October 22, 2008
Tax Foundation, AEI to Discuss Progressive Consumption Tax This Friday
Conference Will Focus on Proposal to Replace Most of Income Tax with Consumption Tax
Washington, DC, October 22, 2008 - Robert Carroll, Ph.D., the Tax Foundation's Vice President for Economic Policy and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis at the Treasury Department under Henry Paulson, will join Bill Thomas, former Chairman of the House Ways and Mean Committee, and other tax scholars to discuss a proposal to replace most, but not all, of the federal income tax with a progressive consumption tax at a conference this Friday.
The event, co-sponsored by the Tax Foundation and American Enterprise Institute (AEI), will be held on Friday, October 24, 2008 from 9:15 AM to 1:00 PM at the Wohlstetter Conference Center, located on the 12th floor of AEI's offices on 1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W. in Washington, DC.
In 2005, the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform analyzed a proposal known as the Bradford X-tax. This type of tax was developed by the late Princeton University economist and AEI scholar David F. Bradford. Members of the advisory panel argued that moving from an income tax to a consumption tax would promote saving and long-run economic growth. They also argued that moving to the X-tax would preserve tax progressivity—that is, avoid a shift of the tax burden onto those least able to pay.
Panelists at this conference will explore whether progressive consumption taxation can and should be the goal of tax policy. The advisory panel's chief economist, Rosanne Altshuler, a professor at Rutgers University, will explain and discuss the "Growth and Investment Tax Plan" as well as other options considered by the panel. University of Virginia Law School professor George Yin will offer an independent perspective on the panel's work. Leonard E. Burman of the Brookings-Urban Tax Policy Center, Robert Carroll of the Tax Foundation, and William Gentry of Williams College will discuss and evaluate possible ways to combine progressivity with consumption taxation. Former House Ways and Means Committee chairman Bill Thomas will deliver a keynote address on the implications and political prospects of progressive consumption tax proposals.
Event details can be found at http://www.aei.org/events/type.upcoming,eventID.1792,filter.all/event_detail.asp.
The Tax Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that has monitored fiscal policy at the federal, state and local levels since 1937.
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To schedule an interview to discuss federal income taxes and the progressive consumption tax proposal, please contact Matt Moon, the Tax Foundation's Manager of Media Relations, at (202) 464-5102.
