Treasury I and the Tax Reform Act of 1986: The Economics and Politics of Tax Reform

Charles E. McLure and George Zodrow ()

Chapter 10 in Taxation in Theory and Practice:Selected Essays of George R Zodrow, 2019, pp 279-309 from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

Abstract: During President Reagan’s State of the Union Address in January 1984, he requested that Treasury Secretary Donald Regan prepare “a plan for action to simplify the entire tax code so that all taxpayers, big and small, are treated more fairly.” In response, the Department of the Treasury spent ten months preparing a report to the President that has come to be called Treasury I (U.S. Department of the Treasury, 1984). This three-volume study explained the need for tax reform and the general directions such reform should take, provided a comprehensive set of proposals for reform of the income tax, and analyzed the feasibility and desirability of an American value-added tax. Following almost two years of public debate, the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (hereafter the 1986 Act) became law on October 22, 1986. Though widely hailed as the most far-reaching reform of the nation’s tax system since the 1940s, if not since the introduction of the income tax in 1913, the 1986 Act falls far short of the promise of Treasury I…

Keywords: Taxes; Taxation; Tax Reform; Consumption Taxation; State and Local Finance; Tax Competition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Journal Article: Treasury I and the Tax Reform Act of 1986: The Economics and Politics of Tax Reform (1987)
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