National Tax Journal articles from September 1997

National Tax Journal archives from September 1997

Quantifying the current U.S. fiscal imbalance.(The Post-Election Agenda: Implementation or Confrontation?)
September 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Over the past few years, government agencies have begun taking a longer term view when evaluating the federal budget. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) now regularly provides ten-year, rather than five-year, budget...

Social Security's long-term budget outlook.(The Post-Election Agenda: Implementation or Confrontation?)
September 1, 1997... Social Security is the largest item in the federal budget. After the income tax, the program also provides the most important source of federal tax revenues. In fact, because Social Security taxes exceed benefit payments and administrative costs,...

Capital gains and the people who realize them.(The Post-Election Agenda: Implementation or Confrontation?)
September 1, 1997... "You must cut the capital gains tax on the people of our country. Never has an issue been more demagogued by its opponents. But the demagogues are wrong. They are wrong and they know it." President George Bush, Address Before a Joint Session of...

The individual AMT: why it matters. (alternative minimum tax)(The Post-Election Agenda: Implementation or Confrontation?)
September 1, 1997... The individual alternative minimum tax (AMT)is not well understood by most taxpayers. This lack of understanding is not surprising, given that relatively few taxpayers (500,000 in 1994) pay AMT tax, and those that do pay relatively little in AMT...

On the possibility of a no-return tax system.(The Post-Election Agenda: Implementation or Confrontation?)
September 1, 1997... The last few years have seen an outpouring of proposals for radical reform of the nation's tax system. These reforms have been motivated by a wide variety of goals--improved economic efficiency, a fairer distribution of tax burdens, and, perhaps...

Federal income tax compliance costs: a case study of Hewlett-Packard Company.(The Post-Election Agenda: Implementation or Confrontation?)
September 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION General This is a case study of income tax compliance cost at a large U.S. multinational corporation. It covers only U.S. federal income tax compliance costs, directly related to the preparation of a ready-to-file...

Should a short sale against the box be a realization event?(The Post-Election Agenda: Implementation or Confrontation?)
September 1, 1997... This paper examines the Clinton Administration proposal to treat short sales against the box (and other similar transactions) as realization events for federal income tax purposes. The paper draws three conclusions. First, traditional analysis,...

Building a conceptual baseline for corporate tax reform.(The Post-Election Agenda: Implementation or Confrontation?)
September 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Consider yourself warned: After an extended lull, political debate over tax reform will probably resume this autumn. While most of the public discussion will likely focus on the personal income tax base and rates, more...

The economic effects and beneficiaries of the administration's proposed high education tax subsidies.(The Post-Election Agenda: Implementation or Confrontation?)
September 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION As of this writing, the president and Congressional leaders have agreed to a budget compromise that includes $35 billion to fund higher education initiatives. This is the five-year cost of the Administration's proposals, the...

Reducing costs and improving efficiency in the student loan program.(The Post-Election Agenda: Implementation or Confrontation?)
September 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION The federal student loan program is designed to correct market failures that cause students to invest too little in their education, because of either capital market imperfections or the presence of external benefits from...

Financing undergraduate education: designing national policies.(The Post-Election Agenda: Implementation or Confrontation?)
September 1, 1997... President Clinton's emphasis on higher education policy has elevated the ongoing concern with college affordability to national prominence. In this paper, we summarize our recent work analyzing pricing, aid, access, and choice in American higher...

The sales tax and electronic commerce: so what's new?(The Post-Election Agenda: Implementation or Confrontation?)
September 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Rapid growth in consumption of telecommunication services and electronic commerce will not bring the sales tax to its knees. At the same time, taxing electronic transactions presents many challenges, particularly because of...

Discussion of papers on telecommunications taxation.(The Post-Election Agenda: Implementation or Confrontation?)
September 1, 1997... I am pleased to discuss three informative papers dealing with the taxation of electronic commerce. These papers are very well written and timely as not only the American states but also national governments are beginning to grapple with the issue...

Dynamic scoring, fiscal policy, and the short-run behavior of the macroeconomy.(The Post-Election Agenda: Implementation or Confrontation?)
September 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION In estimating the budgetary impact of tax proposals, it has long been a common practice of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) to take...

Dynamic tax models: why they do the things they do.(The Post-Election Agenda: Implementation or Confrontation?)
September 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Interest in fundamental tax reform and dynamic revenue estimating has increased attention to dynamic tax models. A Brookings Institution conference on fundamental tax reform included papers reporting results from three...

Recent evidence on taxpayers' response to the rate increases in the 1990's.(The Post-Election Agenda: Implementation or Confrontation?)
September 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Recent studies using tax return data have found evidence of a significant increase in reported incomes of high-income taxpayers in the years following the enactment of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA 86). That evidence is...

Regional disparities in Medicare expenditures: an opportunity for reform.(The Post-Election Agenda: Implementation or Confrontation?)
September 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION There is general agreement that Medicare needs to be fixed. The Medicare Part A trust fund is expected to be bankrupt within the next five years, and the projected trust fund balance is projected to sink to-$375 billion by...

Transaction taxes and electronic commerce: designing state taxes that work in an interstate environment.(The Post-Election Agenda: Implementation or Confrontation?)
September 1, 1997... Despite the complexity of the problems spawned by state transaction taxes on electronic commerce, and the daunting challenges that they pose for state taxpayers and state lawmakers alike, there is a considerable degree of consensus among all...

A primer on changing information technology and the fisc.(The Post-Election Agenda: Implementation or Confrontation?)
September 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION From the electric light to the automobile, history is filled with examples of new technologies that quickly change the way people live, conduct commerce, and run their governments. The modern computer will soon see its...