It’s shaping up to be a most interesting year on the tax front. A recent Freakonomics quorum focused on potential tax-policy mistakes that might be made this year, with so many issues up in the air. It brought up concerns about everything from expiring tax cuts to the federal deficit to the lack of clarity surrounding even this year’s tax code.
So here’s your chance to get a little bit of clarity: Michael F. Mundaca, the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy, has agreed to field questions from Freakonomics readers. Mundaca’s primary duty is to “advise[s] the Secretary on all aspects of Federal tax policies and programs, including their development and implementation.” Mundaca also served in the Treasury Department during the Clinton and Bush administrations, and was a partner at Ernst & Young in Washington, D.C.
Post your questions in the comments section below and, as always, we’ll post his answers in short course.
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. You can also watch it on 
any new changes as it pertains to required mandatory distributions? or qualified retirement plan pre-mature distributions? lots of clients have had to take more out of roll-over IRAs to survive their unemployment…thank you
Two items: (1) I think the Bush tax cuts should be extended for those couples making < $800K. Characterizing couples who make > $250K as wealthy is out of touch even though the percentage may be small compared the the U.S. What would the effect on lost taxes be if the government raised the Bush taxes up this segment of the population. (2) What do the data show on to what extent estate taxes have diminished the inherited wealth of mega-wealthy people (e.g. net value > $100M). What would the effect be on income to raise the exemption on estate tax to $10M and then increase the tax rate for estates > $10M by 10 points?
How are the the taxes on mono/oligopolistic industries (specifically the recording music, automobile and software industries) levied?
Has the Treasury considered adjustable lump-sum taxing on these markets, in order to minimize dead-weight loss generated by imperfect competition?
This is very hypothetical question, but what would you perceive to be the benefits/costs of removing S-Corporations from personal income taxes? I realize that taxing them like C-Corps would be prejudicial against small businesses, but what about taxing them as different entities? Might that better allow government to tax high earning individuals without hitting successful small businesses? Just from a clarity standpoint (reflecting what entities/persons are actually being taxed), would this be better than lumping Schedule E businesses in with personal tax returns?
“Us” are too?
Why always the solution to economic problems is cut or increase taxes?
Isn’t there another way to solve this, or politicians need go to college to learn something new?
Can someone advice them on new policies?
Is it true that over the counter medication can’t be paid for with Health Care Savings Accounts (HCSA) or Health Saving Accounts (HSA) dollars starting in 2011? If it’s true what’s the motivation behind the change?
Google cuts its tax bill by over $1 billion per year by clearing most of its foreign profits through Ireland and the Netherlands to Bermuda. Is this a good loophole for American corporations by lowering already high corporate tax rates relative to the rest of the world? Would shutting this technique down increase tax revenue or drive business away?