Taxing Ourselves: A Citizen's Guide to the Debate over Taxes

"Citizens should read Taxing Ourselves before casting their votes in local, state, and national elections. Politicians should read Taxing Ourselves before taxing us."
—Richard C. Schiming, Business Library Review


To follow the debate over tax reform, the interested citizen is forced to choose between misleading sound bites and academic treatises. Taxing Ourselves bridges the gap between the two by presenting in clear nontechnical language the key issues in tax reform: who should pay taxes, how taxes affect the economy, and whether to reform or replace the current tax system. The authors discuss various alternative proposals in detail, including the flat tax and the sales tax, but they are not advocates for any of them; instead, they provide readers with the knowledge and the tools—including an informative overview of the U.S. tax system and an invaluable voter's guide to the tax policy debate—to make their own informed choices about how we should tax ourselves.

The third edition of this popular guide has been extensively revised and updated to cover all changes in tax laws through May 2003 and to reflect the most recent research and relevant data. It also provides new or expanded treatment of issues in the current debate, including tax cuts and whether they stimulate the economy, savings incentives, double taxation of corporate income, the estate tax, corporate tax shelters, and the economic and political effects of budget deficits.

"In the ever-changing world of tax policy, *Taxing Ourselves* remains a constant. It is an indispensable guide to the current US tax system and an accessible and insightful introduction to options for reform."
--James M. Poterba, Mitsui Professor of Economics, MIT

"Slemrod and Bakija provide a comprehensive and comprehensible analysis of the U.S. tax system, its effects, and its defects. Their evenhanded presentation offers the reader a broad perspective on how the income tax arrived at its current state and what the options are for reform. This book should interest tax specialists, students, and frustrated citizens alike."
--Alan Auerbach, Robert D. Burch Professor of Economics and Law, University of California, Berkeley

"Slemrod and Bakija have made their splendid guide to the federal tax system as fresh and current as this morning's newspaper. Careful readers will be immunized against the easy sophistries that too often masquerade as tax policy debate. This third edition lays out sophisticated economic analysis in simple language that should make it an oft-consulted companion of students, journalists, lawyers, officials, and virtually anyone else who wants to make their way through the weird terrain of the U.S. tax system."
--Henry J. Aaron, The Brookings Institution