Ominously labeled "Taxmageddon," a host of tax policy changes are set to occur at year-end, and there truly is much at stake: $3.67 trillion of additional tax revenue over 10 years from the Bush tax cuts alone.

The tax code is 5,296 pages long and full of complicated details. We outlined a few of them in our recent column for the New York Times Magazine. So why hasn't Congress done anything to simplify the tax code? We posed the question to Alan D. Viard, a tax expert at the American Enterprise Institute. His response is below.

The White House has proposed a “Buffett Rule” mandating that taxpayers earning more than $1 million pay at least 30% of their income in federal income taxes. The unfairness the Obama administration has identified is only one limited, albeit  eye-catching, manifestation of more systemic problems in the tax code.

Alan D. Viard discusses the complications posed by the needless complexity of tax incentives, income-based phase-outs, and the alternative minimum tax.

One White House proposal deserves to be considered by policy makers in both parties who are looking for ways to improve the tax code.

In a recent letter, Martin Lobel describes as "intellectually bankrupt" our arguments against S. 940 and S. 2204, two recent bills that would have imposed unfavorable tax rules on five large oil companies that would not have applied to other taxpayers. Unfortunately, Lobel mischaracterizes our analysis of why the bills violate the rule of law.

With tax day deadline here, Congress returned to Washington Monday to vote on the "Buffett Rule," a proposal to impose a minimum 30 percent tax on people earning more than $1 million.

The proposal, which failed in the Senate, resembles the alternative minimum tax (AMT) in one way -- it was...

As tax day approaches, the following American Enterprise Institute (AEI) scholars are available on a variety of tax topics. Below please find contact information and recent pieces of research.