Major Tax Issues in 2016

William G. Gale, Aaron Krupkin

Looking specifically at taxes, Brookings Senior Fellow William Gale and Research Assistant Aaron Krupkin write that the US does not have a good tax system that raises the revenues needed “to finance government spending in a manner that is as simple, equitable, and growth-friendly as possible.” Noting that often simply discussing a tax proposal publicly can kill it, they highlight five general areas where tax policy could be improved: raising long-term revenue; increasing environmental taxes; reforming the corporate tax; treating low- and middle-income earners equitably and efficiently; and ensuring the appropriate taxation of high-income households. “Comprehensive tax reform is easy to talk about, but hard to do. The pursuit of sweeping tax simplification is a noble goal, but quixotic.”

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