The Evolution of Tax Advice and the Taxation of Capital Income in the USA

In this paper, a description is given of the most important statutory changes in federal taxation of capital income that have occurred in the USA since 1978, and of the changes in the predominant views of academic tax experts that preceded them. In addition, selected quantitative analyses that may have been influential in gaining reduction in the taxation of capital income are reviewed. It is shown that recent shifts in federal tax policy are broadly consistent with pervasive changes in the dominant thinking of professional tax economists, and especially consistent with the well-publicized writings of particular highly visible quantitative economists who hold the newer nontraditional views on tax policy.