Fundamental Tax Reform – Issues, Choices, and Implications - Hardcover

Diamond, John W.; Zodrow, George; Iii, James A. Baker; Aaron, Henry J.; Alm, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262042479 ISBN 13: 9780262042475

Publisher: MIT Press, 2008

Synopsis

Leading experts on tax policy examine the complex issues involved in fundamental tax reform, including the relative merits of income-based and consumption-based taxation.

Reform of the federal income tax system has become a perennial item on the domestic policy agenda of the United States, although there is considerable uncertainty over specifics. Indeed the recent report of the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform recommended not one but two divergent policy directions (and included extensive discussion of a third).

In Fundamental Tax Reform, top experts in tax policy discuss a wide range of issues raised by the prospect of significant tax reform, identifying the most critical questions and considering whether the answers are known, unknown--or unknowable. The debates over tax reform usually concern the advantages and disadvantages of income-based taxation as opposed to any of the several alternative forms of consumption-based taxation. The book opens with chapters that discuss the strengths, weaknesses, and political feasibility of these options. Other chapters consider the effect of tax reform on businesses, especially their investment behavior, and include a discussion of possible problems in any transition to a consumption-based tax; international taxation issues arising in an era of globalization; and individual behavioral response to tax reform, including a view of the topic from the perspective of the relatively new field of behavioral economics.

Contributors
Rosanne Altshuler, Alan J. Auerbach, John W. Diamond, Harry Grubert, Arnold C. Harberger, Kevin A. Hassett, Thomas J. Kniesner, Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Edward J. McCaffery, Kathryn Newmark, David Rapson, Daniel Shaviro, Joel Slemrod, James P. Ziliak, George R. Zodrow

Discussants
James Alm, Henry J. Aaron, Charles L. Ballard, Leonard E. Burman, Robert S. Chirinko, Robert D. Dietz, Malcolm Gillis, Roger H. Gordon, Jane G. Gravelle, Timothy S. Gunning, James M. Poterba, Thomas S. Neubig, Alan Viard, George Yin

About this title

About the Authors

John W. Diamond is Edward A. and Hermena Hancock Kelly Fellow in Public Finance at Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.

George R. Zodrow is Allyn R. and Gladys M. Cline Chair of Economics and Rice Scholar, Baker Institute for Public Policy, at Rice University.

Edition details

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262042479
• ISBN 13: 9780262042475
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 592