We examine the evolution of marginal federal income tax rates from 1980 to 1995 using panel and cross-sectional data. Marginal rates fell dramatically for most taxpayers. Whereas in 1980 three-quarters of taxpayers faced statutory tax rates above 15 percent, less than one-quarter of taxpayers...

We examine retirement savers’ choices between front-and back-loaded tax incentives, such as traditional and Roth IRAs. With equal dollar contribution limits, back-loaded plans shelter more funds than front-loaded plans. This implies that Roth IRAs can be the preferred choice even for investors...

The alternative minimum tax (AMT) is a complex, unfair, and inefficient shadow tax system that threatens to affect 32 million taxpayers by 2010, many of them solidly middle class. Under current law, repealing the AMT without offsets would cost more than $850 billion through 2017. This paper...

The individual alternative minimum tax (AMT) was designed in 1970 to apply reduce aggressive tax sheltering, but under current law will grow to cover tens of millions of households in the next decade. The growth occurs because the AMT is not indexed for inflation and the 2001 tax cut reduced...

We examine workers' disposition of pre-retirement lump-sum distributions, using policy changes in 1986 and 1992 as natural experiments. We find that higher taxes on cash-outs increase rollovers, consistent with both rational and behavioral motives. Several results, however, only make sense in a...

Originally targeted at high-income households, the individual alternative minimum tax (AMT) is now on the verge of switching from a "class" tax to a "mass" tax. Under current law, the AMT will encroach dramatically on the middle-class over the next decade and will become the de facto tax system...

This paper incorporates retirement saving incentives into the Tax Policy Center microsimulation model and analyzes the distributional effects of current tax preferences for saving. As a share of income, tax–preferred saving incentives provide the largest benefits to households with income...

We examine preretirement lump sum distributions (LSDs) from pension plans, which have grown significantly in recent years. Most LSD recipients do not roll over the funds into qualified accounts, but the likelihood of rollover rises for larger distributions. We find evidence suggesting that tax...

Between fiscal year 2000 and fiscal year 2003, federal revenues fell by $243 billion, putting them at their lowest level relative to GDP in over 40 years. The decline in revenues came after a period of rapidly rising revenues between 1994 and 2000. This paper looks at the sources of the decline...

About one-third of the disbursements from pension plans are in the form of lump-sum distributions. In this paper, we use tax-return data to study the incidence and disposition of lump-sum distributions. We find that most lump-sum distributions are small, and the probability of rolling a lump sum...