"Tax Reform Visualization 1" numbers don't match TaxBrain

[MaxGhenis]

Toggling "repeal" on Charitable Contribution Deduction in https://www.ospc.org/gallery/tax_reform_viz_1/ shows the net change in average tax for the 1M+ bucket is $4,792.

http://www.ospc.org/taxbrain/28917/ sets "Ceiling (as a decimal fraction of AGI) for all charitable contribution deductions" to zero, repealing the deduction. It shows an average tax change for the $1M+ bucket of $20,411. Other buckets have similarly higher average tax changes relative to the gallery visualization.

I imagine this is due to the visualization using an old version of taxcalc, so specifying the version (if known) could be a quick fix.

As an aside: I really like this simple visualization. It'd be cool to have a 2018 version of it for TCJA, and with %chg after-tax income.

[hdoupe]

@MaxGhenis Thanks for the bug report. This has been updated in a few months. @GoFroggyRun and @andersonfrailey would you mind taking a look at this?

[GoFroggyRun]

As @MaxGhenis said:

I imagine this is due to the visualization using an old version of taxcalc, so specifying the version (if known) could be a quick fix.

This plot is generated by Tax-calculator and TaxData before the 2016 election, so I am not surprised at all that its numbers are not matching current TaxBrain output, even with the same reform. On the other hand, we probably won't update this plot, or other plots in the gallery, as the releases of Tax-calculator and TaxData go.

It seems to me that, to account for the discrepancy, we might want to include versions of Tax-calculator and TaxData used for the "Tax Reform Visualization 1" and all other plots in the gallery.

@hdoupe @MattHJensen any thoughts?

[hdoupe]

@GoFroggyRun said

On the other hand, we probably won't update this plot, or other plots in the gallery, as the releases of Tax-calculator and TaxData go.

I agree. I'm not sure how difficult it is to create or update the plots. I don't think it would be feasible to update the plots each time a new TaxData or Tax-Calculator version is released. If there is a relatively easy way to automatically do this, then I wouldn't be opposed to this solution.

It seems to me that, to account for the discrepancy, we might want to include versions of Tax-calculator and TaxData used for the "Tax Reform Visualization 1" and all other plots in the gallery.

We should definitely include the versions for these plots.

[GoFroggyRun]

@hdoupe PR #62 takes care of this issue.