2020’s worst tax laws, proposals & legislative approaches

January 2, 2021

Form 1040_hand holding crumpled IRS form_png

A new year is time for reassessment and resetting of priorities. That’s true in the tax world, too.

But to know what needs to be fixed or at least rejiggered, you also have to look back at what went wrong. Again, that applies in to taxes.

Not surprisingly, the horrid 2020 offers us plenty, in our personal and professional lives, to re-evaluate. One more time, also a tax world truth.

That’s why today’s Saturday Shout Out — the first of 2021 in this continuing feature; you can read 2020’s if you want to reminisce — goes to Howard Gleckman’s 2020 tax review at the Tax Policy Center’s TaxVox blog.

Coal stocking2Gleckman, senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute, hands out the blog’s annual lump of coal awards for the worst tax policy ideas of the year.

The 2020 list is limited to 10. I’ll let you read them at your leisure this first Saturday of the New Year. But here’s a preview from Gleckman’s post:

“The first three come from the states, courtesy of my Tax Policy Center colleague Richard Auxier. The rest are all about the 2020 presidential campaign and pandemic relief.”

Again, no surprise that the coronavirus dominates the list. It probably will do so in 2021’s tax and other roundups, too.

But since I’m trying to start the New Year with at least a little optimism, let’s hope that COVID-19’s intrusion into our lives and tax laws will be much, much less this year.

You also might find these items of interest:

 

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