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Series

2011

Taxation-Federal

Tax expenditures

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Tax Expenditures, Reform, And Distributive Justice , Linda Sugin Jan 2011

Tax Expenditures, Reform, And Distributive Justice , Linda Sugin

Faculty Scholarship

Tax reform is coming, and it will be an important part of any plan to avert national fiscal disaster. The President's Fiscal Commission recently presented a proposal for comprehensive tax reform that will form the basis for serious legislative discussion. At the center of that proposal is elimination of "tax expenditures, " which are provisions in the tax law that operate like direct government spending. They include the charitable deduction, the home mortgage interest deduction, the exclusion for employer provided health insurance, the child credit, the earned income credit, education credits and deductions, the tax preference for retirement savings accounts …


U.S. Defense Contracts During The Tax Expenditure Battles Of The 1980s, Susan J. Guthrie, James R. Hines Jr. Jan 2011

U.S. Defense Contracts During The Tax Expenditure Battles Of The 1980s, Susan J. Guthrie, James R. Hines Jr.

Articles

This paper considers the impact of the tax treatment of military contractors on the cost and timing of U.S. military procurement. Prior to the early 1980s, taxpayers were permitted to defer tax obligations on profits earned from long-term contracts. Legislation passed in 1982, 1986, and 1987 required that at least 70 percent of the profits earned on long-term contracts be taxed as accrued, thereby significantly reducing the tax benefits associated with long term contracting. Comparing contracts that were ineligible for these tax benefits with those that were eligible, it appears that between 1981–1989 the duration of U.S. Department of Defense …