Don't Mess With Taxes

Yeah, I know that the real number is probably not 66, but a six-digit figure.

But 66 is how many tax raising options the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) came up with in its August report to the House and Senate budget committees.

In this latest analysis, the CBO first looks at spending options that could be tweaked. This section (Chapter 2) is organized by the governmental functions, such as national defense, international affairs, agriculture and general science, space, and technology.

Chapter 3 is where the real fun begins. It's an examination of revenue raisers. In English that means taxes and/or fees. 

The list begins with "Increase individual income tax rates" and ends at 66 with "Establish new fees for the Food and Drug Administration."

I could type the other 64 for you here, but since it's late and I need to pack for an early Friday morning flight to a Taxpayer Advocacy Panel meeting, I'm going to refer you to the TaxProf Blog, which has enumerated the CBO revenue raising options.

I also recommend you check out Mauled Again for tax law professor James Edward Maule's examination of some of the CBO ideas.

The options are not ranked and, as we noted at the start of this post, it's not a comprehensive list. Rather, says the CBO, it is simply meant to "reflect a range of possibilities."

I look forward to seeing which ones Washington, D.C., deems more possible than others.