We present a model of optimizing government behavior in which a need for increased revenue leads to the introduction of a new revenue source, such as a VAT, accompanied by a reduction in income taxes. We argue that this is a plausible outcome for the United States, in view of international...

As governors and state legislators across the country search for ways to address the budgetary imbalances that many of their states face following the Great Recession, reductions in individual income tax credits and deductions are being considered. Unfortunately, the casualties of that process...

Some people have hailed the alternative minimum tax (AMT) as a flat, low-rate, broad-based tax that would be a good replacement for the regular income tax. A closer look at the AMT dispels this rosy view

A number of recent proposals have called for broadening the individual income tax base while lowering statutory income tax rates. Such proposals would eliminate or curtail various preferential income tax provisions and use some or all of the resulting revenue to lower statutory tax rates. In...

Congress has recently considered taxing the carried interest of private equity fund managers at ordinary rates rather than at the 15 percent rate that currently applies to a portion of this income. The proposed change is intended to promote neutrality between the labor compensation of fund...

In this article, I discuss the enactment, structure, and economic implications of the UIMC. Despite its statutory name, the income to which the UIMC applies is not unearned and the tax is not a contribution to Medicare. Contrary to the bizarre myth circulating on the Internet, the UIMC is not a...