TAX SOFTWARE REVIEW.
本文评述了Budget Shadows软件，该软件通过电子表格模拟联邦预算改革，帮助玩家在2030年前平衡福利支出与财政收入，适用于税务课程中的政策讨论。
Abstract This article focuses on Budget Shadows computer software. Budget Shadows is a Lotus 1-2-3 worksheet that incorporates assumptions concerning budget effects of making changes to federal health, retirement and tax expenditures. When the worksheet is first loaded, the player is introduced to material describing the looming budgetary crisis. The goal of the Budget Shadows player is to bring the growth in entitlement expenditures into balance with federal revenues by the year 2030 by selecting among several reform options within several major expenditure areas. A player scores 100 points and wins the game by making changes that either cut spending or increase revenues so that future growth in entitlement spending will not increase the deficit. Budget Shadows provides an excellent overview and explanation of some of the issues faced by legislators in the current entitlement and tax reform debate, as of March 1996. The use of Budget Shadows in a group selling can serve as the basis for lively debate of many issues not specifically addressed in the traditional tax course, and introduces the participants to the intricacies of budget and tax policy formation.