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527 Organizations: How the Differences in Tax and Election Laws Permit Certain Organizations to Engage in Issue Advocacy without Public Disclosure and Proposals for Change

Description: This report compares the tax and election laws relating to political organizations and political committees in an attempt to highlight the differences between them, and discusses some of the proposals in the 106th Congress to require additional reporting by organizations engaging in political activities. This report does not address the taxation of other tax-exempt organizations making political expenditures taxable under IRC § 527. The report will be updated as new proposals are reported.
Date: June 26, 2000
Creator: Morris, Marie B.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Federal Excise Tax on Gasoline and the Highway Trust Fund: A Short History

Description: Excise taxes have long been a part of our country's revenue history. In the field of gasoline taxation, the states led the way with Oregon enacting the first tax on motor fuels in 1919. By 1932, all states and the District of Columbia had followed suit with tax rates that ranged between two and seven cents per gallon. The federal government first imposed its excise tax on gasoline at a one cent per gallon rate in 1932. The gas tax was enacted to correct a federal budgetary imbalance.
Date: March 29, 2000
Creator: Talley, Louis Alan
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Transportation Fuel Taxes: Impacts of a Repeal or Moratorium

Description: Steep increases in the prices of gasoline, diesel, and other transportation fuels have prompted some Members of Congress to seek to ease the effects on households and businesses. Interest has focused on possible repeal or suspension of the levying of all or part of the federal excise taxes on those fuels. Current market conditions and the small amount of tax relief incorporated in most proposals, however, raise uncertainty as to whether prices to individuals and businesses would fall and whethe… more
Date: March 28, 2000
Creator: Fischer, John W. & Gelb, Bernard A.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Major Tax Issues in the 106th Congress: A Summary

Description: Taxes have been a major focus of congressional attention during the first half of 2000. In part, Congress has returned to many of the issues it addressed last year. In August, 1999, Congress passed a set of tax cuts with the Taxpayer Refund and Relief Act (H.R. 2488; TRRA). However, President Clinton vetoed the bill, arguing that the cuts were too large (an estimated $792 billion over 10 years), would drain funds from Social Security surpluses, and would force reductions in domestic spending. E… more
Date: October 19, 2000
Creator: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service. Government and Fiance Division.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Value-Added Tax as a New Revenue Source

Description: Some Members of Congress have expressed interest in the feasibility of using a value-added tax (VAT) to either replace all or part of the income tax or finance health care reform. A VAT is imposed at all levels of production on the differences between firms' sales and their purchases from all other firms. Policymakers may be interested in the following aspects of a VAT: revenue yield, international comparison of composition of taxes, vertical equity, neutrality, inflation, balance-of-trade, nat… more
Date: July 10, 2000
Creator: Bickley, James M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Flat Tax Proposals and Fundamental Tax Reform: An Overview

Description: The idea of replacing our current income tax system with a "flat-rate tax" is receiving renewed congressional interest. Although referred to as "flat-rate taxes," many of the current proposals go much further than merely adopting a flat rate tax structure. Some involve significant income tax base broadening while others entail changing the tax base from income to consumption.
Date: November 17, 2000
Creator: Bickley, James M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Energy Tax Policy: An Economic Analysis

Description: The report provides background on the theory and application of tax policy as it relates to the energy sector, particularly with respect to the theory of market failure in the energy sector and the suggested policy remedies. This background provides a context for understanding how current or proposed energy tax policy may affect other policy objectives or be affected by such objectives.
Date: January 12, 2000
Creator: Lazzari, Salvatore
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Fact Sheet on Congressional Tax Proposals

Description: A general tax cut (H.R. 2488), costing $792 billion over 10 years, was vetoed in September 1999. A more narrowly focused bill (H.R. 1180) extending certain expiring provisions was adopted in December. Several tax proposals have been or are likely to be considered in 2000. The largest of these was marriage penalty legislation (H.R. 6 and S. 2346). Tax provisions are also included in health care legislation and minimum wage legislation; the latter passed the House on March 9 and included distress… more
Date: May 25, 2000
Creator: Gravelle, Jane G.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Recent Tax Changes Affecting Installment Sales

Description: On December 17, 1999, President Clinton signed the Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 (H.R. 1180; P.L. 106-170). This Act contained revenue provisions extending several popular tax benefits such as the work opportunity tax credit, the welfare to work tax credit, and the applicability of the nonrefundable personal tax credits to the individual alternative minimum tax. To pay for the extension of these tax benefits the Act also included several tax changes that increased revenue. Among these… more
Date: May 11, 2000
Creator: Esenwein, Gregg A.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Internet Tax Legislation: Distinguishing Issues

Description: The Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA), enacted in 1998, placed a three-year moratorium on the ability of state and local governments to impose new taxes on Internet access, or to impose any multiple or discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce. The moratorium is scheduled to expire on October 21, 2001.
Date: November 24, 2000
Creator: Noto, Nonna A.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC) Tax Benefit for Exporting and the WTO

Description: The Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC) provisions of the U.S. tax code permit U.S. firms to exempt between 15% and 30% of export income from taxation. FSC was enacted in 1984 to replace another tax benefit for exporting - the Domestic International Sales Corporation (DISC) provisions. U.S. trading partners had charged that DISC was an export subsidy, and so violated the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). In 1998 the European Union (EU) complained to the World Trade Organization (WTO, G… more
Date: October 11, 2000
Creator: Brumbaugh, David L.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Major Tax Issues in the 107th Congress

Description: Tax cuts have been one of the principal issues Congress has addressed in the first part of 2001. In part, this issue continues a debate that occurred through 1999 and 2000, as the federal budget began to register surpluses for the first time in nearly 30 years.
Date: May 24, 2001
Creator: Brumbaugh, David L.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Tax Benefits for Health Insurance: Current Legislation

Description: A number of new or expanded tax benefits for health insurance are being discussed in the first months of the 107th Congress. Several were included in the President's FY2002 budget, including a new refundable tax credit. Proponents generally argue that changes are needed to extend coverage to the uninsured and to address efficiency and equity problems; opponents generally doubt that the changes under consideration would make much difference. One issue is whether new or expanded benefits would li… more
Date: April 19, 2001
Creator: Lyke, Bob
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Energy Tax Policy

Description: President Bush has issued a comprehensive energy policy initiative, which includes limited energy tax measures; the Administration has criticized such measures as being inconsistent with its free market philosophy. Several of the issues that drove energy policy and energy tax policy during the 106th Congress are extant: 1) tax incentives to increase the supply of oil and gas; 2) energy tax issues relating to energy conservation and energy efficiency; 3) energy tax issues relating to alternative… more
Date: August 24, 2001
Creator: Lazzari, Salvatore
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Across-the-Board Tax Cuts: Economic Issues

Description: This report examines economic issues relating to across-the-board tax cuts, focusing primarily on distributional issues. The report is divided into four sections. The first section provides a general overview of the tax system. The next discusses recent proposals relating to across-the-board tax cuts. The third section discusses methods of evaluating alternative types of across-the-board tax cuts. The final section briefly discusses issues of efficiency, simplicity, and stabilization policy.
Date: March 30, 2001
Creator: Gravelle, Jane G.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Federal Income Tax and the Treatment of Married Couples: Background and Analysis

Description: Defining the married couple as a single tax unit under the federal individual income tax means that some married couples pay more income tax than they would as two unmarried singles (a marriage tax penalty) while other married couples pay less income tax than they would as two unmarried singles (a marriage tax bonus).
Date: March 23, 2001
Creator: Esenwein, Gregg A.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Conservation Reserve Payments and Self-Employment Taxes

Description: Farmers enrolling their land in the Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) receive payments for refraining from farming their property and for engaging in certain conservation practices mandated by the Department of Agriculture. These payments are described in the contract with the Department of Agriculture as "rental payments." Farmers would like to treat the income as "rental income" because it would not be subject to self-employment taxes, but the Internal Revenue Ser… more
Date: May 1, 2000
Creator: Morris, Marie B.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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An Economic Analysis of the Homebuyer Tax Credit

Description: This report provides an economic analysis of the homebuyer tax credit. Data suggest that home prices in general may be stabilizing and that the home inventory is beginning to return to a more normal level. Given the close proximity of these improvements to when the homebuyer tax credit was enacted by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 and first modified by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, one could argue that the tax credit was the cause of these improvements.
Date: December 1, 2009
Creator: Keightley, Mark P.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Role of Federal Gasoline Excise Taxes in Public Policy

Description: This report examines the effects of the federal excise tax on gasoline and analyzes the positive and negative effects of the tax. The report also evaluates the incentive structure that a higher gasoline tax would likely create, and examines a revised version of the tax, a variable gasoline tax.
Date: September 11, 2009
Creator: Pirog, Robert
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Federal Taxation of the Drug Industry and Its Effects on New Drug Development

Description: This report examines the impact of federal taxation on the incentive to invest in new drug development. More specifically, it looks at the provisions in current tax law that affect the performance of the drug industry, compares the industry's federal tax burden with that of other major industries, and assesses the effect of federal taxation on the incentive to invest in new drug development.
Date: March 18, 2009
Creator: Guenther, Gary
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Retirement Savings and Household Wealth in 2007

Description: This report discusses various issues that impact the retirement income of Americans. About half of all workers in the United States participate in an employer-sponsored retirement plan of some kind, a proportion that has remained relatively stable over the past thirty years. Because the majority of assets held in retirement accounts are invested in stocks, trends in stock prices have a significant impact on households' retirement account balances.
Date: April 8, 2009
Creator: Purcell, Patrick
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Business Tax Issues in 2009

Description: This report discusses the tax climate for businesses, while economic stimulus proposals dominate the congressional debate. During 2009, it is anticipated that congressional deliberations will once again turn towards the extension of several expiring business tax provisions, energy taxation, tax shelters, and international taxation, while continuing to examine opportunities to stimulate the economy.
Date: April 8, 2009
Creator: Marples, Donald J.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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