TAXSIM Version 9 is available to selected users as a windows or Unix executable on application to Daniel Feenberg (feenberg@nber.org).
Copy the taxsim9.exe executable into c:\windows, or some other directory in the executable path. If your computer is guarded by a zealous IT staff, you may need their help to make this happen. On a Unix system the application name will be taxsim9, and it can be placed anywhere in the executable path.
You will need a file in the same format described at for uploading on the Taxsim web page. If that file is called "taxpayr.raw" then you can run taxsim with: c:\taxsim9 taxpayr.raw >taxpayr.out and the results will appear in taxpayr.out. The output variables are also documented on the page referred to above.
If the default marginal tax rate calculation or level of detail is not to your liking, it is possible to change either with arguments to the taxsim9.exe command. In the lists below, the arguments are in bold.
The choices for the marginal tax calculation are:
The choices for detail are:
An example of taxpayr.raw:
1 1989 13 3 1 0 30000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2000 0 1 0 -1000 0 1 1989 13 3 1 0 20000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2000 0 1 0 -1000 0
Will provide detailed results and calculate the marginal rate for long term capital gains for two individuals whose characteristics are provided when taxsim9 is invoked with:
taxsim9 long detail taxpayr.raw
If no input file is given, input is taken from the standard input. All keyword arguments are reserved, and should not be used as the input filename.
Daniel Feenberg
NBER
617-863-0343