著者

吉弘 憲介

出版者

桃山学院大学

雑誌

桃山学院大学経済経営論集 (ISSN:02869721)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.57, no.3, pp.67-99, 2016-03-03

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The purpose of this paper is to clarify the characteristics of the tax reform plans that have been discussed during the Obama administration. Although President Obama aimed to restore the vertical equity of the tax system at the start of his administration, he lost the political advantage to carry out fundamental tax reforms when the Democratic Party was defeated at the midterm elections in the fall of 2010, and the actual scale of the tax reforms remained small. However, the discussions over the tax reform plans during this period involved issues related to US federal finances and how tax policies should deal with problems of American society. In this paper I compare the three comprehensive tax reform plans that have been discussed by both the Democratic and Republican parties during the Obama administration and extract the focal point of the tax reform discussions in the United States from the similarities in the plans. As a result, 1) all three plans were modeled on the 1986 tax reforms and aimed to reduce tax rates as well as expand the tax base; and 2) the plans also intended to recover vertical equity by eliminating tax preference for financial income. However, 3) it has become clear that it is difficult to thoroughly discuss such plans in Congress amid polarization of politics in the United States and extremely arduous to pave the way for specific reforms despite the need for fundamental tax reforms.