Tax Reform – An Analysis | Brookings Institution

http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2012/08/01-tax-reform-brown-gale-looney

Our major conclusion is that a revenue-neutral individual income tax
change that incorporates the features Governor Romney has proposed –
including reducing marginal tax rates substantially, eliminating the
individual alternative minimum tax (AMT) and maintaining all tax
breaks for saving and investment – would provide large tax cuts to
high-income households, and increase the tax burdens on middle- and/or
lower-income taxpayers. This is true even when we bias our assumptions
about which and whose tax expenditures are reduced to make the
resulting tax system as progressive as possible. For instance, even
when we assume that tax breaks – like the charitable deduction,
mortgage interest deduction, and the exclusion for health insurance –
are completely eliminated for higher-income households first, and only
then reduced as necessary for other households to achieve overall
revenue-neutrality– the net effect of the plan would be a tax cut for
high-income households coupled with a tax increase for middle-income
households.

---SPSmith