Visualizing the cost of tax bills

When talking about taxes, it’s a good idea to know some numbers.  It’s usually hard to find a lot of these figures, but I just stumbled across a treasure trove of information in the form of the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis and their papers.

Working paper 81, completed in September 2006, analyzes the fiscal impact of every postwar tax bill in terms of 2006 dollars, 1992 dollars, percentage of GDP, and percentage of total federal receipts.  Their conclusion: “The Revenue Act of 1942 was the biggest tax increase (and biggest tax bill) of the 1940-1967 period; the Revenue Act of 1945 was the biggest tax cut of that period. The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 was the biggest tax cut (and biggest tax bill) of the 1968-2006 period; the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 was the biggest tax increase of that period.”

After the jump is two thousand words worth of pictures illustrating this trend.