Taxing Ourselves – A Citizen′s Guide to the Great Debate Over Tax Reform 2e - Hardcover

Slemrod, Joel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262194295 ISBN 13: 9780262194297

Publisher: MIT Press, 2000

Synopsis

A majority of Americans are dissatisfied with the current income tax system. They complain that taxes are too high, complicated, difficult, unfair and sometimes intrusive to enforce. Yet how should the system be fixed? In "Taxing Ourselves", Joel Slemrod and Jon Bakija offer a guide to the tax reform debate in clear, nontechnical language without misleading the reader with oversimplifications. The second edition takes account of tax developments through 1998, examines recent research on the economic impact of taxation, and includes a new appendix containing the key statistics on the US tax system throughout its history. The book gives an historical perspective on taxation in the United States along with a concise description of our current federal income tax system. It reviews basic criteria by which tax policy should be judged and examines how the tax burden is distributed and what is known about the economic effects of taxation. The book then covers the key elements of various tax reform proposals, including a single rate, a clean base and a consumption base. The book closes with a voter's guide to tax reform for the concerned citizen to keep handy when the rhetoric heats up - as it inevitably will during the 2000 presidential campaign - to help separate fact from fiction and reality from campaign promises.

About this title

Review

"Cutting through the academic jargon, the authors ...explore the fundamental questions and choices inherent in tax policymaking."-- "Boston Sunday Globe"

About the Author

Joel Slemrod is Paul W. McCracken Collegiate Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy and Director of the Office of Tax Policy Research at the University of Michigan. Jon Bakija is Assistant Professor of Economics at Williams College.

Edition details

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262194295
• ISBN 13: 9780262194297
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 360