An Analysis of Budget Offset Requirements for Tax Expenditures

Abstract Budget rules enacted by Congress in the 1990’s (and currently still in force) established pay-as- you-go (PAYGO) rules requiring that the revenue loss from any new or expanded tax expenditure provision be offset in the same fiscal year by legislation raising an equivalent amount of extra revenue. This note extends Dharmapala’s (1999) model of the political economy of tax expenditures to incorporate the effects of these budget offset requirements…