Revising the Tax Law: The TCJA and its Place in the History of Tax Reform

Tax reform in the United States seems like a nearly unending process.

Despite this nearly constant tweaking of the law, there has not been a major

revision of the tax law in the U.S. since the bipartisan efforts that led to the

1986 tax reform. The law known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (or "TCJA")

of 2017 (which most commentators continue to call it, and which title I will

use here, although the title was not formally enacted as part of the bill, leaving

the bill without an official name) represents the first major piece of tax

legislation in over 30 years. Given the significance of the reform, and the

unusual way in which it was passed, the TCJA deserves careful consideration,

both as an item of tax history, and in detail as a major revision of the United

States income tax law. This Article contributes to this project and proceeds

as follows: Part I places the TCJA in the context of tax reform history in the

United States; Part II explains the history of the TCJA; Part III breaks down

the component parts of the TCJA and analyzes those parts; Part IV discusses

estimates regarding the distributional effects of the tax law reform; and Part

V concludes.