taxes

State-sponsored college savings plans, often called 529 plans, offer tax incentives to facilitate saving for postsecondary education. Low- and moderate-income families are less likely to have college savings than higher-income families. To address this inequity, a number of states have launched 529 savings match incentive programs. A recently released CSD report examines the program design of all state 529 savings match programs and offers recommendations aimed to facilitate access, increase program participation and perhaps reduce administrative costs.

Cheryl Block, JD, federal budget and tax expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, weighs in on tax cut extensions. “We want it all: low tax rates, government spending on the programs we prefer, and — ideally — a balanced budget,” she says. “Perhaps not surprisingly, the desire for prudent budgets increasingly loses out to the first two demands.”