Last year's tax reform represented a first step toward improving the tax code by making it simpler, fairer, and slightly less distortive.
As Congress considers taking up a so-called tax-extenders bill before the new Democratic-controlled House is seated, any hope of continuing a reformation requires vigilance against returning to those old ways through a ritualistic revival of expired special-interest tax breaks.
Tax extenders are temporary and narrowly targeted tax provisions for individuals and businesses.
According to the Tax Foundation's Erica York, "Twenty-six now expired provisions are under congressional review to determine whether they merit a permanent place in the tax code. The ten-year cost of making all 26 provisions a permanent part of the tax code would be $92.5 billion." She adds: "More than half of the remaining provisions are tax credits that subsidize certain economic activities."
These tax provisions were last authorized as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, which retroactively extended them through the end of 2017, after which they have thus far been left to remain expired.
Frequently allowing tax provisions to expire before retroactively reauthorizing them creates uncertainty that undermines any potential benefits from incentivizing particular behaviors.
Reauthorizing these provisions would be incompatible with any tax-reform effort that purports to make the tax code simpler and less distortionary in nature.
http://reason.com/archives/2018/11/29/will-a-lame-duck-congress-once-again-ove
As Congress considers taking up a so-called tax-extenders bill before the new Democratic-controlled House is seated, any hope of continuing a reformation requires vigilance against returning to those old ways through a ritualistic revival of expired special-interest tax breaks.
Tax extenders are temporary and narrowly targeted tax provisions for individuals and businesses.
According to the Tax Foundation's Erica York, "Twenty-six now expired provisions are under congressional review to determine whether they merit a permanent place in the tax code. The ten-year cost of making all 26 provisions a permanent part of the tax code would be $92.5 billion." She adds: "More than half of the remaining provisions are tax credits that subsidize certain economic activities."
These tax provisions were last authorized as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, which retroactively extended them through the end of 2017, after which they have thus far been left to remain expired.
Frequently allowing tax provisions to expire before retroactively reauthorizing them creates uncertainty that undermines any potential benefits from incentivizing particular behaviors.
Reauthorizing these provisions would be incompatible with any tax-reform effort that purports to make the tax code simpler and less distortionary in nature.
http://reason.com/archives/2018/11/29/will-a-lame-duck-congress-once-again-ove
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