The Tax Code and Black Wealth: How the Federal Tax Code Builds Wealth for Some and Strips It from Others

The Tax Code and Black Wealth is a policy brief series examining how the federal tax code builds wealth for some and strips it from others, organized into sub-series that each take up a different part of the code. This series examines those choices systematically. It treats the federal tax code not as a technical instrument but as a distributive one, asking of each provision: who benefits, who is left out, and what is the racial pattern for African Americans of that distribution. Across very different areas of tax policy, the answer holds. The code builds wealth for some and erodes it for others, and that distribution is not random.

The series introduction, The Tax Code and Black Wealth: How the Federal Tax Code Builds Wealth for Some and Strips It from Others, outlines the project’s analytical framework, including the Black Wealth Infrastructure framework, and explains why policymakers must develop a clear evidentiary record on racial equity before the next major tax reform window opens.

Read the brief introduction here.