States are racing to see who can give rich people a bigger tax break on their yachts By Max Ehrenfreund, Wonkblog (blog), The Washington Post, June 22, 2015. [How inter-state competition makes the demand for yachts more elastic, and thereby affects taxes.]
It's time to stop reducing taxes on the wealthy By: Edward Rodrigue and Isabel V. Sawhill, Bookings.edu, April 21, 2015. [House Republicans recently approved the “Death Tax Repeal Act of 2015.” If we care about our debt obligations, social mobility, or equality of opportunity, we should consider doing just the opposite: raising the tax and applying it to more of the super-wealthy.]
Do Higher Taxes Make Us Work Less? By Noah Smith, BloombergView.com, December 24, 2014. [The substitution effect of higher taxes make us work less, and the income effect makes us work more. The two effects cancel each other out. Overall, there's no effect.]
One Way to Fix the Corporate Tax: Repeal It By N. Gregory Mankiw, The Upshot (blog), The New York Times, August 23, 2014. []
Why tax systems are trickier than Martian algebra By Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist (blog), July 31, 2014. [Only radical restructuring has a chance of creating fair taxation.]
How Does Income Inequality Compare across U.S. States and around the World? On the Economy (blog), Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, July 31, 2014. []
Wealth Inequality May Be a Bigger Problem in the U.S. Than Income Inequality On the Economy (blog), Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, July 29, 2014. []
Yes, if You Cut Taxes, You Get Less Tax Revenue By Josh Barro, The Upshot (blog), The New York Times, June 27, 2014. [Surprise: Kansas Tax Cut Leaves Government With Less Money.]
What America Isn’t, Or Anyway Wasn’t By Paul Krugman, The Conscience of a Liberal (blog), The New York Times, March 25, 2014. [America prcatically invented the idea of confiscatory taxation.]
Abolish the Corporate Income Tax By LAURENCE J. KOTLIKOFF, The New York Times, JAN. 5, 2014. [The Corporate tax hurts workers, not capitalists.]
¡Viva México! By MARK BITTMAN, The New York Times, Published: November 29, 2013. [The government is taking on obesity with taxes on junk food and soda. Much of the money will go to public health.]
The new American capitalism: Rise of the distorporation The Economist, October 26, 2013. [A mutation in the way companies are financed and managed -- motivated by opportunities to dodge corporate taxes -- will change the distribution of the wealth they create.]
Finance in America: Subterranean capitalist blues The Economist, October 26, 2013. [In response to red tape and high taxes, corporate America is mutating.]
Wealth Taxes: A Future Battleground By TYLER COWEN, The New York Times, Published: July 20, 2013. [Rising wealth is likely to be a tempting target for governments seeking new revenue sources.]
America’s taxes are the most progressive in the world. Its government is among the least. by Dylan Matthews, Wonkblog (blog), The Washington Post, on April 5, 2013.
U.S. tax code isn’t as progressive as you think by Dylan Matthews on April 4, 2013.
Blessings of Low Taxes Remain Unproved By EDUARDO PORTER, The New York Times, Published: March 12, 2013. [Paul Ryan of Wisconsin recycled an argument for lower taxes that surfaced in the ’80s and ’90s, but recent history suggests that higher taxes might help the economy.]
Hungary Tries a Dash of Taxes to Promote Healthier Eating Habits By SUZANNE DALEY, The New York Times, Published: March 2, 2013. [In a trend seen across Europe, Hungary has imposed taxes on salt, sugar and the ingredients in energy drinks, hoping to raise revenues and force healthier eating habits.]
Growing wealthy on the farm By Editorial Board, The Washington Post, Monday, February 18, 2013.
I.R.S.’s Taxpayer Advocate Calls for a Tax Code Overhaul By CATHERINE RAMPELL, The New York Times, Published: January 9, 2013. [In her annual report to Congress, Nina E. Olson suggested repealing the alternative minimum tax and reducing so-called tax expenditures — income exclusions, deductions and credits.]
Tax Code May Be the Most Progressive Since 1979 By ANNIE LOWREY, The New York Times, Published: January 4, 2013. [The deal struck by Congress raised taxes on a handful of the highest-earning Americans, with about 99.3 percent of households experiencing no change in their income taxes.]
Heads, You Win. Tails, You Win, Too. By ROBERT H. FRANK, The New York Times, Published: January 5, 2013. [Even in our polarized political climate, many people might agree on the adoption of what economists call Pigovian taxes — levies on activities that have harmful side effects.]
Coming Soon to Belgian Village, a French Film Idol Fleeing Taxes By ANDREW HIGGINS, The New York Times, Published: December 29, 2012. [Néchin, a rural settlement in Belgium, has become a tax haven for scores of wealthy French citizens, including, most recently, the actor Gérard Depardieu.]
Socialists Denounce Gérard Depardieu for Leaving France By SCOTT SAYARE, The New York Times, Published: December 12, 2012. [French officials accused the actor of lacking patriotism after he moved Belgium in an apparent bid to avoid high taxes.]
Tax Burden for Most Americans Is Lower Than in the 1980s By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM and ROBERT GEBELOFF, The New York Times, Published: November 29, 2012. [Despite their complaints, most Americans in 2010 paid far less in total taxes — federal, state and local — than they would have paid 30 years ago, according to an analysis by The Times. See also this supplementary article that offers a more complete picture of taxation in the United States — the combined impact of federal, state and local taxes on American households.]
‘Fat Tax’ in Denmark Is Repealed After Criticism By STEPHANIE STROM, The New York Times, Published: November 12, 2012. [Citing a harmful effect on businesses and consumer buying power, lawmakers in Denmark have repealed the so-called fat tax, which was charged on foods high in saturated fats, after just one year.]
Californians Say Yes to Taxes Editorial, The New York Times, November 10, 2012. [Voters, in these hard times, agreed to pay more out of their pockets to shore up the state’s tattered public schools and universities.]
Republican Tax Priorities Editorial, The New York Times, November 5, 2012. [G.O.P. proposals call for tax cuts for wealthy heirs and tax increases for working families.]
The one tax graph you really need to know by Ezra Klein, Wonkblog (blog), The Washington Post, September 19, 2012. [How progressive is the U.S. tax system?]
With Tax Comments, Romney Wades Into a Conservative Rift By ANNIE LOWREY and MICHAEL COOPER, The New York Times, Published: September 18, 2012. [Despite conservatives’ goal of reducing the burden on the poor with tax credits, Mitt Romney tapped into an anxiety that “takers” are overtaking “makers.”]
The Great American Tax Debate By EDUARDO PORTER, The New York Times, Published: September 18, 2012. [Maybe the way to start building a consensus about how much people should be taxed is to make the connection between the taxes people pay and the benefits they finance.]
Indigestion for ‘les Riches’ in a Plan for Higher Taxes By LIZ ALDERMAN, The New York Times, Published: August 7, 2012. [President François Hollande’s call to raise the tax rate on France’s wealthiest citizens to 75 percent has some considering a move to Brussels or London.]
States Lacking Income Tax Get No Boost In Growth: BGOV Barometer By Brian Chappatta, Bloomberg, Jun 25, 2012. [Governors seeking to expand their economies by eliminating income taxes find little support for the idea in the record of U.S. states that lack such a levy. The key issue is not whether there is or is not a tax, but whether residents get value for their tax dollars.]
Plan to Tax Soda Gets a Mixed Reception By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN, The New York Times, Published: June 2, 2012. [The link between obesity and poverty is close and complicated, as leaders in one city learned when they tried to make high-calorie beverages more expensive.]
The impact of tax cuts on government revenues By Frances Wooley, Worthwhile Canadian Initiative (blog), April 19, 2012. [Good discussion of the effect of tax cuts on tax revenue. Especially when the tax cut takes the form of an increase in the tax exemption level, there is really no good reason to expect tax revenues to rise. The example about The Rolling Stones makes a convincing case that expecting tax cuts to induce rich tax fugitives to repatriate their stashes is a pipe dream.]
In One Man’s Return, the Tax Code’s Unfairness By James B. Stewart, The New York Times, April 20, 2012. [The U.S. income tax system is often upside down. For many people, the more you make, the lower the rate you pay.]
Obama, Like Buffett, Had Lower Tax Rate Than His Secretary By MARK LANDLER, The New York Times, April 14, 2012. [President Obama is in the same boat as the billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett, who pays less of his income in taxes than his secretary.]
Tax Face-Off: Romney vs. Me By TIMOTHY EGAN, Opinionator (blog), The New York Times, April 12, 2012. [A line-by-line comparison of tax returns exposes the grisly details of Republican Presidential candidate and gazillionaire Mitt Romney's advantage over the author.]
Working All Day For the I.R.S. By JAMES B. STEWART, The New York Times, February 17, 2012. [People who work -- not the people who are rich -- pay the bulk of the taxes.]
At 102%, His Tax Rate Takes the Cake By JAMES B. STEWART, The New York Times, February 3, 2012. [In submissions of tax burdens from readers, James Ross, founder and managing member of the investment firm Rossrock, was on a perch all his own.]
Paying Far More Than 13.9%: A Taxpayer’s Lament By JAMES B. STEWART, The New York Times, January 28, 2012. [With all the focus on tax rates, a business columnist for The New York Times sat down with his 2010 returns, calculator in hand. He is still reeling from the results.]
For Romneys, Friendly Code Reduces Taxes By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI, The New York Times, Published: January 24, 2012. [Mitt Romney and his wife had an effective federal tax rate in 2010 of 13.9 percent.]
A Better Tax System (Assembly Instructions Included) By N. GREGORY MANKIW, The New York Times, January 22, 2012. [William E. Simon, the former Treasury secretary, said “the nation should have a tax system that looks like someone designed it on purpose.” Here are four principles of tax reform that most economists would endorse.]
Why Americans Think the Tax Rate Is High, and Why They’re Wrong By DAVID LEONHARDT, The New York Times, Published: January 19, 2012. [Americans today pay less in taxes (as share of their incomes) than Americans in the past and foreigners today. And yet, the bellyaching about taxes goes on. In the mean time, the government's debt keeps rising.]
The Dubious Case For Privileging Capital Gains by Paul Krugman, The Conscience of a Liberal (blog), The New York Times, January 19, 2012.
The concrete impacts of taxes by Frances Woolley, Worthwhile Canadian Initiative (blog), January 3, 2012. ["Between 1695 and 1851, the English government levied a tax on windows." And thereby hangs an entertaining and illuminating tale!]
10 Reasons to Eliminate the Tax Break for Capital Gains by Greg Anrig, Blog of the Century (blog), The Century Foundation, October 20, 2011.
Since 1980s, the Kindest of Tax Cuts for the Rich By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI, The New York Times, January 18, 2012. [Under Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush tax rates on income from assets have been reduced over and over again. These tax changes have significantly reduced the effective federal income tax rate paid by the wealthiest Americans. President Barack Obama's proposal that those earning more than $1 million a year should pay at least the same percentage of their earnings in federal taxes that middle-income Americans did was blocked by Republican opponents in the U.S. Congress.]
Stop Coddling the Super-Rich By WARREN E. BUFFETT, The New York Times, August 14, 2011. [A billionaire reports that workers in his office, including his secretary, pay a larger share of their income in taxes than he does.]