eugene steuerle has written about tax policy. he has also lived it. nearly three decades ago, he was on the godfathers of what became the tax reform act of 1986. he holds the fisher chair at the urban institute. eric toder has been involved in the income tax at the treasury and irs. he is currently an urban institute fellow. finally, nina olson is taxpayer advocate at the irs persian represent those of us who pay taxes -- at the irs where she represents those of us who pay taxes. office released its latest report on the state of the tax code. with joe who will give us a history of the income- tax. after we do a presentation, we will give everyone an opportunity to ask questions. for those watching on c-span or online, you can send in questions at publicaffairs@urban.org. >> i am glad to see there is a reasonable number of people here. i tell people i have the worst possible job for a cocktail party. they ask me what i do and it brings the worst combination of april 15 and a high-school class somewhere. it is incredibly boring for so many people. and t

. >> with that transition, a eugene steuerle. >> if the kid do 65 years i have eight minutes and 35 years off tin divided the postwar era for ec finance. if you look emerald or two, 1981 almost every major tax act, there is one exception that was a tax cut as well. we had bracket keep but taxes went up almost as much as they were going to be lowered. they went up mainly because of the bracket as the income went up with inflation in the late '70s. then we have the fiscal straitjacket era because every major initiative that we decided how to get the budget in order, we engage in tax reform and also in 83 expanding the tax base, almost every initiative n set to be the takeaway side then me go into the budget as a whole, we will give money away tadema's spending increase, tax cuts we will do little enough to identify. you might wonder how does this work out? the balance sheet has to be met but it also tells us that it is mainly economic growth to provide additional revenue. so the economy is approximately doubled in size for a saw revenues will approximately double. if we look a few percentag

also written extensively about tax policy, eugene steuerle coming including the book contemporary u.s. tax policy. he not only live about it but lived it. one of the godfathers of what became the tax reform act of 1986, one of the key moments of the history of the income tax. he holds the richard b. fisher chair at the urban institute. eric toder has been intimately involved in the income tax come about that treasury and the irs. currently an urban institute fellow and co-director of the urban brookings tax policy center. finally, nina olson is taxpayer advocate that the irs for she tirelessly represents those of a supertaxes and those of us who must battle against the growing complexity of the modern revenue code. just a week or so ago there release the report on the state of the tax code, a document that describes with great candor the flaws and current system and some things we can do about it . joe will give us a brief history of the income tax. before he starts, let me let you know that after we do our presentation and speak for a little bit among ourselves we will give everybody

well, eugene steuerle said i was going to a sell all the problems .m here to talk, the impact of of these changes. before then 19, mid-1990s when you wrote a check to pay your taxes you rejected the internal revenue service. i can't tell you how many people talk to me what the internal revenue code. you know, thinking then it is the address that has in the control of the law, which it has virtually none of what congress enacts, in the 1990's congress passed a law. volume two of the 2011 annual report, we published a demographic history of the internal revenue service essentially internal revenue code which looked at the irs perspective, the changes in the coach did to the ira's tax collector. and rehashing some of the things that create some context here from my letter remarks. raising revenue from the affluent. 27 percent of the returns were filed by merchants, manufacturers, lawyers, and doctors. those of the confession of the listed the war office direct in tax policy in the middle class becomes the tax base. the low-income population into it throu