Tax expenditure
Tax expenditures are government revenue losses from tax exclusions, exemptions, deductions, credits, deferrals, and preferential tax rates. They are a counterpart to direct expenditures, in that they both are forms of government spending. Tax expenditures function as subsidies for certain activities and alter the horizontal and vertical equity of the basic tax system by giving preferential treatment to those activities. For instance, two people who have the same income can have different effective tax rates if one of the tax payers qualifies for certain tax expenditures by owning a home, having children, or receiving employer-provided health care  and pension insurance. Definition. The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (CBA) defines tax expenditures as "those revenue losses attributable to provisions of the Federal tax laws which allow a special credit, a preferential rate of tax, or a deferral of tax liability". The term was coined in 1967 by Stanley S. Surrey, a renowned tax scholar and former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. Surrey created the term to characterize the political use of tax breaks to enact social policies that would ordinarily be accomplished through direct expenditures. He argued that members of Congress were using tax policy  as a "vast subsidy apparatus to reward favored constituencies or subsidize narrow policy areas." Overview. As of fiscal year 2020, the United States Treasury lists over 160 tax expenditures, the majority targeted for private social benefits and services. Since tax expenditures are claimed against a progressive tax code, tax expenditures are worth more to wealthier taxpayers. Tax expenditures are also common in other countries. Size of expenditures. The cost of tax expenditures varies from year to year with the level of economic activity, though changes tend to be modest. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that U.S. tax expenditures in  fiscal year 2019 totaled $1.6 trillion (7.8% of gross domestic product). This was larger than all discretionary spending ($1.3 trillion) and was equal to nearly half of all federal revenue ($3.5 trillion). The CBO has also estimated the size of major tax expenditures on federal receipts as an annual average percent of GDP, for the period of 2016 to 2026. These included, among others: The CBO projected that the top 10 largest tax expenditures would average 6.2% GDP each year on average over the 2016-2026 period. For scale, federal tax receipts averaged around 18% GDP from  1970 to 2016. The CBO analysis does not account for behavioral changes that might occur if the tax policies were changed, so the actual revenue impact would differ from the amounts indicated. Distribution of benefits. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), tax expenditures disproportionally benefit those with high incomes. The CBPP estimated that the top 1% of U.S. households by income received approximately 17% of the tax expenditure benefits in 2013, while the top 20% received 51%. The top 20% pay 84% of the federal income taxes (not including payroll taxes). Similarly, in 2016 the Congressional  Budget Office (CBO) reported that: Tax expenditures are distributed unevenly across the income scale. When measured in dollars, much more of the tax expenditures go to higher-income households than to lower-income households. As a percentage of people’s income, tax expenditures are greater for the highest-income and lowest-income households than for households in the middle of the income distribution. Politics. Tax expenditures are considered "off-budget" spending by most economists and budget experts. Tax expenditures are easier to pass through Congress than increases in appropriations spending. They are easily seen as free benefits, when government grants  are viewed as giveaways. Unlike direct spending, tax spending must only pass through two committees, the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance. Tax expenditure programs, once in the tax code, do not come up for annual review and can only be removed through tax legislation. Tax expenditure programs are a form of entitlement spending in that every tax payer that qualifies can claim government money. Faricy (2011) demonstrated that when tax expenditures are counted as a type of government spending, Democratic and Republican parties are indistinguishable in annual changes to federal government spending. This study also found that Republicans  are more likely to increase tax expenditures when in control of government thereby subsidizing the activities of businesses and the wealthy. Jacob Hacker (2002) shows that the federal subsidization of private health insurance has grown over the years and has made efforts for nationalized health care more difficult. Ellis and Faricy (2011) find that when tax expenditures rise, public opinion adjusts and becomes more liberal to counteract the conservative policies. Effects. Partial exemption of the poor from taxation through reliance on progressive income taxes rather than sales taxes for revenue or tax rebates such as the earned income tax credit  loosely correlate with socio-economic mobility in the United States with areas which tax the poor heavily such as the Deep South showing lower mobility than those with generous tax expenditures for the benefit of low income families with children.