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4 posts
Policymakers Could Consider Using Tax and Transfer Policy to Reduce the Racial Retirement Wealth Gap
February 3, 2025 • By Brakeyshia Samms, Carl Davis
As we show in our recent study, this is, in part, due to longstanding discrimination shaping racial differences in economic wellbeing in the U.S. Moreover, aspects of federal and state tax policies have helped create the vast racial retirement wealth gap in place today. For this reason, we evaluate how tax and transfer policy reforms could help shrink racial retirement wealth inequality. To inform lawmakers as they approach the 2025 debates, below we offer several guiding principles.
Deep Public Investment Changes Lives, Yet Too Many States Continue to Seek Tax Cuts
April 12, 2023 • By Aidan Davis
When state budgets are strong, lawmakers should put those revenues toward building a stronger and more inclusive society for the long haul. Yet, many state lawmakers have made clear that their top priority is repeatedly cutting taxes for the wealthy.
States Prioritize Old Over Young in Push for Larger Senior Tax Subsidies
March 23, 2023 • By Carl Davis, Eli Byerly-Duke
Under a well-designed income tax based on ability to pay, it is simply not necessary to offer special tax subsidies to older adults but not younger families. At the end of the day, your income tax bill should depend on what you can afford to pay, not the year you were born. It’s really as simple as that.
Bipartisan Retirement Proposals Are Mostly Just More Tax Cuts for the Wealthy
December 5, 2022 • By Steve Wamhoff
The EARN Act and SECURE Act 2.0, two bipartisan retirement bills working their way through Congress, are major disappointments. They would mainly provide more tax breaks for the well-off who will most likely retire comfortably regardless of what policies Congress enacts. The bills would provide modest assistance for those who really need help to save.
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