Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981

Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (ERTA), U.S. federal tax legislation that contained numerous provisions intended to help businesses and individuals. Businesses were aided by accelerated capital recovery through new depreciation rules, special tax treatment for acquirers of troubled thrift institutions, an increased amount of retained earnings not subject to taxation, relaxed rules for Subchapter S corporations (a type of small-business corporation), and encouragement of merger activity. ERTA is most noted, however, for its large reduction in personal income tax rates across the board. The act also helped individuals by significantly increasing the nontaxable portion of inheritances and gifts and by raising the maximum limits on contributions to individual retirement accounts and Keogh accounts (tax-deferred pension plans for the self-employed).

ERTA was the first major legislation passed during Pres. Ronald Reagan’s first term in the White House. He came into office at a time when the U.S. economy was in the doldrums and experiencing stagflation—that is, little economic growth, with high unemployment and high inflation. ERTA was proposed as a way of stimulating the economy. Its approach was based on supply-side economics, which holds that increasing productive resources should be the focus of economic policy. The tax cuts were controversial because of their size and the opinion of some that the resulting reduction in federal government revenues would further damage the economy. ERTA proponents relied on an economic theory propounded by the economist Arthur Laffer, the originator of the Laffer curve. The Laffer curve shows the relationship between federal taxes and revenue, as plotted on a line graph. It takes the form of an inverted “U,” which shows federal revenue at zero when tax rates are zero and again at 100%. When tax rates are zero, no taxes are collected. At a certain point the level of taxation begins to create disincentive to work (and thus pay taxes). Therefore, when tax rates are 100%, no one has the incentive to work, so revenues are again zero. According to the theory, along the Laffer curve there is a point where the tax rate can be set to maximize revenue.

The economy did prosper during the Reagan administration, although federal deficits grew during the later years. ERTA was credited as the first major victory of supply-side economic theory. Opponents responded that the economy grew on its normal cyclical track following a recession and would have recovered without ERTA. Further, they predicted that the large deficits would burden the economy in the future.

ERTA reduced the highest tax rate from 70 to 50 percent and reduced the lowest tax rate from 14 to 11 percent. The act also included a provision to index tax brackets beginning in 1984: as the earnings of taxpayers increased, the brackets would move in proportion, such that taxpayers having modest increases in taxable income would remain at about the same tax rate.

The accelerated cost recovery system (ACRS) was introduced by ERTA, which changed the recovery period for depreciation from useful life to an amount determined by the Internal Revenue Service. This allowed businesses to recover expenditures for capital development more quickly. ACRS was modified by the Tax Act of 1986 to reduce the impact on federal revenues.