FROM THE NTA PRESIDENT
The National Tax Association has been an important positive influence on my professional career, and I hope it has been and will be for yours. From attending the policy symposiums and annual conferences, recognizing significant contributions with special NTA awards, reading and publishing articles in the National Tax Journal, and participation in special tax policy events, NTA provides many opportunities for its members. But the most rewarding benefit from involvement with NTA has been the opportunity to meet, work with, learn from, and enjoy friendships with professional colleagues interested in improving tax policy and tax administration.
The principal goal of my one-year tenure as NTA president is to have the Association facilitate increased networking and teaming opportunities among our interdisciplinary membership.
I learned at the U. S. Treasury’s Office of Tax Policy how wrong a solo economist could be in conducting legislative analysis without talking to tax attorneys and knowledgeable business people. I’ve also seen how a team of economists, lawyers, accountants, and others can bring enhanced and new perspectives to a tax policy issue. As Fritz Scheuren, former IRS Statistics of Income Director and President-elect of the American Statistical Association, has commented, we all work in the social sciences, and we do better science working socially as teams and across disciplines.
This new quarterly communication, NTA NETWORK, is designed to help you take greater advantage of the benefits of your NTA membership, particularly the potential for networking, teaming and sharing of ideas, and seizing opportunities available to members. Thus, the NTA NETWORK will be a forum for welcoming new members, noting important events in our members’ careers, highlighting current research interests of some members, and identifying opportunities for members to volunteer to help the organization and participate in additional activities.
Networking and teaming will increase if we know more about each other. For example, I am impressed by the interdisciplinary nature of the NTA membership, but I also admit that NTA doesn’t know enough about all of our members. Thus, we plan on asking each member to share a description of his or her training, interests, and current research areas, in a membership database. We think this database will help members form informal groups as new topics emerge in the policy arena so they can share their research and ideas. Keep an eye out for the membership interest survey in a separate mailing.
I look forward to talking with each of you over the coming year to help maximize the benefits from your NTA membership. We are interested in new ideas and suggestions to improve NTA, and want to provide members with more volunteer opportunities. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with your ideas and thoughts. I can be reached at 202-327-8817 or Tom.Neubig@ey.com.
Tom
FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Long before I became executive director, the National Tax Association was an important part of my professional life. The National Tax Journal was (and is) my favorite journal—both for keeping up professionally and as a publication outlet. Our Annual Conference is an opportunity to meet with colleagues to exchange ideas. As a non-Washington member, I found the Spring Symposium especially useful in keeping abreast of developments at the federal level. The membership of the NTA has always had a camaraderie and sense of purpose that is unmatched in any other professional organization that I know.
The NTA leadership has worked hard in recent years to enhance the benefits of NTA membership. Our recent presidents (Gene Steuerle, Gary Cornia, and Tom Neubig) have been deeply involved in promoting the Association, including the establishment of an Executive Committee. The NTA Board has also become more active in NTA affairs, especially on the membership front. The program chairs for our two yearly meetings have produced outstanding programs in recent years that have generated increased attendance and interest. Finally, our office staff members, Joan Casey and Betty Smith, continue to handle our affairs in a friendly and efficient manner.
The new NTA NETWORK is our effort to increase the value of NTA membership by increasing communication about NTA affairs and the activities of our members. We hope you will submit information about your activities and events for inclusion in future issues.
Fred
ON THE NTA AGENDA ANNUAL SPRING SYMPOSIUM May 20-21, 2004 Holiday Inn Capitol Washington DC John McClelland, Program Chair The program for the 2004 Spring Symposium is taking shape. The theme is
Tax Policy in Transition. Topics will include trends underlying the budget situation, federal-state relations, corporate tax reporting and tax shelters, pension changes and savings, and international tax. In addition, lessons from the career of the late Bruce Davie will serve as the basis of discussion of the role of public policy analysts in our tax system. More details will be shared shortly.
Make hotel reservations directly at 202-479-4000.
NTA has blocked a limited number of rooms at $159.
The cutoff date is April 23. The registration fee is $165 ($190 if also attending the Friday afternoon State-Local Tax Program). The program and forms will be available at www.ntanet.org.
STATE-LOCAL TAX PROGRAM Holiday Inn Capitol Washington DC May 21 2004 , Noon-5:00 PM For the second consecutive year, NTA will sponsor a special program on state and local tax issues following the annual Spring Symposium. This year’s program will focus on the
state taxation of business, in particular the role of the corporate income tax.
The program will begin with a luncheon address by
Richard Pomp, Professor of Law, University of Connecticut . Two papers are slated for presentation. The first one, by
Gary Cornia,
Kelly Edmiston,
David Sjoquist, and
Sally Wallace, explores and quantifies the sources of state corporate income tax erosion. In the second paper,
Bill Fox,
LeAnn Luna, and
Matt Murray look at how taxes on multistate firms should be structured in today’s economy and policy environment.
A highlight of the program will be
two panel discussion roundtables. Each roundtable will include a diverse set of discussants with unique perspectives on state taxation of business generally and the state corporate income tax in particular.
Harley Duncan (Federation of Tax Administrators) and
Doug Lindholm (Council on State Taxation) will each moderate one of the panel discussions. We hope for a lively debate a productive exchange on the future taxation of business by state and local governments.
The registration fee is $50 for just the State-Local Tax Program ($190 if also attending the Spring Symposium). The program and forms will be available at www.ntanet.org.
ANNUAL CONFERENCE CALL FOR PAPERS DEADLINE MAY 1, 2004 97TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON TAXATION November 11-13, 2004 Marriott City Center Minneapolis Laura Kalambokidis, Program Chair The 97th Annual Conference on Taxation will cover a broad range of topics, including, but not limited to, taxation and tax policies; expenditure policies, government budgeting; intergovernmental fiscal relations; and subnational, national, and international public finance.
You are invited to submit a proposal for a contributed paper or for a complete session. Please also let us know if you would like to be considered as a moderator or discussant for a conference session. Decisions concerning the inclusion of papers and sessions will be announced in June.
For details, see Call for Papers at www.ntanet.org. Contact Laura Kalambokidis, Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota , at lkalambo@apec.umn.edu OUTSTANDING DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS 35TH ANNUAL COMPETITION DEADLINE JUNE 1, 2004 NTA awards an annual prize for the doctoral dissertation that makes the most significant contribution to the field of government finance and taxation. The winning entry receives $2,000 and the opportunity to adapt the manuscript for publication in the
National Tax Journal. Two honorable mention awards of $1,000 each may be given for other outstanding entries.
Papers based on the dissertations will be presented at the 97th Annual Conference on Taxation in Minneapolis in November 2004.. Dissertations may be on any topic in government finance, including taxation, debt and fiscal policy, public choice, expenditures, budgeting, administrative and management science applications, program analysis, and policy evaluation.
All graduate students at accredited U.S. and Canadian institutions who receive the doctoral degree or its equivalent after July 1, 2003 , are eligible.
The deadline for submission is June 1, 2004 . Application and nomination forms may be downloaded from www.natnet.org. For further information, contact the National Tax Association at 202-737-3325 or natltax@aol.com.
ENCYCLOPEDIA UPDATE We are about to begin updating the
Encyclopedia of Taxation and Tax Policy. The encyclopedia was a project conceived and sponsored by NTA, and the great majority of the authors of the approximately 200 entries were NTA members. The
Encyclopedia was a very successful undertaking, and was the winner of the prestigious Choice Award. We will be contacting the authors of existing entries as well as arranging for new entries and authors to update entries.
We appreciate the cooperation of the membership of the NTA, who made this project possible, and ask for your help in moving forward with a revision. Please contact any of the editors with comments or suggestions, including proposals for new topics:
Joe Cordes,
cordes@gwu.edu;
Bob Ebel,
rebel@worldbank.org ;
Jane Gravelle,
jgravelle@crs.loc.gov.
RESEARCH NEWS FROM GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY In May 2003, NTA members and Andrew Young School of Policy Studies faculty members
James Alm,
Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, and
Sally Wallace hosted a conference to highlight the state of knowledge of taxation of the hard-to-tax, to present new thinking about the issue, and to analyze useful policy options.
The goal of the conference was to take a hard, objective look at the many different aspects of taxing the hard-to-tax, as well as the different approaches that have been employed around the world. The proceedings of the conference will be published in the forthcoming Elsevier book
Taxing the Hard-to-Tax: Lessons from Theory and Practice.
Jim Alm, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, and Fritz Schneider ( University of Linz ) focus their analysis on the estimation of the size of the hard-to-tax sector in various countries. Sally Wallace and Richard Bird ( University of Toronto ) present alternatives for taxing the hard-to-tax sector in a variety of contexts. One of their recommendations is the use of
small taxpayer units to administer a normal tax regime to the hard-to-tax. Roy Bahl (AYSPS) summarizes the tax treatment of the hard-to-tax (or lack thereof) in a chapter on the future of taxation of this group.
Other contributors include Dave Sjoquist, Kelly Edmiston, and Mark Rider (AYSPS), Francois Vaillancourt (University of Montreal), Victor Thuronyi (IMF), William Randolph (U. S. Treasury), Brian Erard (B. Erard & Associates), Chih-Chin Ho (IRS), Dmitri Romanov (Bank of Israel), William Fox and Matthew Murray (University of Tennessee), Indira Rajaraman (National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi), Michael Engelschalk and Luis Alvaro Sanchez (The World Bank), Gerard Chambas and Catherine Araujo-Bonjean (Chargé de Recherche CNRS, CERDI-Université d’Auvergne), and Milka Casanegra (International Monetary Fund). The conference proceedings are on-line at
http://isp-aysps.gsu.edu/academics/conferences/conf2003/index.html.
MEMBER NEWS James Alm, of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University , has recently been named editor of
Public Finance Review.
Robert Carroll was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary (Tax Analysis) at the U.S. Treasury Department in December 2003. Bob was previously at the Congressional Budget Office, Council of Economic Advisers, and Treasury’s Office of Tax Analysis.
Diane Lim Rogers has been appointed Chief Economist, Democrats, House Ways and Means Committee. Diane previously was at the Congressional Budget Office, Council of Economic Advisers, and Joint Economic Committee.
David Sjoquist, of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University , has recently been appointed to the Dan E. Sweat Distinguished Chair in Educational and Community Policy.
Let us know of new responsibilities and promotions for you or your colleagues for the next NTA Network by sending a note to Joan Casey at natltax@aol.com.
NATIONAL TAX JOURNAL MARCH 2004 CONTENTS
The Use of an Econometric Model for Estimating Aggregate Levels of Property Tax Assessment within Local Jurisdictions –Keith R. Ihlanfeldt
Errors-in-Variables and Estimated Income and Price Elasticities of Charitable Giving–David Joulfaian and Mark Rider
Macroeconomic Implications of the Earned Income Tax Credit–Ryan D. Edwards
Charitable Giving and Charitable Gambling: An Empirical Investigation–Amornrat Apinunmahakul and Rose Anne Devlin
Do Foreign Multinationals’ Tax Incentives Influence Their U.S. Income Reporting and Debt Policy?–Lillian Mills and Kaye J. Newberry
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS 2003-2004
Gene Amromin, Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System
Patricia M. Anderson, Dartmouth College
John E. Avault, Boston Redevelopment Authority
Bruce Baker, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Karie Barbour, University of Tennessee Knoxville
Peter Brady , U.S. Department of the Treasury
Michael Brostek, U.S. General Accounting Office
Paul F. Byrne, Washburn University
Pablo Camacho-Guitierrez, Texas A&M University
Deborah A. Carroll, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
Elizabeth Chorvat, Law School , University of Virginia
Waheeda Bahman Choudhury , Bangladesh Board of Revenue
Karen Smith Conway , University of New Hampshire
Kirsten A. Cook, Texas A&M University
Michael Cooper , U.S. Department of the Treasury
John R. Corlett, Federation for Community Planning, Cleveland
Ann Courter, Voices for Illinois Children
Charlotte Crane, Law School , Northwestern University
Ellen Crecelius , Oregon Department of Revenue
Brian A. Cromwell, The Ballentine Barbera Group, Palo Alto CA
Janet Currie, University of California Los Angeles
John Darcy, University of Texas-Pan American
Maneesha Date, Voices for Illinois Children
Natalie Davila , Illinois Department of Revenue
Alison F. DelRossi, St. Lawrence University
Robert Dennis, Congressional Budget Office
David Denslow, Gainesville FL
John W. Dundon, Herman’s World of Sports
Nada Eissa, Georgetown University
James M. Elenski, Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute
David A. Ellis, Federation for Community Planning, Cleveland
Stephen S. Everhart, Overseas Private Investment Corporation
Maureen S. Farrell, Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute
Sherri Farris, Cook County Assessor's Office
Lori-Lynn French, St. Joseph College , Amston CT
Teresa Garcia-Mila, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona
Valerity D. Gauzshtein, University of Colorado Boulder
Shelley Geballe , Connecticut Voices for Children
Diane Gibson, Baruch College , CUNY
Tony Gilburt, Reznick Fedder & Silverman, Baltimore
Austan Goolsbee, University of Chicago
David Gordon, Putnam IL
Nora Gordon, University of California San Diego
Rick Graycarek , Kentucky Youth Advocates
Elisabeth Gugl, University of Victoria
Jeffrey Guilfoyle, Revenue & Tax Analysis, Michigan Treasury
Doug Hall, Connecticut Voices for Children
Jonathan Hart, Oregon Department of Revenue, Salem OR
Robert Harvey, Joint Committee on Taxation, Washington DC
Bradley T. Heim, Duke University
Michael Hicks, Marshall University
Steve Hill, Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute
Kan Kuang Huei, Dass International Corporation, Taiwan
Christian R. Jaramillo, University of Michigan Business School
Elizabeth Jordan, North Carolina Budget and Tax Center
Joo Mi Kim, Ernst & Young
Fred Klunk , Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children
Ed Lazere, DC Fiscal Policy Institute
Michael Leachman, Oregon Center for Public Policy
Tessa Leftwich, Wake Forest University School of Law
Patrick Lester, Maryland Budget & Tax Policy Institute
Lan Liang, University of Illinois at Chicago
Clifford Allen Lipscomb, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Jun Ma, Zhongshan University , Guangzhou , China
Cathryn Marsh, Ernst & Young
Jim Martin , Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children
Antonio Martins, Coimbra University , Portugal
Gustavo Mazza, Buenos Aires , Argentina
Evelyn A. McDowell, Case Western Reserve University
Michael McKee, University of Tennessee Knoxville
Elaine Mejia , North Carolina Budget and Tax Center
Susan Mesner , Vermont Department of Taxes
Bruce D. Meyer, Northwestern University
Gerald J. Miller, Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey
Jodi Noel Miller, Ohio Department of Taxation
Kevin S. Milligan, University of British Columbia
Scott Moody, The Tax Foundation
Gregory Myers, Reznick Fedder & Silverman, Baltimore
Ray Nelson, Brigham Young University
Meili Niu, University of Nebraska Omaha
Nina E. Olson, Internal Revenue Service
Elizabeth Opalka, AYCO, Niskayuna NY
Richard M. Peck, University of Illinois at Chicago
Francisco Perez-Gonzalez, Columbia University
Bruce Perlstein, Mill Valley , CA
Maria Perozek, Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System
Lise Potvin, Department of Finance-Canada
Sarah Reber, University of California Berkeley
Margaret Reed, University of Cincinnati
W. Robert Reed, University of Oklahoma
Marshall Reinsdorf , U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Jeffrey Sachse, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
Emmanuel Saez, University of California Berkeley
Ellen Scalettar , Connecticut Voices for Children
Christoph A. Schaltegger, Swiss Federal Tax Administration
Donald L. Schunk, University of South Carolina
Frank Shafroth, George Mason University
Chuck Sheretoff, Oregon Center for Public Policy
Thomas Short, U.S. General Accounting Office
Maxim Shvedov, Congressional Research Service
Brent Smith, Western Michigan University
Kirk J. Stark, UCLA School of Law
Jerome Stermer, Voices for Illinois Children
Tracy Terwilliger, National Rifle Association
Robert K. Triest, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Bruno Tucci, Nova Southeastern University
Jack VanDerhei, Temple University
Karsten von Blumenthal, University of Hamburg
Albert Wakkary, Department of Finance-Canada
Randall P. Walsh, University of Colorado Boulder
Larry Walters, Brigham Young University
Rachel Weber, University of Illinois at Chicago
Kathy White, Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute
Ryan M. Wickert, Smart & Associates LLP, Chicago
Albert Wijeweera, University of Tennessee Knoxville
Roberton C. Williams, III, Stanford University
Douglas P. Woodward, University of South Carolina
W. Jay Wortley, Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency
Paula Yeary, Northern Illinois University
Rebecca Zarutskie, School of Business , Duke University
Eric M. Zolt, UCLA School of Law
YOUR NTA BOARD AND STAFF WORKING FOR YOU
OFFICERS
President Thomas S. Neubig Ernst & Young LLP
1225 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington DC 20036
202-327-8817/tom.neubig@ey.com
Vice Presidents Jane G. Gravelle Congressional Research Service
Library of Congress
101 Independence Avenue SE
Washington DC 20540
202-707 7829/jgravelle@crs.loc.gov
Joel Slemrod Business School
University of Michigan
701 Tappan Street
Ann Arbor MI 48109-1234
734-936-3914/jslemrod@umich.edu
Secretary Joan A. Casey National Tax Association
725 15
th Street NW #600
Washington DC 20005-2109
202-737-3325/natltax@aol.com
Treasurer Richard F. Dye Lake Forest College
555 N. Sheridan Road
Lake Forest IL 60045
847-735-5131/dye@lfc.edu
Past Presidents Gary C. Cornia Marriott School of Management
Brigham Young University
730 TNRB
Provo UT 84602
801-378-6822/gary_cornia@byu.edu
C. Eugene Steuerle The Urban Institute
2100 M Street NW
Washington DC 20037
202-261-5545/esteuerl@ui.urban.org
ELECTED MEMBERS William H. Allaway, Jr. Texas Taxpayers & Research Assn.
400 West 15th Street Suite 400
Austin TX 78701
512-472-8838/ballaway@ttara.org
David Brunori Tax Analysts
6830 North Fairfax Drive
Arlington VA 22213
703-533-4676/dbrunori@tax.org
Stacy Dickert-Conlin Center for Policy Research
426 Eggers Hall
Syracuse University
Syracuse NY 13244-1020
315-443-3114/sdickert@maxwell.syr.edu
W. Bartley Hildreth Hugo Wall Schl. of Urb. & Pub. Aff.
Wichita State University
1845 N. Fairmount
Wichita KS 67260-0155
316-978-6332/bart.hildreth@wichita.edu
Douglas Lindholm Council on State Taxation
122 C Street NW #330
Washington DC 20001-2109
202-484-5212/
dlindholm@statetax.org Matthew N. Murray
Ctr. for Bus. and Econ. Research
The University of Tennessee
1000 Volunteer Blvd. #100
Knoxville TN 37996-4170
865-974-5441/mmurray1@utk.edu
Gary Sasse RIPEC
300 Richmond Street #200
Providence RI 02903
401-521-6320/g_sasse@ripec.com
James R. Nunns Office of Tax Analysis
U.S. Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania NW #4043
Washington DC 20220
202-622-1328/james.nunns@do.treas.gov
Eric J. Toder Research Division
Internal Revenue Service
1111 Constitution Avenue NW
Washington DC 20224
202-874-0617/eric.j.toder@irs.gov
Sally Wallace Andrew Young Schl. of Pol. Studies
Georgia State University
University Plaza
Atlanta GA 30303
404-651-1912/swallace@gsu.edu
Robert Weinberger H & R Block
700 13
th Street NW #700
Washington DC 20005-5922
202-508-6363/rweinberger@hrblock.com
James Wetzler Deloitte & Touche
2 World Financial Center
New York NY 10281
212-436-6491/jwetzler@deloitte.com
Paul A. Wilson Minnesota House of Representatives
328 State Office Building
St. Paul MN 55155
651-297-8405/p
aul.wilson@house.mn Judy Zelio National Conference of State Legislatures
1560 Broadway #700
Denver CO 80202
303-364-7700/judy.zelio@ncsl.org
George Zodrow Department of Economics
MS-22
Rice University
6100 Main Street
Houston TX 77005
713-348-4891/zodrow@rice.edu
ADVISORY MEMBERS Harley Duncan Federation of Tax Administrators
444 North Capitol NW #348
Washington DC 20001
202-624-5890 harley.duncan@taxadmin.org
Richard Lavine Center for Public Policy Priorities
900 Lydia Street
Austin TX 78702-2625
512-320-0222/lavine@cppp.org
Lynn Edward Reed Minnesota Taxpayers Association
85 East 7
th Place #250
St. Paul MN 55101-2173
612-247-7477/lreed@mntax.org
FranHois Vaillancourt Department of Economics
University of Montreal
PO Box 6128 Station A
Montreal Quebec H3C 3J7
514-343-7314
francois.vaillancourt@umontreal.ca
Joan Youngman Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
113 Brattle Street
Cambridge MA 02138 -3400
617-661-3016
jyoungman@lincolninst.edu
NATIONAL TAX JOURNAL Rosanne Altshuler Department of Economics
Rutgers University
New Brunswick NJ 08901
212-662-8432/altshule@rci.rutgers.edu
Therese J. McGuire Management and Strategy Department
Kellogg School of Management
Northwestern University
2001 Sheridan Road
Evanston IL 60208
847-491-8683
therese-mcguire@northwestern.edu
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR J. Fred Giertz Institute of Gov. and Public Affairs
University of Illinois
1007 W. Nevada Street
Urbana IL 61801
217-244-4822
j-giertz@uiuc.edu/natltax@aol.com