Corporate Tax Expenditures

Abstract

“Tax expenditure” is the official name for a tax break. As the term implies, Congress can provide subsidies through the tax code just as well as it can through direct spending. For example, instead of the Department of Housing and Urban Development sending checks to developers of low-income housing, the IRS provides low-income-housing tax credits. Since the mid-1970s, government economists have put together a tax expenditure budget. These compilations are an extremely useful guide for tax reformers and anybody else who wants to see the size and scope of targeted tax relief.