The Impact of Budget Proposals on Tax-Exempt Bonds (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
March 7, 2012 |
| Report Number |
R42396 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Steven Maguire, Specialist in Public Finance |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
Under current law, interest income from bonds issued by state and local governments is exempt from federal income taxes. In addition, interest on bonds issued by certain nonprofit entities and authorities is also exempt from federal income taxes. Together, these tax preferences are estimated to generate a federal revenue loss of $309.9 billion over the 2012 to 2016 budget window. Along with this direct "cost," economic theory holds that tax-exempt bonds distort investment decisions (leading to over-investment in this sector). As with many other tax preferences, the income exclusion is being examined as part of fundamental tax reform.
Generally, the tax preference directly benefits two groups: issuers and investors. Issuers, principally state and local governments (but also certain nonprofits and qualified private entities) benefit from a current lower cost of borrowing. Investors, particularly those in the top tax brackets, benefit from mostly tax-free income. In particular, the top 10% of all earners realize more than 77% of the total reported tax-exempt interest income.
This report first explains the tax preference and the distribution of the receipt of tax-exempt interest. An analysis of the impact of several different proposals then follows. Included in this analysis are proposals to (1) cap the benefit at a specific income tax rate (as offered in the FY2013 budget), (2) eliminate the tax preference and lower overall rates (as proposed in the Simpson-Bowles (SB) deficit reduction plan), and (3) change the current tax exclusion for investors to a tax credit (or subsidy) for issuers (as proposed in the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Revenue Options report). The proposals differ in the relative impact on investors and issuers.
The proposal in the President's FY2013 budget would be felt relatively equally by issuers and investors and would not address the economic inefficiency of using tax-exempt bonds to encourage investment in public capital. The SB tax reform plan would eliminate the tax preference thereby eliminating the economic inefficiency generated by the current tax preference, but would also eliminate the relative benefit of tax-exempt bonds for both issuers and investors. The CBO proposal also eliminates the tax preference for investors, but would preserve the issuer preference albeit at a lower level. The economic inefficiency arising from the current tax preference would also be eliminated by the CBO proposal. The CBO proposal can be modified to yield a roughly equivalent subsidy to the current tax-exempt bond preference for issuers.
This report will be updated as significant new proposals or legislative events warrant.
