approaching, Congress must and will act to address the crisis, but thus far, the two houses are proceeding along on separate, if not perpendicular, tracks. Read More

House Cancels Private Tax Collection Program 04/15/2008
On April 15, the House passed the Taxpayer Assistance and Simplification Act of 2008 (H.R. 5719). The bill, approved by a 238-179 vote, is a collection of provisions aimed at facilitating income tax compliance — especially among elderly and low-income taxpayers. Most significantly, the bill would end the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) highly controversial private debt collection (PDC) program. Read More

New Report Shows "Historic Collapse" in Audit Rates of Largest Corporations 04/15/2008
A report released by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University highlights a disturbing trend in Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audit rates of large corporations. Audit rates for corporations with $250 million or more in assets (large corporations) are at a historic low at 26 percent. Analyzing IRS data — portions of which had to be obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests — TRAC also found that the decline in audit rates has been accompanied by declines in audit quality.

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Budget Resolution: Recap and the Road Ahead 03/18/2008
Late on March 13 and early in the morning of March 14, the House and Senate adopted $3 trillion budget resolutions for Fiscal Year 2009 by votes of 212-207 and 51-44, respectively. While the resolutions are similar in terms of broad policy outlines and priorities, they differ on a few major points, including the total amount of discretionary spending and whether to offset the cost of a one-year patch to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Read More

House Panel Hears Testimony on IRS Policies 03/18/2008
On March 13, the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight heard testimony concerning the 2008 tax return filing season, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) operations, the Fiscal Year 2009 budget proposals, and the National Taxpayer Advocate's Annual Report to Congress. Then-Acting Commissioner of the IRS Linda Stiff testified, and Nina Olson, the National Taxpayer Advocate, pressed for reforms that would both protect taxpayer rights and improve tax enforcement. Read More

FY 09 Budget Resolution: Goals, Strategies, and Challenges 03/04/2008
The House and Senate Budget Committees will soon turn to the congressional budget resolution for Fiscal Year 2009. The draft versions of the budget resolution, to be offered by House Budget chief Rep. John Spratt (D-SC) and Senate Budget head Kent Conrad (D-ND), are likely to be considerably different from President Bush's unrealistic budget proposal submitted to Congress in February. Read More

Assessing the Fiscal Stimulus Package 02/20/2008
President Bush signed a two-year, $168 billion fiscal stimulus package on Feb. 13 — the largest legislative initiative ever designed to ease an economic slowdown. Although it was passed by overwhelming margins in the House (385-35) and Senate (81-16), there was considerable debate on how to structure the package so as to maximize its efficacy and stimulative impact on the economy. Read More

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