Promote Fiscal Responsibility by Limiting Tax Breaks [Video]

This brief is part of “Election 2024: Policy Playbook,” a series by Rice University and the Baker Institute that offers critical context, analysis, and recommendations to inform policymaking in the United States and Texas.

• Several provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) that broadened the base of taxable income in the U.S. will expire at the end of 2025.
• These provisions increased tax revenue while enhancing the efficiency and fairness of the tax system.
• Solutions to the growing fiscal deficit leave little room for reinstating tax breaks or introducing new ones.

Expiration of the TCJA provisions at the end of 2025 brings fiscal policy into focus for both the 2024 election cycle and the new administration. Whoever inherits the Oval Office will face a generational issue in determining the future of U.S. tax policy. Sustaining the base-broadening provisions from the TCJA would maintain the efficiency and fairness of reform while contributing to deficit reduction. These …