7932. Tax Policy

This course will address core concepts and controversies that shape modern tax systems, including vertical and horizontal equity, ability-to-pay principles, democratic accountability, and the choice to tax income, consumption, or wealth. The course will consider how tax rules affect racial, gender, and intergenerational inequality, and whether taxes should be used to influence behavior. The course also explores key federal and state debates—wealth taxes, estate and inheritance taxes, corporate taxation, Social Security and Medicare financing, tax subsidies versus direct spending, state conformity decisions, incentives for innovation and caregiving, climate policy, cryptocurrency taxation, declining gas-tax revenues, apportionment and Ellingson, road-use taxation, taxation of activities on the moon and mars, and the treatment of American Indians and those doing business with them. Prerequisites: Federal Income Tax or Multistate Tax or an undergraduate major in public finance or economics.