Economic facts about taxes: Rates, revenues and reform options

Fiscal issues will rapidly come to the fore next fall as the federal government faces the looming expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts, the onset of the deficit “trigger,” and another debate on the debt limit. Across the political spectrum, one of the few points on which today’s policymakers can agree is that the tax code is in desperate need of reform.

On May 3, The Hamilton Project hosted a policy forum on the economic context for tax reform and the economic criteria that should be used when evaluating tax reform options. As part of the event, the Project released a new policy memo, “A Dozen Facts About Tax Reform,” to help shed light on various aspects of the reform debate.

Following opening remarks, former Council of Economic Advisers Chair Martin Feldstein and Lawrence H. Summers, former Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and former U.S. Treasury Secretary, discussed the broad economic case for tax reform.

A second panel of experts debatde key principles for a successful tax reform effort, drawing from a range of experiences. Participants included Business Roundtable President and former Michigan Governor John Engler; Center for American Progress Chair and Counselor John Podesta; NBER President and CEO James Poterba; and Brookings Senior Fellow Alice Rivlin. After each panel, the speakers took audience questions.