Published Monday, April 6th, 2009

In two separate events, the Obama administration has started investigating tax reform. The last major tax reform took place in 1986.  President Bush appointed a tax reform commission in 2005, which delivered a report in that same year, but its recommendations were not included in the 2007 budget. Prof. Elizabeth Garret of USC, who sat on the commission, has been announced to become assistant secretary of the treasury for tax policy. Also, President Obama asked Paul Volcker, who chairs his Economic recovery Advisory Board, to appoint a tax reform task force that would report no later than December 4^th.

Given the composition of tax receipts over time, the percentage of each category has changed given the reforms made by various administrations. For the 2008 fiscal year, individual tax income amounted to $1,146 billion; $23 billion lower than expected. Corporate taxes amounted to $304 billion, $5 billion lower due to $4 billion lower in payments and $1 billion in extra refunds. Social Insurance and Retirement Receipts were $900 billion, $1 billion lower than estimated. Other taxes, such as customs duties, estate and gift taxes came to $106 billion, which was $1 billion more due to higher estate taxes, gifts, fines and penalties. The overall budget in 2008 amounted to $2,979 billion, which was $36 billion above the estimate due to the Department of Defense and the Treasury.

Tags: Budget, Department of the Treasury, President Obama, Tax Policy, Taxes

This entry was posted on Monday, April 6th, 2009 at 3:00 am and is filed under Budget, Taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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