Akram Faizer on Reforming the Tax Code

In this episode, Akram Faizer, Professor of Law at the Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law, discusses his paper, "Seven Steps to Truly Reform the Tax Code and Engender Socio-Economic Mobility and Revitalize American Democracy," published in the Albany Law Review. Faizer begins with a brief history of the U.S. tax code, beginning with the Reagan administration to the Trump administration's tax policies. He notes that the existence of payroll taxes means that the federal government is reliant on a highly regressive revenue collection system that serves as a disincentive to both job creation and income growth. As a solution, he proposes a seven step reform program for the tax code: (1) eliminating the federal payroll tax, (2) broadening the estate tax, (3) eliminate automatic step-up basis for recipients of bequeaths, (4) implementing a $1 per gallon gas tax, (5) ending the mortgage interest deduction, (6) introducing an 8% national sales tax, and (7) implementing a trigger system that automatically adjusts tax rates based on tax revenue performance. And he provides economic, policy, and normative justifications for each of his proposed steps. Faizer concludes by stating what policymakers, legislators, and people should take away from his proposal. Faizer's scholarship is available here.

This episode was hosted by Luce Nguyen, a college student and the co-founder of the Oberlin Policy Research Institute, an undergraduate public policy research organization based at Oberlin College. Nguyen is on Twitter at @NguyenLuce. 

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