ABSTRACT
Accountability for the outcomes of such tax expenditures, however, is virtually nonexistent on the federal level in the United States. Each year, the congressional Joint Tax Committee and an appendix to the president’s budget calculate the revenues forgone from tax expenditures, but tax expenditures are not evaluated like spending programs or compared with spending programs that aim to achieve similar results. us, even a good performance budget that matches direct federal expenditures with outcomes will underestimate both the costs of government and the outcomes it achieves. Tax expenditures usually fly under the radar screen, receiving even less scrutiny than spending.
