Janet Holtzblatt is a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. Over a three-decade career in the federal government, she worked on a broad range of tax policy issues, with emphasis on the tax treatment of families and workers, health reform, the administration of the tax code, and tax simplification.

Holtzblatt’s research has focused on the earned income tax credit, marriage penalties and bonuses in the income tax system, the administration of health reform through the tax system, labor market effects of health reform, and the impact of Internal Revenue Service resources on revenues. She has also directed studies on the tax treatment of multinationals, corporate tax rates, pass-through entities, marginal tax rates, and federal assistance for higher education. Holtzblatt has served on the board of directors for the National Tax Association. In 2017, she received the Referee of the Year Award from the National Tax Journal. She was the recipient of the 2020 Davie-Davis Public Service Award, which is bestowed annually by the National Tax Association.

Before joining Urban, Holtzblatt was the unit chief for tax policy studies in the Tax Analysis Division of the Congressional Budget Office. Before that, she was deputy director of the Individual Taxation Division in the US Treasury Office of Tax Analysis and a senior analyst on the Senate Budget Committee. She earned her bachelor’s degree in economics and history from the University of Illinois and a doctoral degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin.