Tax Policy Center

The Tax Policy Center (TPC) is a joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution. Based in Washington D.C., United States, it aims to provide independent analyses of current and longer-term tax issues and to communicate its analyses to the public and to policymakers in a timely and accessible manner. The Center combines national specialists in tax, expenditure, budget policy, and microsimulation modeling to concentrate on four overarching areas of tax policy that are critical to future debate: fair, simple and efficient taxation, social policy in the tax code, long-term implications of tax and budget choices, and state tax issues.

History

In 2002, tax experts who had served in the Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton administrations established the Tax Policy Center to provide unbiased analysis of tax issues. The following year TPC developed a comprehensive tax simulation model to analyze the federal income tax and proposals to change it. That model has evolved to incorporate new and additional data, changes in federal tax law, and other aspects of the tax system and the economy.

↑Jump back a section

Staff

Donald Marron, former member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers and former acting director of the Congressional Budget Office, became the Tax Policy Center Director in May 2010. Co-Directors are William Gale, Arjay and Frances Miller Chair in Federal Economic Policy at the Brookings Institution and Eric Toder, Institute Fellow at the Urban Institute. The Center's TaxVox blog is led by tax correspondent Howard Gleckman.[1]

↑Jump back a section

Current analyses

TPC publications examine the impacts of a variety of tax issues. A 2012 report outlined the then-presidential candidates' tax proposals and analyzed their distributional and revenue impacts.[2] Other studies have examined the 2001-2006 tax cuts,[3] the alternative minimum tax,[4] the impact of tax provisions on low-income families,[5][6][7] and tax incentives for education.[8] An extensive collection of tables provides estimates of the impact of current taxes as well as the implications of proposals to change tax law.

TPC representatives have testified before the United States Congress regarding tax and health care reforms.[9][10][11] TaxVox, the TPC blog, discusses current tax and budget issues.[12] The Tax Policy Briefing Book is an on-line collection of short articles that explain a range of tax issues.[13] Entries offer background information, describe key elements of the tax system, propose changes to improve the tax system, and provide information on state and local tax policy. The center has also collected various data tables in "Tax Facts" which cover aspects of the U.S. tax system, ranging from tax rates and revenues collected to changes over time in state and local tax collections. TPC’s State and Local Finance Data Query System (SLF-DQS) provides tools with which users can create their own tables related to state and local finances based on data from the Census of Governments State and Local Finance series.

↑Jump back a section

External links

↑Jump back a section
Last modified on 4 March 2013, at 04:15