Tag: Archive

The Bush Tax Cuts So Far and the President’s Proposed New Tax Cuts: Testimony of Bob McIntyre

Posted on by Alex Welch

March 6, 2007 02:11 PM | | Bookmark and Share

I’m Robert McIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice. Founded in 1979, CTJ is a nonprofit tax policy research and advocacy group that fights for fair and adequate taxes at the federal, state and local levels. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before the Subcommittee today, to discuss the fiscal and fairness issues raised by the Bush tax cuts enacted starting in 2001, as well as the further tax cuts proposed in the President’s latest budget.

Read the Full Testimony


    Want even more CTJ? Check us out on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, and Youtube!

Testimony of CTJ Executive Director Bob McIntyre on the “Tax Gap” Before Senate Budget Committee

Posted on by Alex Welch

January 23, 2007 02:22 PM | | Bookmark and Share

I’m Robert McIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice. Founded in 1979, CTJ is a nonprofit tax policy research and advocacy group that fights for fair and adequate taxes at the federal, state and local levels. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before the Budget Committee today, to discuss the federal “tax gap” — a polite word for tax cheating that is costing honest taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars every year.

Read the Full Testimony


    Want even more CTJ? Check us out on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, and Youtube!

CTJ’s Advice to the New Congress

Posted on by Alex Welch

January 10, 2007 03:21 PM | | Bookmark and Share

There are two kinds of things that the new Congress can do regarding taxes. One approach is to come up with some revenue-enhancing tax changes that President Bush might sign. The other is to pass tax increase bills that the president will veto. Both approaches will probably be part of the agenda over the next two years, in that order.

Read the Full Report


    Want even more CTJ? Check us out on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, and Youtube!

House Revives PAYGO — But Congress Must Still Resist Budget-Breaking Tax Proposals

Posted on by Alex Welch

January 10, 2007 02:15 PM | | Bookmark and Share

Citizens for Tax Justice congratulates the U.S. House of Representatives on their successful reinstatement last week of the “pay-as-you-go” rules, or PAYGO, which helped Congress to balance the federal budget back in the 1990s. CTJ encourages the House, Democrats and Republicans, to resist the temptation to waive PAYGO in dealing with major policy issues such as the Alternative Minimum Tax.

Read the Full Report


    Want even more CTJ? Check us out on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, and Youtube!

New IRS Data Show Fewer Americans Paying Estate Tax (Updated)

Posted on by Alex Welch

January 10, 2007 02:04 PM | | Bookmark and Share

The previous Congress failed in its efforts to enact permanent repeal of the federal estate tax, a move that would cost nearly $1 trillion over the first full decade. New data from the Internal Revenue Service, detailing estate tax payments in each state for 2005, show that more than ever, the estate tax is virtually irrelevant to most Americans.

A summary table for 2005 estate tax payments follows. Overall, the percentage of people owing estate taxes dropped by 39% between 2004 and 2005. This is largely because the estate tax exemption was increased to $1.5 million, compared to $1 million in the previous year. The exemption is scheduled to increase further in later years until 2010, when the estate tax is scheduled to be repealed. In 2011, however, the estate tax will be resurrected with the $1 million exemption and rates that applied under pre-Bush law.

Read the Full Report


    Want even more CTJ? Check us out on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, and Youtube!

The 110th Congress Should End Tax Subsidies for Big Oil

Posted on by Alex Welch

December 19, 2006 01:44 PM | | Bookmark and Share

Over the last couple of years, Americans have faced rising gasoline prices — affecting their everyday lives as well as the economy in which they try to make a living — even as oil and gas companies enjoy record profits. Some suspect that the energy industry is becoming so consolidated that it does not face the sort of competition that would normally keep oil prices down to reasonable levels. Some progressives have argued that this is reason to impose a new tax on large oil and gas companies, perhaps even a new version of the windfall profits tax that was in place in the 1980s.

A better policy, at least in the short-term, would be to simply close the absurd loopholes that currently allow Big Oil to avoid paying its fair share. If the public debate revolves around whether or not Big Oil needs to be subsidized through the tax code at a time when oil prices are at an all-time high, it will be much more difficult for the energy companies to win the debate. As a practical policy matter, it makes sense for Congress to get energy companies to simply pay the taxes they would owe without special loopholes, before considering adding a new tax on their excess profits.

The Bush administration, which claims to support free-market policies, may find it difficult to oppose a proposal to stop using the tax code to subsidize large energy companies. This is particularly true of the latest round of energy tax breaks, which were added in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. These were so embarrassing that even President Bush (hardly an enemy of Big Oil) opposed them and only signed them into law when it was clear that they were necessary to get a bill passed through Congress.

Read the Full Report


    Want even more CTJ? Check us out on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, and Youtube!

A Progressive Solution to the AMT Problem

Posted on by Alex Welch

December 14, 2006 12:56 PM | | Bookmark and Share

Keeping the individual Alternative Minimum Tax from affecting tens of millions of innocent taxpayers is a problem that has bedeviled Congress ever since it passed President Bush’s big cuts in the regular income tax back in 2001 without simultaneously adjusting the AMT.

Over the past several years, Congress has repeatedly enacted temporary increases in the AMT exemption to protect most otherwise-affected families from having to deal with the AMT. But the cost of continuing these temporary patches has become prohibitive — exceeding $250 billion in lost revenues over the next four years.

Yet there is a straightforward way to pay for extending the temporary AMT relief through the end of this decade without busting the budget. This solution has the added advantage of returning the AMT to its original purpose: to assure that people with very high incomes pay a reasonable amount in federal income taxes.

Read the Full Report


    Want even more CTJ? Check us out on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, and Youtube!