Earlier this year, Need to Know presented “A tale of four tax returns” — a profile of four New Jersey residents with dramatically different incomes which illustrated how current tax regulations disproportionately benefit some Americans.
Last week the Congressional Budget Office released a new study on how tax “breaks” play out in the American economy with a report titled “The Distribution of Major Tax Expenditures in the Individual Income Tax System.”
The report looks at how tax policies and exemptions like the Earned Income Tax Credit, the lower rate on capital gains, the mortgage deduction, and others benefit individuals by economic percentile. The CBO release supports our report that the middle classes benefit least from our current tax system.
These charts by the Congressional Budget Office show how tax expenditures are distributed, first in terms of total dollars and then as a percentage of after-tax income. (Congressional Budget Office / May 29, 2013)
When the study was reported across a variety of media outlets, the headlines differed dramatically. Read the CBO report and see what you think.
- CBO: Tax Breaks Cost $12T Over Decade, Fox Business News
- CBO: Tax Breaks Cost $12 Trillion Over Decade, Benefit Most Wealthy, HuffingtonPost.com
- CBO report shows Congress can limit tax breaks for rich, Van Hollen says, The Wall Street Journal Market Watch
- CBO Details Top 10 Most Expensive Tax Breaks, National Journal
- How 10 major tax breaks benefit the rich — and the poor, The Los Angeles Times Opinion LA
