scholarly journals The New Tax Legislative and Regulatory Process

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 1135-1162
Author(s):  
Rebecca M. Kysar
Keyword(s):  
Tax Reform ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Regulatory Process ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
The Future ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Jobs Act ◽  
Reconciliation Process ◽  
Implementation Challenge ◽  
Tax Cuts

This paper compares the enactment and implementation process for the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) to prior tax reform acts, as well as situates it within other developments in the legislative process more generally. It details how the 2017 enactment process solidifies reconciliation as the primary vehicle for the enactment of major tax measures, a trend nearly two decades in the making. The ambitious scope of the TCJA, as well as the rushed and partisan reconciliation process by which it was enacted, has led to ambiguities and instability in the legislation. These features have, in turn, posed an enormous implementation challenge for Treasury, which has led to some troubling results. Finally, reconciliation has set up the opportunity for Congress to engage in budget gimmicks in the future. This paper discusses these trends and proposes solutions to them.

scholarly journals Is This Tax Reform, or Just Confusion?

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 73-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Slemrod
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Tax Reform ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Tax Base ◽  
Tax System ◽  
The Law ◽  
Jobs Act ◽  
Tax Cuts

Based on the experience of recent decades, the United States apparently musters the political will to change its tax system comprehensively about every 30 years, so it seems especially important to get it right when the chance arises. Based on the strong public statements of economists opposing and supporting the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, a causal observer might wonder whether this law was tax reform or mere confusion. In this paper, I address that question and, more importantly, offer an assessment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The law is clearly not “tax reform” as economists usually use that term: that is, it does not seek to broaden the tax base and reduce marginal rates in a roughly revenue-neutral manner. However, the law is not just a muddle. It seeks to address some widely acknowledged issues with corporate taxation, and takes some steps toward broadening the tax base, in part by reducing the incentive to itemize deductions.

scholarly journals Think Tank Soldiers in the Battle for Tax Reform

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Renee Irvin ◽  
Jes Sokolowski
Keyword(s):  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Tax Policy ◽  
Tax Reform ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Advocacy Organizations ◽  
Jobs Act ◽  
Political Decision Making ◽  
Tax Cuts

AbstractContemporary scholars argue that high wealth donors in the U.S. influence political decision making through generous funding of nonprofit organizations like think tanks. In response to that potential influence, some endorse curbs on implicit subsidies that favor higher-income donors more than lower-income donors. To highlight the debate, this study selects a particular topic – tax policy – that generates highly partisan viewpoints and political agendas. The article first models predicted partisan operational differences, based on donors’ ideological differences. The study then explores the financial, staffing, and board resources of think tanks and associated advocacy organizations. The data were collected in the year immediately prior to the passage of the 2017 U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, providing a snapshot view of contrasting operations of left-, centrist, and right-leaning tax policy think tanks. Given the notably more generous resources utilized by right-leaning tax policy organizations, it is possible that donor wealth differences enabled right-leaning nonprofits to contribute their influence to get the historic tax reform package passed. However, the successful passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act could have resulted as well from the more targeted messaging and narrative framing employed by right-leaning think tanks and advocacy organizations.

scholarly journals Did the 2017 Tax Reform Discriminate against Blue-State Voters?

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 1087-1108
Author(s):  
David Altig ◽  
Alan Auerbach ◽  
Patrick Higgins ◽  
Darryl Koehler ◽  
Laurence Kotlikoff ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Differential Effect ◽  
Tax Reform ◽  
Local Property ◽  
Income Taxation ◽  
Average Increase ◽  
Percent Increase ◽  
Property Income ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Jobs Act ◽  
Tax Cuts

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) significantly changed federal income taxation, including limiting SALT (state and local property, income, and sales taxes) deductibility to $10,000. We estimate the TCJA’s differential effect on red- and blue-state taxpayers and the SALT limitation’s contribution to this differential. We find an average increase in remaining lifetime spending of 1.6 percent in red states versus 1.3 percent in blue states. Among the richest 10 percent of households, red states enjoyed a 2 percent increase compared to 1.2 percent in blue states, with the gap driven almost entirely by the SALT deduction limitation.

In Congress Reassembled: Reconciliation and the Legislative Process

1981 ◽  
Vol 14 (04) ◽  
pp. 748-751
Author(s):  
Allen Schick
Keyword(s):  
Budget Process ◽  
Legislative Behavior ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
Federal Programs ◽  
Legislative Power ◽  
The Future ◽  
Legislative Activities ◽  
Traditional Roles ◽  
Reconciliation Process

Reconciliation forces Congress to consider issues in redistributive terms and alters traditional roles and relationships, but this legislative technique may be short-lived.The 1981 battle of the budget might leave a deeper imprint on legislative behavior than on federal programs and expenditures. The process that produced the omnibus reconciliation bill was extraordinary in its scope and in its integration of diverse legislative activities. More than 30 House and Senate committees were drawn into the reconciliation process and more than half of the Members of Congress participated in the conferences that resulted in the reconciliation decision. The outcome was not a perfectly consistent set of budget decisions, but for a legislature that thrives on the dispersion of power, reconciliation demanded much more cohesion and coordination than Congress normally achieves.It is too early to determine whether reconciliation will become a permanent feature of the congressional budget process or whether it will be applied as extensively in the future as it was in 1981. If it were confined to a few committees and only changed the budget at the margins, reconciliation might not affect basic legislative roles and relationships. But if it continues to demand the active cooperation of numerous committees and tries to change major parts of the budget, reconciliation would certainly lead to a redistribution of legislative power.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and the Gig Economy: Why the Employee vs. Contractor Debate Matters More than Ever

2021 ◽  
pp. 088636872110602
Author(s):  
Stanley Veliotis ◽  
Balsam Steve
Keyword(s):  
Income Tax ◽  
Tax Reform ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Tax Law ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
Independent Contractors ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
Jobs Act ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Tax Cuts

The issue of whether workers are independent contractors or employees has become even more relevant with recently enacted and proposed legislation and court cases in many jurisdictions seeking to impose employee status on many Gig economy workforce participants, such as ride-share drivers. This article emphasizes that the U.S. income tax rules, especially after tax reform effective in 2018, makes employee status extremely tax-inefficient for these workers. This article explains the relevant tax law changes and provides various examples of typical settings to confirm that workers with even small relative work expenses are often better off as contractors from a tax point of view.

scholarly journals Policy Forum: International Effects of the 2017 US Tax Reform—A View from the Front Line

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-39
Author(s):  
Peter Harris ◽  
Michael Keen ◽  
Li Liu
Keyword(s):  
Tax Reform ◽  
Front Line ◽  
The Us ◽  
Business Tax ◽  
Jobs Act ◽  
Policy Forum ◽  
Tax Cuts

Proximity and close economic links put Canada on the front line in thinking through the effects of the US Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). This article reviews the main channels by which the business tax provisions of the TCJA might affect Canada, and possible responses.

Een Duits netwerk bij de voorbereiding van de Militärverwaltung in België (1939-1940)

2011 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 289-305
Author(s):  
Etienne Verhoeyen
Keyword(s):  
Study Groups ◽  
Study Group ◽  
Student Group ◽  
German Army ◽  
The Future ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
The Government ◽  
Set Up ◽  
First World ◽  
Preparatory Work

Nadat Hitler in oktober 1939 beslist had een aanval in het Westen te ondernemen, werden in Keulen twee studiegroepen opgericht, die het toekomstig bezettingsregime van België en Nederland moesten voorbereiden. Er was een studiecommissie die geleid werd door de toekomstige leider van het Duits Militair Bestuur in België, Regierungspräsident Reeder, en daarnaast bestond een geheime studiegroep die de Sondergruppe Student werd genoemd. Deze bijdrage belicht het voorbereidend werk van de leden van deze studiegroep op het gebied van handel, industrie, recht, Volkstum en cultuur in België. De groep legde een grote belangstelling voor de Flamenfrage aan de dag en trok daarbij lessen uit de ervaringen met de bezetting van België tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog. Ofschoon er van diverse zijden in Duitsland werd op aangestuurd, hebben zowel de 'commissie Reeder' als de Sondergruppe de wederinvoering van de bestuurlijke scheiding van het Vlaams en Franstalig landsgedeelte, één van de 'verworvenheden' van het Vlaams activisme uit 1914-18, beslist afgewezen. De bijdrage laat ook de tegenstellingen zien die in Duitsland bestonden op het gebied van de beïnvloeding (ten voordele van Duitsland) in de te bezetten gebieden. ________ A German network in the preparation of the Militärverwaltung (Army administration) in Belgium (1939-1940)After Hitler had decided in October 1939 to carry out an attack on the West, two study groups were set up in Cologne in order to prepare the future occupational regime of Belgium and the Netherlands.  The future leader of the German Army Administration in Belgium, President of the Government Reeder chaired the study group, and in addition there was a secret study group called the Sondergruppe Student (Special Student Group).This contribution illuminates the preparatory work of the members of this study group in the area of trade, industry, law, Volkstum (nationality) and culture in Belgium. The group demonstrated a lot of interest in the Flamenfrage (Flemish question) and in doing so drew lessons from the experience of the occupation of Belgium during the First World War.Although people from various quarters in Germany aimed for the reintroduction of the governmental separation between  the Flemish and French speaking parts of the country, one of the 'achievements' of Flemish activism from the period of 1914-1918, both the 'Reeder committee' and the 'Sondergruppe' definitely dismissed it. This contribution also demonstrates the contradictions present in Germany in the area of influencing the territories to be occupied (in favour of Germany).

scholarly journals Nudge Versus Boost: Agency Dynamics Under Libertarian Paternalism

2019 ◽  
Vol 130 (629) ◽  
pp. 1384-1415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Hertwig ◽  
Michael D Ryall
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Libertarian Paternalism ◽  
The Future ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Individual

ABSTRACT Thaler and Sunstein (2008) advance the concept of ‘nudge’ policies—non-regulatory and non-fiscal mechanisms designed to enlist people's cognitive biases or motivational deficits so as to guide their behaviour in a desired direction. A core assumption of this approach is that policymakers make artful use of people's cognitive biases and motivational deficits in ways that serve the ultimate interests of the nudged individual. We analyse a model of dynamic policymaking in which the policymaker's preferences are not always aligned with those of the individual. One novelty of our set-up is that the policymaker has the option to implement a ‘boost’ policy, equipping the individual with the competence to overcome the nudge-enabling bias once and for all. Our main result identifies conditions under which the policymaker chooses not to boost in order to preserve the option of using the nudge (and its associated bias) in the future—even though boosting is in the immediate best interests of both the policymaker and the individual. We extend our analysis to situations in which the policymaker can be removed (e.g., through an election) and in which the policymaker is similarly prone to bias. We conclude with a discussion of some policy implications of these findings.

scholarly journals Patients’ Perceived Satisfaction Through Telephone-Assisted Tele-Consultation During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic Period: Observational Single-Centre Study at a Tertiary-Referral Colorectal Surgery Department

2021 ◽  
pp. 155335062110080
Author(s):  
Lara Blanco Terés ◽  
Carlos Cerdán Santacruz ◽  
Javier García Septiem ◽  
Rocío Maqueda González ◽  
José María Lopesino González ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Categorical Variables ◽  
Average Score ◽  
Job Status ◽  
Perceived Satisfaction ◽  
The Future ◽  
Chi Squared ◽  
Single Centre Study ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Surgery Department

Introduction: The pandemic produced by SARS-CoV-2 has obliged us to set up the tele-assistance to offer a continuity of care. This implies an innovation, being the degree of satisfaction of patients unknown. Methods: A telephonic survey was conducted with the validated in the Spanish tool Telehealth Usability Questionnaire (Telehealth Usability Questionnaire; rating from 1-7) of all candidate patients assisted consecutively in the Coloproctology Unit. We included demographic variables, education level, job status, diagnosis and consultation type. A descriptive study was done. The relationship between the willingness of consultation model in the future (telemedicine vs traditional) and the categorical variables was analysed through the chi-squared test. Results: A total of 115 patients were included. The average age was 59.9 years, being 60% women. The average score in each of the survey items was higher than 6 in all the questions but 1. 26.1% of the surveyed patients confessed being advocated to tele-assistance in the future. The only factors related to greater willingness to tele-assistance were male gender (37% vs 18.8%; P = .03) and a higher academic preparation level in favour of higher technical studies (35.9%) and university studies (32.4%) opposite to the rest ( P = .043). The rest of variables studied, job status, labour regimen, diagnostic group and consultation type did not show any relationship. Conclusions: A vast majority of patients answered favourably to almost all the items of the survey. However, only 26.1% of them would choose a model of tele-assistance without restrictions.

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