HKS Affiliated Authors

Frank and Denie Weil Director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government
Charles W. Eliot University Professor

Excerpt

2020, Paper, "Trends in demographics, national security, economic inequality, and the public debt suggest an urgent need for progressive approaches to raising additional revenue. We propose a suite of tax reforms targeted at improving tax compliance, rationalizing the taxation of corporate profits earned domestically and abroad, eliminating preferential treatment of capital gains, and closing tax loopholes and shelters of which wealthy individuals disproportionately avail themselves. We estimate that these proposals have the potential to raise over $4 trillion in the coming decade. These proposals are comparable on the basis of both potential revenue raised and progressivity with newer and more radical proposals, like wealth taxation and mark-to-market reforms, that have been the focus of much recent attention. Importantly, our agenda is likely to enhance rather than reduce efficiency, is far less costly in terms of political capital, and hews more closely to basic notions of fairness than alternative approaches."