Aldona Robbins

A review of economic data and statistics from the 2nd Quarter of 1999.

This issue brief examines the major features of the Ways and Means bill and discusses
the economic and budgetary effects.

A relic of the Great Depression, the Social Security retirement earnings test penalizes people receiving Social Security benefits who work. The earnings test puts a huge tax on wage inome, creating an effective marginal tax rate of between 41 and 80+ percent.

This Issue Brief outlines the case for eliminating the earnings test, and finds that "the long-run costs of eliminating the earnings test are almost nothing."

This study is a survey of historical estate taxation, an economic analysis of the impact of estate taxes on the economy, and contains a dynamic analysis of the impact of eliminating estate taxes.

Virtually all forecasters project federal budget surpluses as far as the eye can see. How to use these surpluses most effectively?

This issue brief looks at the major proposals and the bill’s economic and revenue effects.

The purpose of this issue brief is to focus on how changing the tax treatment of married couples would affect the economy. As background, the first section explains how the tax code and marital status interact. The next section estimates the economic and revenue consequences of four proposals
while the last section discusses whether reducing marriage penalties makes for good tax policy.

Articles include "Will Taxpayers be Last in Line for Budget Surpluses?", The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT): A Ticking Time Bomb Aimed at the Middle Class," "The Golden Rules for Making a Million," and "Getting Hit from Both Sides: Adjusting CPI Downward Cuts Entitlements and Raises Taxes."

New requirements to track additional asset holding periods have greatly increased the complexity in calculating capital gains taxes. Our researchers, Gary and Aldona Robbins, point out the reasons why these added complications are totally unnecessary.

The Alternative Minimum Tax, or AMT, is an inefficient, expensive to administer portion of the federal tax code. It began in 1969 to ensure that every taxpayer paid some tax by disallowing certain tax deductions if they reduced tax liability beneath a certain level. Today, it does not even accomplish that goal. Right now, it impacts a relatively small amount of taxpayers, but in the next 10 years, one of every 14 taxpayers will be ensnared by the AMT--and the government is counting on it. They've already factored this into the rosy budget surplus scenarios.