Phase-out Standard Deduction

[RobZim41]

Hey all,

I'm toying around with a reform that would phase-out the standard deduction above a given threshold.

I tried modifying Recipe 6 to overwrite recs.standard based on my parameters for thresholds and phase-out rates, but it had no effect on iitax. Upon digging deeper, I assume that instead I need to call an entirely new StdDed function. Is that right? And if so what's the best way of going about that?

[jdebacker]

@RobZim41 Thanks for this good question.

I can see a couple options. One, as you noted, is to write a custom Calculator class object with a new StdDed function.

But if you want to phase out the standard deduction past a certain threshold, can you get this through modifying the standard brackets and rates (e.g., one bracket starts at the phase out start and you increase the marginal tax rate on that bracket to reflect the standard deduction phase out rate)?

Or, you might use the II_credit set of parameters to reflect the standard deduction phase out (though perhaps the fact that the phase our rate for this parameter doesn't vary by filing status is a problem in mirroring a phase out of the standard deduction).