Event -- Happy Anniversary? 100 Years of the Federal Income Tax

Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Noon-1:30 p.m. ET

To watch the live video webcast or a recording, go to
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/urban-institute-events.
(No registration necessary.)

Panelists:

• Nina Olson, national taxpayer advocate, Internal Revenue Service 
• Eugene Steuerle, Institute fellow, Urban Institute; author, Contemporary U.S. Tax Policy
• Joseph Thorndike, director, Tax History Project, Tax Analysts; author, Their Fair Share: Taxing the Rich in the Age of FDR
• Eric Toder, Institute fellow, Urban Institute; co-director, Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center
• Howard Gleckman, resident fellow, Urban Institute; editor, Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center’s TaxVox blog (moderator)

“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.” — Albert Einstein

One hundred years ago this month, the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, giving Congress the “power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”

And for 100 years, the income tax has been both soap box and whipping post for innumerable debates over the role and resources of government, the relationship of the electorate to the elected, and fairness, favor, and confusion in the tax code.

Please join this stellar panel for an engaging examination of the evolution of progressive income taxation, efforts to reform the income tax, proposals to replace the income tax with a consumption tax, and the challenges and history of tax collections.

Resources:
- Bios
- The 1913 tax return form (1040)
- Factors Influencing Voluntary Compliance by Small Businesses: Preliminary Survey Results
- National Taxpayer Advocate: 2011 Annual Report to Congress (Vol.2)
- Introduction to Diversity Issues: The IRS Should Do More to AccommodateChanging Taxpayer Demographics

At the Urban Institute
2100 M Street N.W., 5th Floor, Washington, D.C.
Lunch will be provided at 11:30 a.m. The forum begins promptly at noon.