# Presentation: 027742

## Complexity and Instability

**Complexity and Instability**
**Staff Presentation**
**July 20, 2005**

## Complexity: Words in the Tax Code and Regulations

- Source: Professor Michael Graetz: Calculations based on U.S.C. (1940,  CCH 1952) and C.F.R. (1940, 1949) and Tax Foundation calculations, based on West's Internal  Revenue Code and Federal Tax Regulations (1975), Study of the Overall State of the Federal Tax System 4 (2001).

## Understanding Complexity and Instability

- Sources of Complexity
- Duplicative and Overlapping Provisions
- Savings – multiple defined contribution retirement plans, individual retirement accounts, and education and healthcare savings accounts
- Education – over a dozen different provisions to encourage education
- Phase-Outs
- Expiring Provisions
- Add to the tax code’s unpredictability
- Make long term economic planning difficult for individuals and businesses
- The “Complexity Tax”
- Transparency and Fairness
- Horizontal Equity
- The “Hazy Tax”

## Frequently-Encountered Phase-Outs

- Personal Exemptions (“PEP”)
- Itemized Deductions (“Pease”)
- Child Credit
- Child and Dependent Care Credit
- Adoption Credit
- IRA Contributions
- Saver’s Credit
- Roth IRA Contributions

- Earned Income Tax Credit
- AMT Exemptions
- Social Security Benefits
- Credit for the Elderly and Disabled
- HOPE Credit
- Lifetime Learning Credit
- Tuition Deduction
- Coverdell Accounts
- Student Loan Interest Deduction

## Elements of a Phase-Out

- Threshold Amount
- Phase-outs now exist at every income level
- Phase-Out Rate
- Examples:
- Cliffs
- Steep descents
- Gradual declines
- All create higher tax rates
- Definition of Income
- Examples:
- AGI
- Modified AGI
- Alternative Minimum Taxable Income
- Require taxpayers to compute their income multiple ways to determine the phase-out amounts.

## Phase-Outs Examples

- Social Security Benefits – Section 86
*If modified AGI is: *
*	**(1) Less than $32,000, benefits are not subject to Federal income tax. *
*	**(2) Between $32,000 and $44,000, taxable benefits are the lesser of: 50 percent of total benefits or 50 percent of the amount by which modified AGI exceeds $32,000.*
*	**(3) More than $44,000, taxable benefits are the lesser of 85 percent of total benefits, or the sum of: (a) $6,000, and (b) 85 percent of the amount by which modified AGI exceeds $44,000.*
*“’**Modified AGI’ means AGI determined without regard to this section and sections 135, 137, 199, 221, 222, 911, 931, and 933, and increased by [tax-exempt interest]”*
- IRA Contribution – Section 219
*“**The amount determined under this paragraph with respect to any dollar limitation shall be the amount which bears the same ratio to such limitation as (I) the taxpayer's [AGI], over (II) the applicable dollar amount [$70,000], bears to [$10,000].”*
- Child Credit – Section 24
- _Refundable Portion_* – “The aggregate credits allowed . . . shall be increased by the lesser of—*
*	**(A) the credit which would be allowed under this section without regard to this subsection. . ., or*
*	**(B) the amount by which the aggregate amount of credits ... would increase if the limitation imposed by subsection (b)(3) were increased by the greater of--*
*  **(i) 15 percent of so much of the taxpayer's earned income . . . which is taken into account in computing taxable income for the taxable year as exceeds $ 10,000, or*
*	**(ii) in the case of a taxpayer with 3 or more qualifying children, the excess (if any) of--(I) the taxpayer's social security taxes for the taxable year, over [the Earned Income Credit]”*
- _Phase-Out at Higher Income_* - “The credit allowable...shall be reduced (but not below zero) by $50 for each $1,000 (or fraction thereof) by which the taxpayer's modified [AGI] exceeds [$110,000]. ‘Modified AGI’ means AGI increased by any amount excluded from gross income under section 911, 931, or 933.”*

## Social Security Benefits Worksheet

**Social Security Benefits Worksheet**

- 22 Boxes
- 18 Lines of Instructions
- 9 Computations
- 2 Stop Signs

## IRA Deduction Worksheet

**IRA Deduction Worksheet**

- 21 Boxes
- 10 Lines of Instructions (per spouse)
- 6 Computations
- 1 Stop Sign
- 1 Caution Sign

## Refundable Child Credit – Form 8812

## Child Tax Credit Worksheet

**Child Tax Credit Worksheet**

## Statutory Marginal Tax Rates

**Taxable Income Less Standard Deduction and Personal Exemptions**

**Tax Rate**

## Phase-Outs Increase Marginal Tax Rates

*Source:  *Department of  the Treasury, Office of Tax Analysis

## Instability of Current Code

- Frequent Amendments
- 14,400 changes to the tax code since 1986.
- Expiring Provisions
- Multiply compliance costs.
- Create instability and make planning for the future geometrically more complicated.
- Undermine faith in the tax system by causing annual unpleasant surprises.

## Selected Expiring Income Tax Provisions*

| Item (Expiration Date) | 2005 | 2011 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Individual Tax Rates (2010) | 10%
15%
25%
 28%
 33%
 35% | 
15%
28%
31%
36%
 39.6% |
| Marriage Penalty Relief (2010)
       -15% bracket thresholds
       -Standard deduction | 200% of single amount | 167% of single amount |
| Child Credit (2010) | $1,000 | $500 |
| Tuition Deduction (2005) | $4,000/$2,000 | Unavailable |
| IRA Contribution Limit (2010) | $4,000  ($4,500 if over 50) | $2,000 |
| Dividends (2008) | 5/15%   | Ordinary rates |
| Capital Gains (2008) | 5/15%  | 10/20% 
8/18% (if held over 5 years) |
| AMT Exemption (2005) | $58,000 | $45,000 |
| Small Business Expensing (2007) | $105,000 | $25,000 |

- *Married filing joint

## “Complexity Tax”

- Complexity is costing the U.S. economy $140 billion per year
- Roughly the same as giving $1,000 to every family in America, or
- The amount needed to fund: the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, NASA, HUD, the EPA, the Department of Transportation, the United States Congress, our Federal courts, and all foreign aid
- Over 3.5 billion hours spent doing taxes
- 25 hours on average -- more than half a work week
- Like having almost 2 million extra IRS agents
- Over 60 percent of Americans use a paid preparer
- 1.2 million paid tax preparers in 1999 (Twice the number of police officers and four times the number of firefighters)
- Less than 13 percent of returns are still prepared by hand!

## Transparency and Fairness

- Complexity --
- Reduces the transparency of the tax system.
- Rewards those who have the means and inclination to find all the angles.
- Undermines trust in the fairness of the tax system, which may in turn undermine voluntary compliance.
- Taxpayers who play by the rules should be able to have confidence that they and their neighbors are all paying their fair share.
- The “Hazy Tax”
- Additional amount paid by honest and careful taxpayers due to noncompliance and evasion of others.
- In 2001, the Tax Gap was between $312 and $353 billion* (most recent IRS estimate).
- Although factors other than complexity certainly play a role, a simpler tax code would improve compliance and reduce the gap.

- *Includes $70 - $75 billion in employment and excise taxes.