Teslas and Golf Carts
Pappas is mildly critical of the report. The report lists several tax expenditures and summarizes the share of each tax expenditure captured by millionaires. I agree with Pappas that eligible millionaires are not doing anything "unfair." Congress enacts tax expenditures because it wants to influence economic behavior.
Take the electric vehicle credit. The Coburn report indicates that $12.5 million in electric vehicle credits were claimed by millionaires in 2009. To my knowledge, a $7,500 credit was available for the purchase of electric vehicles during the calendar year (Section 30D). The primary vehicle available for on-road transportation in 2009 was the Tesla Roadster. The base price for the Roadster is $108,000. Middle-class taxpayers were not rushing out and purchasing these vehicles. (As Paul Caron document in 2009, some upper- and middle-income taxpayers apparently claimed the credit to defray the purchase of golf carts.)
Remember, Democrats controlled Congress and the White House in 2009. They had the power to amend the Code and prevent millionaires from claiming the credit against purchases of Teslas (and golf carts). But they want to encourage an overall shift to "green" energy. The tax credits for electric vehicles are consistent with that larger policy commitment. Electric vehicles are expensive. Congress knew or should have known that millionaires would take advantage of the credits, because very few non-millionaires can drop $100,000 on an electric vehicle.
The fact that Congress designs stupid tax policy (like electric vehicle credits for millionaires) to support other policy objectives (like a transition to "green" energy) demonstrates that Congress can be stupid. This is not some kind of "loophole" for the wealthy. Congress opened a door to encourage upper-income taxpayers to purchase electric vehicles. Some upper-income taxpayers decided to walk through the open door. We don't know how many, if any, were encouraged by the credit. Tax incentives that don't change economic behavior are dollars down the drain.
On balance, the Coburn report highlights a number of these intersections between economic/social policy and tax/fiscal policy. The report demonstrates the law of unintended consequences. It doesn't make much sense to give tax credits to millionaires who purchase electric vehicles (but it's a consequence of supporting "green" energy manufacturers). It doesn't make much sense to pay unemployment or Medicare or Social Security benefits to millionaires (but it's a consequence of a political aversion to means testing for entitlements). We should be revisiting and reshaping these policies over time.
Closer Look at the Numbers
The Coburn report parrots a widely-reported data point: that 1,500 millionaires paid no income tax during 2009. To be more precise, 1,470 individual taxpayers reported AGI in excess of $1 million, but paid zero income tax.
I've seen this data point before, and it piqued my curiosity. How are these upper-income taxpayers zeroing out their federal income tax liability?
It seems likely that most of these taxpayers are making large charitable contributions. A wealthy individual may have resources to make a large cash or in-kind donation to charity and claim the amount as a miscellaneous itemized deduction (Line 40 of Form 1040).
In this respect, the Coburn report is misleading. This table in the Coburn report lists a number of "tax breaks" claimed by millionaires. The two biggest "tax breaks" are the deduction for mortgage interest ($27.7 billion from 2006-2009), and the deduction for rental expenses ($64.3 billion from 2006-2009). The report omits to mention the total charitable deductions by millionaires during the same period. I suspect that Coburn's staff included "bad tax breaks" (like mortgage interest expense) while excluding "good tax breaks" (like charitable deductions). This type of cherry-picking tends to muddy the waters -- all tax expenditures should be on the table when we start talking fundamental tax reform.
One thing is clear -- the list of "tax breaks" enumerated in the table would not zero out a millionaire's taxable income during a given year.
* * * * *
Interested readers can locate the 1,470 individual taxpayers on page 40 of this report.
Here's the breakdown among the different income groups:
| Returns | Paid Tax | No Tax | ||||
| $1.0 under $1.5 | 8,274 | 8,211 | 63 | |||
| $1.5 under $2.0 | 14,322 | 14,236 | 86 | |||
| $2.0 under $5.0 | 61,918 | 61,535 | 383 | |||
| $5.0 under $10.0 | 44,273 | 44,015 | 258 | |||
| $10.0 or more | 108,096 | 107,416 | 680 | |||
| Total | 236,883 | 235,413 | 1,470 | |||
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