ROCKING THE TAX CODE: A CASE STUDY OF EMPLOYMENT-RELATED CHILD-CARE EXPENDITURES

Abstract

Through an examination of the tax law's treatment of child-care expenditures, I intend to show both how the current tax law facilitates class, gender, and race subordination and how it could be designed to disrupt it. By looking at the tax law's treatment of employment-related child-care expenditures, I will make the argument that a comprehensive tax analysis requires not only an examination of the well-recognized issues of equity, administrability, and economic rationality, but also consideration of other issues of social justice-specifically, consideration of the implications of economic exploitation, racism, and sexism on economic arrangements. I appreciate that there is currently little consensus among policymakers for the need to include what I will call the antisubordination principle in tax reform deliberations. A review of child-care expenditures offers the opportunity to demonstrate how the antisubordination principle can further social justice while enhancing our general understanding of the tax law and producing reforms that advance the traditional goals of equity, administrability, and economic rationality.