Complaints about the current tax system
Objections to radical reform
Changes in the context of the current system
The need for objective analysis
What's in this citizen's guide
2. An overview of the U.S. tax system
How governments in the United States get their money
International comparisons
Historical perspectives on the U.S. tax system
Basic features of the U.S. corporate income tax
The Social Security payroll tax
Vertical equity and tax progressivity
Horizontal equity: equal treatment of equals
4. Taxes and economic prosperity
Taxes and the business cycle
Budget deficits and surpluses
How much should government do?
Tax cuts to force spending cuts versus surpluses to prepare for an aging population
How taxes affect long-run economic prosperity: a first cut at the evidence
How taxes affect economic prosperity: the specifics
5. Simplicity and enforceability
How complicated is our tax system?
What makes a tax system complicated?
What facilitates enforcement?
6. Elements of fundamental reform
7. What are the alternatives?
How the consumption tax plans work
Simplicity and enforceability of the consumption tax plans
Distributional effects of the consumption tax alternatives
Economic effects of consumption tax plans
Integration: eliminating the double taxation of corporate income
Corporate welfare and corporate tax shelters
Savings incentives in the income tax
Simplifying the income tax
Technological improvements and the promise of a return-free system
The President's advisory panel on federal tax reform
A hybrid approach: combining a VAT with income taxation
9. A voter's guide to the tax policy debate
Tax cuts versus tax reform
Tax cuts as a Trojan horse
The devil is in the details
The tax system can't encourage everything
Fairness is a slippery concept but an important one
Be skeptical of claims of economic nirvana
The tax system can be improved
2010: A double witching hour.
