December 15, 2011
How to Judge a Candidate’s Tax Plan
Principles for Evaluating the Proposals of Politicians
Washington, DC, December 15, 2011 Tax reform has become in both Congress and the presidential primary campaign and will remain a key issue through the 2012 general election. While the various plans vary considerably in their scope and intent, it is important that they all be judged against a standard set of principles. A guide to those principles is now available from the Tax Foundation.
"The ideal tax system should do only one thing - raise a sufficient amount of revenues to fund government activities with the least amount of harm to the economy," said Tax Foundation economist Will McBride, Ph.D. "By all accounts, the U.S. tax system is far from that ideal."
Tax Foundation economists judge every tax measure against the principles of economically sound tax policy, which say that taxes should be neutral to economic decision making, they should be simple, transparent, stable, and they should promote economic growth. From these principles, we have developed ten basic questions to judge the economic quality of any tax plan or proposal.
"An economically sound tax code is one that is conducive to long-term economic growth," said McBride. "History and economic research suggests that the closer a tax reform plan adheres to the principles of simplicity, transparency, neutrality, and stability the more likely it is to lead to a more prosperous America."
Information on the tax proposals of the current candidates for President of the United States are available on the Tax Foundation's Presidential Candidate Tax Plan Comparison. Users can compare the plans side by side and click through to original source documents.
Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact No. 286, "How to Judge a Tax Plan" by Will McBride, Ph.D. is available at taxfoundation.org.
The Tax Foundation is a nonpartisan research organization that has monitored fiscal policy at the federal, state and local levels since 1937. To schedule an interview, please contact Richard Morrison, the Tax Foundation's Manager of Communications, at 202-464-5102 or morrison@taxfoundation.org.