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Return Free Filing Won’t Fix What’s Wrong With America’s Tax System
by Paul Weinstein, Senior Fellow at PPI
Because of COVID-19 Tax Day moved this year from April to July. That means the debate over the supposed panacea to the convoluted process of filing taxes – a return-free filing system (RFF) – is now making its annual appearance, albeit four months late.
The return-free filing idea has been around for a longtime and is currently in practice in Denmark, Sweden, Spain, and the United Kingdom (among other countries), places with limited or no tradition of voluntary compliance. If the U.S. government adopted RFF, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) would estimate your taxes by using information from a mix of sources (depending upon the system) including employers, financial institutions, other third parties, and in some cases the individual taxpayer themselves. Proponents say (in effect) let the government do your taxes and spare you the burden of hiring a tax preparer, purchasing commercial tax software, or trying to do it yourself.
That sounds alluring, but it’s important to underscore the limits of what an RFF system could achieve and what it would not. For example, an RFF would not eliminate the $1.6 trillion in tax incentives that benefit primarily wealthier taxpayers. Nor would it raise revenue to build new roads, rail, or schools; support scientific research; pay down public debts; make the tax code fairer and more progressive; or, help us close our $458 billion annual tax gap (the difference between what is owed in taxes versus what is paid).
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Are ESG’s the Key to Biden’s Clean Energy Economy?
by Jason Gold, Senior Fellow at PPI
ESG is essentially the incorporation of beyond-financial considerations (data) into risk and opportunity analysis. Some call it sustainability, responsible investing, social impact, diversity or stakeholder capitalism. (Skeptics simply call it public relations) But to me, it’s all part of a bigger conversation that legs up and into ESG.
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PODCAST: Should we abolish tax returns? A conversation with Sen. Bob Kerrey
by Alec Stapp and Paul Weinstein
As millions of Americans rush to file their tax returns, former Senator Bob Kerrey joined the Center for New Liberalism and the Progressive Policy Institute’s Paul Weinstein and Alec Stapp to discuss whether or not the US government should adopt return-free filing for individual taxes.
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Economic Impacts of a Moratorium on Consumer Credit Reporting
by Paul Weinstein, Senior Fellow at PPI
Two bills introduced in Congress, H.R. 6370 and S. 3508, ‘‘Disaster Protection for Workers’ Credit Act of 2020’’ would impose a moratorium on credit reporting of “adverse information” for the duration of the coronavirus crisis. Credit scores are an integral part of the consumer credit underwriting process as their power to predict the likelihood of borrower default is well-established empirically.
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Teacher-centric is good, but student centric is better
by Tressa Pankovits, Reinventing America's Schools Project
The point of the “unity” task forces presumably is to unify the party behind its nominee. By ignoring the concerns and interests of many low-income and minority parents, this document falls short of that mark. Fortunately, there will be ample opportunities for course corrections once Biden is formally nominated and the general election campaign begins in the fall.
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FICO rolls out new credit scoring model
by Paul Weinstein, Senior Fellow at PPI
Consumers are getting turned down for all sorts of financial products, from personal and auto loans to credit cards. The Wall Street Journal, using Equifax data, reports that credit card approvals totaled 483,000 in the week ending May 10, down from 856,000 in the week ending March 22. To compare to the year prior, weekly card approvals in 2019 “rarely fell below 1.2 million,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
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WEBINAR: To Open or Not to Open: Educational Equity under COVID
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Moderator: Curtis Valentine, Reinventing America's Schools
Join RAS Deputy Director, Curtis Valentine, on July 22nd at 3:00 PM as he moderates an hour-long interactive discussion with leaders as they debate school openings in America under COVID-19 and what health, policy, and budgetary factors school systems should consider before making a decision grounded in educational equity.
Panelists:
- George Parker, Former President of Washington Teacher's Union.
- Alma Marquez, La Comadre and Co-Founder of National Parents Union.
- Paul Vallas, Former Chicago/NOLA Superintendent.
- Dr. Leana Wen, Visiting Professor at George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, Former Baltimore City Health Commissioner, Physician and Mother.
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