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...

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...

In previous articles, I examined two typical features of state and local retail sales taxes that prevent them from functioning as comprehensive taxes on consumption: the taxation of business purchases and the exemption of consumer services. In this article, I examine another feature, the...

Viard observes that fiscal stimulus to aggregate demand must be properly timed because stimulus 'borrows' output and jobs from the future rather than creating them from thin air. He also argues that increases in government purchases do not necessarily provide a larger (correctly measured)...

Recent studies assert that corporations receive a government subsidy by being allowed ordinary business expense deductions for payments of performance-based executive compensation. There is no subsidy, however, because the compensation payments do not receive any preferential tax treatment. The...