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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Perverse Priorities in the Tax Extenders Package

Dec 8, 2006 by Matt Lewis

Though popular, the tax extenders package that seems headed for approval today is not without its perverse aspects. For instance, a funding patch for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was stripped out of the package, at the same time that funding for Health Savings Accounts (HSA) was added. SCHIP benefits low-income children- HSAs the wealthy and privileged. For more, see this statement by Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorites. It has been known all year that without additional SCHIP funding, 17 states would face SCHIP

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Tax Package -- Almost a Wrap

Dec 7, 2006 by Dana Chasin

As business draws to a close on the penultimate day of the 109th Congress, House and Senate negotiators have substantially agreed on the terms of a tax extenders package. Cost: $45 billion over 10 years. The package features a broader array of tax break extensions and modifications than had been part of the package in the reconciliation, pension, and trifecta bills earlier in the year (the largest element of which is the R&D credit, at $16.5 billion). Cost: $35.9 billion It also includes:

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"Anything Goes" at Interior Department. Anything.

Dec 7, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Back in September, you may recall a series of reports based on an internal investigation of the Interior Department that, essentially, showed that gas and oil companies were getting away with skimping on royalty payments. Interior just wasn't auditing these companies enough to compel the royalties they owed for extracting natural resources from public property. Now, CBS News reports that not only were they not auditing enough, they didn't actually do the auditing they said they did. Interior misrepresented the number of audits they had been doing all along!

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Tax Extenders: a Hail Mary, then Time to Punt?

Dec 6, 2006 by Dana Chasin

House-Senate negotiations on the oft-deferred tax extenders package broke down today. With adjournment for the year expected by week's end, prospects now look more likely for a lump of coal than a compromise. The sticking point: a provision to forestall a scheduled five percent cut in Medicare payments to physicians, scheduled to take effect in January. The provision would cost an estimated $10.8-12 billion over five years. Still, the Senate may float the provision, along with numerous trade measures -- "a Hail Mary pass" over to the house, in the words of one Senate GOP aid.

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Alternative Minimum Tax Likely to be Large Issue in 2007

The continuing creep of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) is threatening to impact tens of millions of Americans in 2007 - a fact that will push it to the forefront of tax policy issues. In 1995, 414,000 wealthy tax payers paid the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), and in 2001, that number grew to 1.3 million. Unless Congress acts, 23.4 million Americans are expected to be snagged by this "stealth tax" in 2007, which was originally intended to affect only 20,000 wealthy taxpayers.

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Frist Making Tracks: He Brakes for Tax Breaks

Dec 5, 2006 by Dana Chasin

With the clock ticking before the sands run out on the 109th Congress and Democrats take the reins for the first time in 12 years, retiring Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is working feverishly to assure passage of the set of two-year tax break extensions (known as the extenders." He is working to pass a clean version of the popular package, unencumbered by Christmas tree ornaments. He is working to pass a version with a provision delaying implementation of cuts in Medicare payments to physicians. "I've got both tracks working," he said yesterday.

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Now Playin' -- I Hear Yer Payin'

Dec 4, 2006 by Dana Chasin

On Dec. 1, National Public Radio's Morning Edition ran a short segment by John Ydstie on the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), entitled "Democrats Promote Relief from the Alternative Minimum Tax." 3.5 million taxpayers had to file income tax returns under the AMT in 2006. Unless addressed by Congress, this number will increase to 23.4 million in 2007, as we have noted. The segment indicates that the average AMT filer must pay $3,000 more in taxes each year than under the regular system. Meanwhile, the 10-year cost of ATM repeal is estimated by CBPP to be around $1.2 trillion.

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AMT Compromise: ADDENDUM

Dec 1, 2006 by Dana Chasin

New York Times tax and budget beat reporter David Cay Johnston, endorsed the general concept of ATM reform rather than repeal in his his book Perfectly Legal. Johnston indicated to us today that he hadn't heard discussion of any compromise solution that would mend AMT, not end it.

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AMT Compromise: A $200 Billion Pain Reducer

Dec 1, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Today, 3.5 million taxpayers file income tax returns under the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). If the current AMT fix expires at the end of the year, the number will increase dramatically to 23.4 million in 2007 and to 32.4 million by 2010. If the Bush tax cuts are extended, 52.6 million taxpayers will pay the AMT in 2017. Amid a rapidly-growing bipartisan congressional consensus that the AMT's creep reaches into the middle class must be stopped, two solutions are propounded:

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Bush Still Loves Tax Cuts, Advisor Says

Nov 29, 2006 by Matt Lewis

Allen Hubbard, president of the National Economic Council (Bush's economic advisors), wrote to the Washington Post yesterday on a familiar subject- tax cuts (emph. mine). There is no denying that the president's tax cuts and other pro-growth policies have played an important role in spurring the economic expansion we've seen under this president. More than 6.8 million jobs have been created since August 2003; the unemployment rate is 4.4 percent; and real wages have grown 2.8 percent over the past 12 months. We've also proved that you can have tax cuts that result in robust revenue growth.

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