Tax-qualified vehicles helped U.S. private-sector workers accumulate $25Tr in retirement assets. An often-overlooked important institutional feature shaping decumulations from these retirement plans is the "Required Minimum Distribution" (RMD) regulation, requiring retirees to withdraw a minimum...

We provide the first academic study on the performance of IRA pension plans from 2004 through 2018. At the aggregate level, the risk-adjusted performances of IRA plans are comparable to that of the aggregate equity market. However, high-income individuals substantially outperform low-income...

This study uses a Japanese nationwide sample and experimentally compares rebate and matching, both of which are schemes intended to lower the price of monetary donation. Standard economic theory predicts that the two schemes will have the same effect on individuals' donation behavior when their...

The paper examines the manner in which federal tax expenditure estimates are prepared by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) and the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis (OTA). The paper finds that the current cash flow method does not measure the actual benefits of...

Tax expenditures — government spending programs that deliver subsidies through the tax code via special tax credits, deductions, exclusions, exemptions, and preferential rates — are the dominant type of federal support for the U.S. energy industry. Altogether, these spending programs amount...

In 1981, Congress enacted the qualified terminable interest property (QTIP) provisions that allow an estate and gift tax marital deduction for the full value of the underlying property where a spouse receives only a qualifying income interest for life and where the executor of the estate or the...

It comes as no surprise to any observant person in this country that there is a wide disparity in our federal income tax treatment of persons who have differing incomes and financial resources. But while much has been written on tax law complexity and inefficiency, little or nothing has been...

In a world of increasing labour mobility, is it good tax policy to use tax incentives to encourage migration to meet shortages of skilled labour? Countries as diverse as Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Denmark and China, to name but a few, think so. But is this the best response? This article...

This is a companion piece to an article that carefully analyzes tuition tax credit scholarship programs now popular around the country. This article offers a model statute for states considering or improving such programs that addresses concerns raised in my previous article. The companion...