Federal Tax Policy

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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Baucus Continues Quest to Drive Up Deficits

Mar 19, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, reiterated yesterday that the one-year adjustment to prevent the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) from impacting millions of additional taxpayers this year will not be paid for - ensuring an additional $70 billion will be added to the deficit.

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House Panel Hears Testimony on IRS Policies

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.

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IRS: Stimulus Calculator & Payment Schedule

Mar 18, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The IRS has put up on their website an online calculator to help you figure out what your stimulus rebate will be. They've also issued a calendar of when they will transmit and mail payments. IRS Stimulus Payment Schedule Last two SSN digits Payment will be transmitted Direct Deposit 00 through 20 May 2 21 through 75 May 9 76 through 99 May 16 Paper Check 00 through 09 May 16 10 through 18 May 23 19 through 25 May 30 26 through 38 June 6 39 through 51 June 13 52 through 63 June 20 64 through 75 June 27 76 through 87 July 4 88 through 99 July 11

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Budget Resolution: Recap and the Road Ahead

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).

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Vota-Round-Up, I: State of the Estate Tax

Mar 14, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Six votes on the estate tax were held during yesterday's budget resolution vote-a-rama in the Senate, as follows:

Baucus amendment 4160: makes 2009 estate tax law permanent -- exemption $7 million per couple; rate 45%. Paid for via a reserve fund from projected surpluses Approved, 99-1.
Graham amendment 4170: exemption per couple $15 million; 35% rate. Rejected, 47-52.
Kyl amendment 4191: exemption $10 million per couple; rate starts at 15%, top rate 35%. No offsets. Rejected, 50-50.

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Democrats Pass Budget in House & Senate

Mar 14, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

The House and Senate successfully passed their versions of the FY 2009 budget resolution yesterday. The House passed their spending outline on a mostly party-line vote 212 - 207 and the Senate passed their version early this morning 51 - 44 (roll call not available yet). Sixteen Democrats in the House opposed the budget along with all Republicans and in the Senate, Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME) supported the budget, while Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) opposed it.

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Saxton: Top 1% Pay Too Much in Taxes

Mar 13, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Joint Economic Committee ranking member Rep. Jim Saxton (R-NJ) wants us to know what a soul-crushing burden of taxes the richest one percent of income earners shoulder. The share of federal income taxes paid by the top 1 percent of households ranked by income increased from 36.5 percent in 2000 to 38.8 percent in 2005, recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data show. ... "Despite the contention that the tax cuts would unfairly reduce the tax burden of the rich, their share of taxes has in fact gone up," Saxton concluded.

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Estate Tax Madness

Mar 13, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The Senate has officially gone over the the bad place. Three out of the first seven amendments to the FY 2009 budget resolution propose to make costly changes to the estate tax. While only one of them was adopted, unfortunately the breakdown of the votes showed less support for a rational, fiscally responsible reform to the estate tax. Here's a quick summary of the amendments:

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The First BR Amendment -- Substance and Strategy

Mar 11, 2008 by Dana Chasin

The opening salvo in the Senate budget resolution amendment process will be fired in the next hour or two, when Finance Committee Chair Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) offers the first amendment in this year's round. The Baucus amendment creates room in the budget numbers to extend some of the temporary 2001 and 2003 tax cuts dealing with

the marriage penalty
the child tax credit
the 10 percent tax bracket
the estate tax (understood to mean extending the 2009 levels, with indexation)

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JCT Report on Alternative Estate Tax Systems

Mar 11, 2008 by Dana Chasin

In advance of tomorrow's Senate Finance Committee hearing, Alternatives to the Current Federal Estate Tax System, the Joint Committee on Taxation has issued a report at once broad and brief, "Description and Analysis of Alternative Wealth Transfer Tax Systems," (JCX-22-08), March 10, 2008. The report, which explores tax policy relating to various approaches to intergenerational wealth transfer, is detailed without being overly technical, is worthwhile reading for anyone interested in estate, inheritance, and gift tax systems. See: Report.

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