This report's primary concern is how U.S. state governments should respond to the fiscal volatility created by their balanced budget constraints. Applying the principles of risk allocation theory to this recurring problem, we conclude that states should primarily adjust the rates of broad-based...

This report analyzes how states should cope with fiscal volatility at the level of institutional-design policy. We propose that states reconsider how they define terms like ‘‘tax cuts'' and ‘‘tax hikes.'' By adopting a new baseline for defining those terms, states can increase the...

In this white paper, commissioned by the Great Democracy Institute, I offer a broad menu of tax tools to help restore our democracy. By undoing current levels of inequality, our tax code can help fulfill the promise of equal political voice and equal opportunity for all. To do this, progressives...

This Article draws from original archival sources to document a century of colorblindness in federal tax data. It traces the omission of race and ethnicity from IRS statistical publications since 1913, Joint Committee on Taxation publications since 1926, and Treasury Office of Tax Analysis...

The Law and Political Economy (LPE) project seeks to reorient legal thought by centering considerations of power, equality, and democracy. This reorientation would supplant approaches to legal thought that prioritize efficiency and neutrality, and that imagine a pre-political market...

This Article documents and evaluates tax obligations paid without cash, referred to as “in-kind tax paying.” Such forms of tax paying include paying federal income taxes by remitting a used, flatbed truck to the IRS, paying local property taxes by working a few hours a month answering phones...

In this article, we examine the rationale for voter registration at the time of return filing, lay out a strategy for a new “Schedule VR,” and consider some potential implementation challenges. We conclude that various options are available for expanding voter registration through tax return...

The purpose of this brief is to correct and respond to two arguments in Petitioner-Appellee Altera's petition for rehearing en banc and briefs of amici supporting the petition for rehearing. First, Treasury's regulation requiring cost sharing of stock-based compensation and the Ninth Circuit...

Thomas Paine’s writing helped spur the American colonies to independence and ensure that the new nation would be a republic, not a monarchy. In light of the renewed interest in wealth taxes, this article provides a close examination of Thomas Paine’s wealth tax proposal in the second volume...

In the United States, the term “poll tax” often refers to a very specific tactic of white supremacy: the use of tax policy to prevent voting by Black citizens. While “poll tax” is an accurate descriptor of these taxes, poll taxes have a much more expansive history within the twentieth...