Congressional Staffer Requested Preset for Renacci reform

[ecbrown5]

A congressional staffer requested a preset developed for the reform at the following link:

http://renacci.house.gov/_cache/files/7eeb81fe-f245-42c0-8de4-055ebf4c12e9/sats-white-paper.pdf

[andersonfrailey]

@MattHJensen putting together a JSON file for this reform could be another good first project for Hank.

As a side note, as we get more requests for presets and create the files, adding them to the list of presets at the top of TaxBrain could cause the page to get cluttered. What are people's thoughts about creating a new section of the website that features the tax plans of Congresspeople along with notes and links to documents such as the one above? Staffers/Congresspeople could submit their proposals and associated literature and have it all in one spot for people to look at.

@martinholmer @codykallen @ecbrown5

[codykallen]

@andersonfrailey suggested

As a side note, as we get more requests for presets and create the files, adding them to the list of presets at the top of TaxBrain could cause the page to get cluttered. What are people's thoughts about creating a new section of the website that features the tax plans of Congresspeople along with notes and links to documents such as the one above?

If you go to http://www.ospc.org/taxbrain/file/ you will see a separate link to the reform examples. Is this the type of approach you're thinking of?

[feenberg]

On Fri, 19 May 2017, andersonfrailey wrote: @MattHJensen putting together a JSON file for this reform could be another good first project for Hank. As a side note, as we get more requests for presets and create the files, adding them to the list of presets at the top of TaxBrain could cause the page to get cluttered. What are people's thoughts about creating a new section of the website that features the tax plans of Congresspeople along with notes and links to documents such as the one above? Staffers/Congresspeople could submit their proposals and associated literature and have it all in one spot for people to look at.

Yes a new page for presets would be fine. I notice that the presets are the same as any tax plan an ordinary user could prepare, except for the ability to link to notes. Perhaps we could allow a text box into which users could put comments that would travel with the plan. Weren't we going to give people a box to allow them to name plans? The collapsable menus are great - I don't recall any discusion of that though. dan

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[andersonfrailey]

@codykallen

If you go to http://www.ospc.org/taxbrain/file/ you will see a separate link to the reform examples. Is this the type of approach you're thinking of?

It's very similar. And I like Dan's idea of providing a space for user feedback. In my head, I'm picturing a list with each Rep, their plan, and a link to documentation. Something like this:

Rep	Plan	Documents	Feebback
Rep XYZ	Link to plan preset	Link to supporting documents	Link to provide comments

[MattHJensen]

@feenberg said:

The collapsable menus are great - I don't recall any discusion of that
though.

This was based on a suggestion you made to me a while back. The closed webapp issue is here. We may want to allow subsections to collapse as well in the future -- would appreciate feedback on that.

@feenberg said:

I notice that the presets are the same as any tax plan an ordinary user
could prepare, except for the ability to link to notes. Perhaps we could
allow a text box into which users could put comments that would travel
with the plan. Weren't we going to give people a box to allow them to name
plans?

We have an open webapp issue to allow this (again suggestions thanks to you): Here is my overview comment on the issue.

@andersonfrailey said:

As a side note, as we get more requests for presets and create the files, adding them to the list of presets at the top of TaxBrain could cause the page to get cluttered. What are people's thoughts about creating a new section of the website that features the tax plans of Congresspeople along with notes and links to documents such as the one above?

to which @feenberg replied:

Yes a new page for presets would be fine.

My initial thought is to make this a collapsible part of the TaxBrain input page rather than a new stand alone page. I'm also tempted to have the page open expanded rather than closed because seeing the presets is a powerful demonstration of TaxBrain's capabilities.

[hdoupe]

I'm working on the JSON file for this reform. I should have it done by the end of today.

[MattHJensen]

@hdoupe, could you post a link to a TaxBrain preset and a link to a google doc "Notes" file for this reform? See ospc.org/taxbrain for examples in this section of the site:

[hdoupe]

@MattHJensen Here's a link to the google doc: url

Here's a link to the reform file: https://github.com/open-source-economics/Tax-Calculator/blob/master/taxcalc/reforms/Renacci.json

[MattHJensen]

@hdoupe, could you make a TaxBrain preset and post the link to that? @andersonfrailey or @ecbrown5 should be able to show you how.

[hdoupe]

@MattHJensen Sure, no problem.

@andersonfrailey @ecbrown5 Do you have a few minutes to show me how to post the preset this morning?

[hdoupe]

@MattHJensen Here's a link to the preset https://www.ospc.org/taxbrain/edit/13375/?start_year=2017

And here's a link to the google doc https://docs.google.com/document/d/122ZImaTlPuM1AEoiS4lFrkQkd5fBLm7m3UZDg8EbeGA/edit

[MattHJensen]

Thanks @hdoupe! Could you edit your comment to make the links work? Right now you are displaying the link text and pointing to url rather than the opposite.

[MattHJensen]

@hdoupe, sorry for not noticing sooner, but the deduction cap should be applied to the interest deduction rather than the itemized deduction for real estate taxes paid. This will need a new commit to the json reform file and a new taxbrain preset.

cc @andersonfrailey

[MattHJensen]

@hdoupe, actually benefitcap_switch is unrelated to the ceiling. I don't think you need to modify benefitcap_switch at all since you have the haircuts. I would just check a few reforms to make sure the ceiling with the HCs but without the switch is working as you would expect.

[hdoupe]

@MattHJensen Nice catch. I removed the section using the switch. I got almost identical results with and without the switch.

[MattHJensen]

@hdoupe, do you know why the results are "almost" identical, rather than identical?

[hdoupe]

@MattHJensen I'm not sure. I'm looking into it now.

Compared to the default setting for the switch, the absolute change in tax liabilities is higher by 100 million for 2018 and 2026. Overall, the number of tax units with a tax cut is lower by 6 units and the number of tax units with a tax increase is higher by 1 unit. Everything else is the same.

Here's a link to the results with the default switch setting: https://www.ospc.org/taxbrain/13506/
Here's a link to the results with the switch set only on interest: https://www.ospc.org/taxbrain/13505/

[MattHJensen]

@hdoupe, said:

Compared to the default setting for the switch, the absolute change in tax liabilities is higher by 100 million for 2018 and 2026. Overall, the number of tax units with a tax cut is lower by 6 units and the number of tax units with a tax increase is higher by 1 unit. Everything else is the same.

Are you only seeing those differences on TaxBrain, or do you also see them with taxcalc locally? If only on TaxBrain, then they could be due to the dropq disclosure avoidance algorithm.

[hdoupe]

@MattHJensen I only ran them on TaxBrain. I'll run them locally to see if there are any differences there.

[hdoupe]

@MattHJensen I ran the reforms locally and the reforms produced identical results. Like you said, it looks like the difference was due to the dropq disclosure avoidance algorithm.

I opened a pull request for the reform without the changes to the _ID_BenefitCap_Switch paramater here #1383.