National Tax Journal articles from September 2003

National Tax Journal archives from September 2003

Issues in analyzing the macroeconomic effects of tax policy.
September 1, 2003... INTRODUCTION This paper provides a description of issues that are important in determining the macroeconomic effects of tax policy changes. The theoretical issues in modeling the effects of tax policy on economic growth are the same as the...

Economic effects of sustained budget deficits.
September 1, 2003... INTRODUCTION The effect of fiscal policy on the economy is a controversial and long-standing issue. It is at the heart of the policy debate surrounding the sharp increases in official federal budget surpluses in the 1990s, the even more...

Evaluating international tax reform.
September 1, 2003... INTRODUCTION Much of the current structure of U.S. taxation of foreign income dates to the early 1960s, and, remarkably, so too does much of current thinking on the desirability of taxing foreign income. The U.S. regime of taxing foreign...

Royalties for intracompany sales of fancy trademarked cheese.
September 1, 2003... INTRODUCTION During the 1980s, multinational enterprises (MNEs) around the globe appeared to be using marketing intangibles (trade names and trademarks) to avoid taxes. Specifically, affiliates in low tax countries would license the right...

Hedging employee stock options, corporate taxes, and debt.
September 1, 2003... INTRODUCTION Employee stock option grants grew dramatically in the late 1990s. Firms not only increased option grants to top executives, but expanded them to many employees below the very senior ranks (Hall and Liebman, 1998; Murphy,...

Piling on problems: how federal policies affect state fiscal conditions.
September 1, 2003... INTRODUCTION Most states and many local governments are struggling through a deep and prolonged fiscal crisis, during which revenues are declining or growing only slowly. There are several causes for the crisis, including the weak economy,...

The California budget crisis: factors leading to the current budget deficit and a discussion of certain proposed solutions.
September 1, 2003... INTRODUCTION State governments are experiencing unprecedented budget deficits and the State of California is not different. The amount most commonly tied to California's deficit is 38 billion dollars. Using a current services approach, as...

Changing red to black: deficit closing alchemy.
September 1, 2003... ********** WHY A MAGIC SHOW? State deficits are in the news. For three years, states have been mired in the slough of fiscal despond, taking increasingly frantic steps to close their budgetary gaps. With each passing year, the...

Public funds and private capital markets: the investment practices and performance of state and local pension funds.
September 1, 2003... INTRODUCTION This paper addresses the question of whether a government entity can invest money on behalf of employees or constituents in a manner comparable to the private sector. That is, we ask whether the conflicts of interest inherent...

What explains early withdrawals from retirement accounts? Evidence from a panel of taxpayers.
September 1, 2003... INTRODUCTION Over the past 20 years, tax-deferred accounts (TDAs) such as Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and employer-sponsored plans (ESPs) have become a key component of individual retirement planning, (1) Although such accounts...

Is the tax expenditure concept still relevant?
September 1, 2003... INTRODUCTION The term "tax expenditure" is attributed to Stanley S. Surrey who, as Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for Tax Policy, instructed his staff to compile a list of preferences and concessions in the income tax that had...

The effect of dividend tax relief on investment incentives.
September 1, 2003... INTRODUCTION The recent proposal by the Bush Administration to eliminate shareholder-level taxes on dividends and retained earnings revived interest in reducing the double taxation of income earned on corporate equity. The Bush...

Effects of dividend relief on economic growth, the stock market, and corporate tax preferences.
September 1, 2003... ********** Many economists have long argued the desirability, for reasons of economic efficiency, of integrating the corporate and individual income tax. A U.S. Treasury (1992) study of corporate tax integration found potentially...

Estimating the compliance cost of the U.S. individual income tax.
September 1, 2003... INTRODUCTION Each year, individuals and businesses in the United States submit more than 200 million tax returns (including estimated tax forms and supplemental documents) to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The IRS uses the information...

IRS's comprehensive approach to compliance measurement.
September 1, 2003... BACKGROUND The National Research Program (NRP) is a comprehensive effort by the IRS to measure--at a strategic level--the voluntary filing, reporting, and payment compliance behaviors of U.S. taxpayers. As we pointed out in an earlier...

Whose child is it anyway? Simplifying the definition of a child.
September 1, 2003... INTRODUCTION Taxpayers may be eligible for certain tax benefits if they support or live with their children. Distinguishing among taxpayers based on their family responsibilities adjusts for differences in ability to pay. In addition, tax...