Placing a Lid on Marginal Tax Rates: A New Way to Simplify the Income Tax Structure

Author(s)/Creator(s)

John Yinger, Syracuse University

Description/Abstract

Thanks to the phasing out of exemptions and excess itemized deductions and to the alternative minimum tax, the federal income tax rate schedule is difficult to draw, to understand, and to connect with any tax principle. Moreover, some taxpayers now face unreasonably high marginal tax rates. This paper proposes a new approach that simplifies the income tax system at its point of intersection with taxpayers; sets absolute upper and lower bounds on true marginal tax rates; and allows for the phasing out of any or all exemptions, deductions, or other tax preferences according to clear principles. This approach can achieve any desired degree of progressivity.

Document Type

Working Paper

Date

8-1997

Language

English

Series

Metropolitan Studies Program Series

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Doug Holtz-Eakin for many helpful comments.

Disciplines

Economic Policy | Economics | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | Public Policy

ISSN

0732 507X

Additional Information

Metropolitan studies program series occasional paper no.187

Recommended Citation

Yinger, John, "Placing a Lid on Marginal Tax Rates: A New Way to Simplify the Income Tax Structure" (1997). Center for Policy Research. 446.
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/446

Source

Local Input

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.