Getting More from Tax Incentives
Conference Held May 19, 2009

ATPI, in cooperation with the Tax Policy Center of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution as well as New York University School of Law, sponsored a one-day conference on Getting More from Tax Incentives on May 19, 2009. The day-long event brought together some of the nation’s foremost experts on tax policy, health policy, housing, and retirement to discuss whether and how tax incentives should be used to promote social policy goals and how best to reform current tax incentives for health care, owner-occupied housing, and retirement savings. Panelists addressed five questions in each area including: Should the government intervene? If so, should we use fiscal incentives, explicit regulation, or soft paternalism? If we use fiscal incentives, should they be tax incentives or direct spending? What features would make tax incentives most effective? and What policy would you recommend?

 

The following is an outline of the program and speakers:

 

Session 1: General Principles
Introductory Remarks and Moderator

Eric Toder, institute fellow, Urban Institute and Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center; former deputy assistant secretary for tax analysis, U.S. Treasury Department

Presentations

“Introduction: Overall Budgetary and Distributional Effects of Tax Incentives”

Austin Nichols, senior research associate, Urban Institute and Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center

“Principles for Determining When and How Fiscal Incentives Should Be Provided”

Lily Batchelder, professor of law & public policy, NYU School of Law

Discussants

Bruce Bartlett, former deputy assistant secretary for economic policy, U.S. Treasury Department

Chuck Marr, director of federal tax policy, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; former senior advisor for budget policy, National Economic Council

 

Session 2: Tax Incentives for Health Insurance
Moderator

Howard Gleckman, senior research associate, Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center; editor, TaxVox; former Senior Washington Correspondent, Business Week

Panelists

Leonard Burman, director, Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center; institute fellow, Urban Institute; former deputy assistant secretary for tax analysis, U.S. Treasury Department

Fred Goldberg, partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; adjunct professor of law, NYU School of Law; former commissioner, Internal Revenue Service; former acting assistant secretary for tax policy and deputy assistant secretary for tax policy, U.S. Treasury Department

Len Nichols, director, health policy program, New America Foundation

 

Session 3: Tax Incentives for Owner-Occupied Housing
Moderator

Dennis Zimmerman, director of projects, American Tax Policy Institute

Panelists

Reid Cramer, research director, asset building program, New America Foundation

Ingrid Ellen, associate professor of public policy & urban planning; codirector, NYU Wagner and Furman Center for Real Estate & Urban Policy

Todd Sinai, associate professor of real estate, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

 

Session 4: Tax Incentives for Retirement Saving
Moderator

Rosanne Altshuler, codirector, Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center; senior fellow, Urban Institute, professor of economics, Rutgers University; former senior economist, President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform

Panelists

Peter Brady, senior economist, Investment Company Institute

 

Copies of the presentations will be made available in the coming months.

 

 

Structuring a Federal VAT: Design & Coordination Issues
Conference held February 18 – 19, 2009

 

The Board of Trustees of the American Tax Policy Institute (ATPI) hosted a two-day conference in Washington, DC on Wednesday-Thursday, February 18-19 focusing on design and coordination issues in structuring a federal VAT. Organized by Charles McLure of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and Reuven Avi-Yonah, University of Michigan Law School, the conference featured leading experts from around the world discussing practical solutions to the extensive design and administrative issues arising from the adoption of a VAT given existing Federal and state taxes. Copies of the presentations can be found under the Recent Tax Workshops section of the Research and Grants page.