NPR’s Planet Money on U.S. tax code: Both fair & efficient?

Hour 2

Taxpayers get more time to file this year, by today, April 17^th, two days after from the annual, dreaded April 15^th. We’ll talk to NPR’s Planet Money reporters JACOB GOLDSTEIN and ROBERT SMITH, to help walk us through why the U.S. tax code is up to 5, 296 pages from its original 27. Goldstein will explain the “exceptions to the exceptions” that complicate many of those pages. Smith will take us back to 1913, when the United States created its 16^th Amendment to the Constitution to implement the modern income tax, which was mostly paid by the wealthiest Americans up until World War II. We’ll discuss taxes – what’s both fair and efficient, including President Obama’s proposal of the the “Buffett Rule,” a plan to raise the tax rate on individuals earning more than $1 million a year. And we’ll look at how Americans paid the top 91% of their taxes in the early ’60s, when currently the top tax rate is 35 %. Planet Money is NPR’s multimedia team covering the global economy, which produces podcasts, radio stories and a blog that helps explain complex economic issues in simple terms.

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Listen:
[audio: 041712_110630.mp3]