Elaine Maag is the codirector and a senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute and a codirector of the Innovations in Cash Assistance for Children project. She is an expert on the taxation of low- and middle-income families. Her work examines the interactions between tax and transfer programs, how well taxes support families, and the administration of tax and transfer programs. She serves on the editorial advisory board of the National Tax Journal, the board of trustees of The Commonwealth Institute (Virginia) and the National Tax Association and is a member of the Code for America Tax Benefits Advisory Committee and the National Academy for Social Insurance. In 2024, she was the inaugural senior tax policy advisor in the Equity Hub of the U.S. Treasury Department.

Maag has testified before state and federal congressional committees and advised congressional staff members and administration officials on the taxation of families with children and on higher education and work incentives in the tax code. She has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times and on the PBS NewsHour, NPR, and C-Span.

Before joining Urban, Maag worked at the Internal Revenue Service and at the Government Accountability Office as a presidential management fellow.

Maag holds an MS in public policy analysis from the University of Rochester.