A tax expenditure program is government spending through the tax code. Tax expenditures alter the horizontal and vertical equity of the basic tax system by allowing exemptions, deductions, or credits to select groups or specific activities. For example, two people who earn the exact same income can have different effective tax rates if one of the tax payers qualifies for certain tax expenditure programs by owning a home, having children, and receiving employer health care and pension insurance. Tax expenditures have the same effect on the budget deficit as appropriations spending. A new tax expenditure program, say to encourage employment, that costs the government $500 million dollars in revenues has the same effect on the national debt providing $500M in grants to businesses that hire the unemployed.
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In 1967, the tax expenditure concept was created by Stanley Surrey, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, as a way to represent the political use of tax breaks for means that were usually accomplished through budget spending. Secretary Surrey argued that members of Congress were using tax policy as a ``vast subsidy apparatus to reward favored constituencies or subsidize narrow policy areas (Surrey 1973, p. 6). The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Act of 1974 (CBA) defines tax expenditures as "those revenue losses attributable to provisions of the Federal tax laws which allow a special credit, a preferential rate of tax, or a deferral of tax liability" (Surrey 1985). They are equally common in other countries [1].
The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (hereafter JCT) annually estimates tax expenditures in terms of revenues lost to the U.S. Treasury for each special tax provision included in the U.S. tax code. In 2009, the JCT listed over 180 tax expenditure programs that cost the U.S. government over $1 trillion dollars in revenues. Their cost varies with the level of economic activity [2]. A major tax expenditure is enjoyed by tax payers who own their own home and can deduct the interest on their mortgage payments. Since tax expenditures are claimed against a progressive tax code, individual tax expenditure programs are worth more to wealthier taxpayers [3]. The majority of tax expenditure programs are targeted for private social benefits and services (Faricy 2011). The administration of tax expenditures falls on the IRS, and is not accounted for.
Tax expenditures are considered "off-budget" spending by most economists and budget experts (Howard 1997). Tax expenditures are easier to pass through Congress than increases in appropriations spending. They are easily seen as free benefits, when government grants are viewed as giveaways [4]. Contrary to direct spending, tax spending has to only pass through two committees the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance. Tax expenditure programs, once in the tax code, do not come up for annual review and can only be removed through tax legislation. Tax expenditure programs are a form of entitlement spending in that every tax payer that qualifies can claim government money. Faricy (2011) demonstrated that when tax expenditures are counted as a type of government spending, Democratic and Republican parties are indistinguishable in annual changes to federal government spending. This study also finds that Republicans are more likely to increase tax expenditures when in control of government thereby subsidizing the activities of businesses and the wealthy (Faricy 2011). Jacob Hacker (2002) shows that the federal subsidization of private health insurance has grown over the years and has made efforts for nationalized health care more difficult. Ellis and Faricy (2011) find that when tax expenditures rise, public opinion adjusts and becomes more liberal to counteract the conservative policies.