Readings and Materials on Tax Policy, 3d

by Oliver, Philip D.

• ISBN13: 9781599416250
• ISBN10: 1599416255
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-12-03
• Publisher: Foundation Press
• More Book Details

Summary

The third edition arrives at a time when political impasse in Washington combines with a graying population and trillion-dollar deficits: a combination that makes fundamental reform both appealing and seemingly impossible to attain. Study of the fascinating and important field of tax policy has never been more timely. The third edition retains the same broad outline of the second, and the same seventeen chapters. At the same time, substantial changes have been made. Tax law, and tax scholarship, never stand still. Most chapters have at least one new excerpt Chapter One has four, and several new subchapters have been added. These additions bring the book up to date, and pick up new strands of scholarly discussion. Throughout the book, the third edition gives increased emphasis to political considerations. Chapter One deals with the constraints on policy choices resulting from our unprecedented deficits, and from the even more threatening long-term commitments that our entitlement programs represent. In addition to bringing these problems into sharper relief, Chapter One now addresses the causes and consequences of the increasing inequality that has been affecting the entire world, including the United States, for the past thirty years. In other chapters, an array of new excerpts explore such topics as the psychological and economic factors that have led to our present version of the realization rule; the theoretical possibility of adjusting tax burdens to reflect different amenities in different areas of the country; intergenerational (in)equity as reflected in the Social Security tax-and-transfer program; and how our tax system which has never functioned well regarding inflation would function in a world of deflation. A new Table of Authorities has been added, which will aid the user in quickly finding excerpted articles and other materials by author. Its primary value, however, is that it will simplify finding discussion of the work of the hundreds of authorities whose contributions are not excerpted but are discussed in the Notes and Questions at the end of each subchapter.