ElectionTaxes came about from the desire to cut through the political rhetoric of the 2008 election and allow taxpayers to objectively determine the impact of each Presidential candidate’s tax plan on their taxes.
Taxes are an important aspect of a President’s general set of policies as they reveal the candidate’s approach to the economy and how she or he will address the money issues that are sure to arise. The problem is that tax policy in our modern economy is inherently complex and candidates often revert to sound bites and generalizations rather than detailed explanations when discussing their plans. Unfortunately, in the absence of better information, negative campaign ads are the things that stick with voters.
In seeking to convey the candidates’ tax plans as objectively as possible, I first wrote a Google Knol based largely on the research performed by the excellent economists at the Tax Policy Center, a non-partisan project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution. The purpose of the Knol was to convey the tax plans succinctly and clearly for voters to better understand each of the candidates’ plans. The Knol turned into a fairly lengthy and complex document, which made it difficult for the average citizen to digest. Voters need a better way to understand how the tax plans affect them.
The idea of ElectionTaxes arose from a research paper I recently wrote with my USM colleagues Doug Chene and John Sanders where we used Excel to model individual tax law. This paper appears in the September 2008 issue of Journal of Accountancy.
In mid-August, I had a coffee shop conversation with Chris Houle, CEO of Quantrix. Quantrix makes and sells business modeling and analytics software that I call “Excel on Steriods.” I asked Chris if he thought Quantrix software could be used as the modeling and presentation engine for a website that would calculate individual taxes under the plans proposed by Senators McCain and Obama. To my pleasant surprise, Chris and Quantrix CTO Peter Murray rose to the challenge. Quantrix has been a close partner in the endeavor since then, both in terms of building the underlying Quantrix model and developing the interactive website. This is a great example of effective collaboration between the university and an enthusiastic member of the business community. Together we have created a new and innovative way to communicate important information about the candidates’ plans in our upcoming presidential election.
Modeling the tax law and the changes proposed by each of the candidates is a tremendous challenge and it is very likely that errors persist. If you find an error, please use the web form to provide feedback to help us correct it. I will be watching the feedback closely and we will be responsive with corrections. Please come back to the website often - we will be making updates to the model as we learn of new details of each candidate’s plan. Thank you for your interest in ElectionTaxes.
Jeff Gramlich
Professor of Accounting and
L.L. Bean/Lee Surace Endowed Chair
University of Southern Maine
(updated 9/30/08)
