Corporate Expatriation, Inversions, and Mergers: Tax Issues
This report discusses relevant portions of the U.S. corporate income tax system and how inversions have commonly been structured. It also looks at how Congress and Department of the Treasury have reduced the benefits of inversions, including The American Jobs Creation Act, as well as post-2004 inversions and treasury regulations, and policy options.
Millionaire Migration and Taxation of the Elite
A growing number of U.S. states have adopted “millionaire taxes” on top income-earners. This increases the progressivity of state tax systems, but it raises concerns about tax flight: elites migrating from high-tax to low-tax states, draining state revenues, and undermining redistributive social policies. Are top income-earners “transitory millionaires” searching for lower-tax places to live? Or are they “embedded elites” who are reluctant to migrate away from places where they have been highly successful? This question is central to understanding the social consequences of progressive taxation. We draw on administrative tax returns for all million-dollar income-earners in the United States over 13 years, tracking the states from which millionaires file their taxes. Our dataset contains 45 million tax records and provides census-scale panel data on top income-earners. We advance two core analyses: (1) state-to-state migration of millionaires over the long-term, and (2) a sharply-focused discontinuity analysis of millionaire population along state borders. We find that millionaire tax flight is occurring, but only at the margins of statistical and socioeconomic significance.
SCANNING EUROPEAN ADVANCES IN THE USE OF RECYCLED MATERIALS IN HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION
Recycled materials that have suitable engineering, environmental, and economic properties can be used as substitutes for natural aggregates or materials in the construction of highway infrastructure. These recycled materials are either recovered materials from the transportation sector or secondary or byproduct materials from the industrial, municipal, or mining sectors. Since the 1970s, a number of countries in Europe have been routinely using recycled materials with a high degree of success. The most remarkable thing about the European experience is that the recycling rate of materials in the highway environment frequently reaches 100%. In recognition of recent developments on all levels and the growing interest within the U.S. highway community, a team of U.S. recycling practitioners visited Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden to observe research, policies, and programs promoting the use of recycled materials in the highway environment within those countries. Of particular interest to the scanning team were the economic, engineering, and environmental approaches that enable the high recycling rates and the successes seen in those countries. All of the countries had some sort of sustainability policy in which recycling was an integral part. The U.S. delegation is now working with their respective constituencies to promote recommendations from their summary and final reports. To further promote technology transfer and to start reducing barriers, a demonstration project is planned for the fall of 2000 in Houston, Texas.