Taxes

The Biden administration’s American Jobs Plan (AJP) proposal to fund infrastructure spending relies on a bet that the benefits outweigh the costs of a higher corporate tax burden. Using the Tax Foundation model, we find that this trade-off is a bad one for the U.S. economy, resulting in reduced GDP, less capital investment, fewer jobs,

Generally, people don’t like paying taxes. When their paycheck comes, they see that a large amount of money is taken out and they wonder where it’s all going. And then during tax time, they might get frustrated because they come to find out they owe the government even more money. However, as annoying as paying

This week the Australian government released its latest budget proposal and two policies that stand out in its fiscal response to the pandemic should be helpful as the economic engine of the country turns back on. The first is full expensing for some investments and the second is the introduction of a loss carryback provision.

Investing can be an excellent way to build your wealth without having to do much work. Perhaps that’s why so many Americans do it. According to the Pew Research Center, 52% of American families are in some way invested in the stock market – mostly through 401(k)s and retirement accounts – and 14% directly invested

This week’s map looks at state and local sales tax collections per capita. Forty-five states and the District of Columbia have state-levied sales taxes. Five states—Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon—do not collect sales taxes at the state level, although Alaska allows localities to impose local sales taxes. In fiscal year (FY) 2018, the highest state

Today, the U.S. Treasury issued an interim final rule on the $350 billion in State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds provided under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The proposed rule resolves several important questions but continues to involve the federal government in state finances at an extraordinary level. Most astonishingly, the rule may functionally

Last year, you probably started hearing about cryptocurrency all over the news. Digital currencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, and Ethereum have been gaining steam and legitimacy, as companies are now accepting and even investing in them. It was a big deal when Tesla bought $1.5 billion in Bitcoin in and Elon Musk announced that his

Table of Contents Key Findings Digital advertising, social media, and data tax proposals have been introduced in nine states following enactment of Maryland’s digital advertising tax, which has since been postponed a year due to administrative and legal challenges. Motivations for these taxes vary, from misperceptions that there is currently a tax loophole to a

The individual income tax is one of the most significant sources of revenue for state and local governments. In fiscal year 2018, the most recent year for which data are available, individual income taxes generated 24.2 percent of state and local tax collections, just ahead of general sales taxes (23.3 percent). The following map shows

Cigarette excise taxes have been a source of state revenue for decades, and states have long relied on this revenue. Using data from Orzechowski and Walker’s annual compendium The Tax Burden on Tobacco, this web tool shows how cigarette tax revenues have changed between 1955 and 2020. For illustration, the tool defaults by looking at New York. The blue line shows

Most countries’ personal income taxes have a progressive structure, meaning that the tax rate paid by individuals increases as they earn higher wages. The highest tax rate individuals pay differs significantly across European OECD countries—as shown in today’s map. The top statutory personal income tax rate applies to the share of income that falls into

Note: A landmark comparison of corporate tax costs in all 50 states, Location Matters calculates and analyzes the tax burdens of eight model firms: a corporate headquarters, a research and development facility, a technology center, a data center, a shared services center, a distribution center, a capital-intensive manufacturer, and a labor-intensive manufacturer. Each firm is

The Biden administration’s proposed American Families Plan (AFP) would partially pay for about $1.8 trillion in new federal spending on education and family programs with about $661 billion in additional taxes on higher-income individuals and pass-through businesses like partnerships, sole proprietorships, and S corporations. The tax system would become more progressive than under current law

Don’t expect data centers to blossom in the plains of Kansas: a new data center’s effective tax rate in the state is 21 times what would be paid by a new manufacturer with similar profits. In the median state, that data center would face only one-quarter the tax burden it does in Kansas. Meanwhile, newly-established

Legislators in Kansas have had enough of their state being a tax policy outlier. After three years of deliberations, more than two-thirds of members in both the Senate and the House enacted tax reform and relief legislation Monday over the veto of Gov. Laura Kelly (D). Senate Bill 50 puts the state on firm legal

Under President Biden’s tax plan, the United States would tax corporate income at the highest top rate in the industrialized world, averaging 65.1 percent. First, the federal corporate tax rate would rise to 28 percent, which together with an average of state corporate tax rates would result in a 32.4 percent combined top corporate tax

Inheritance tax dates to the Roman Empire, which collected 5 percent of inherited property to pay soldiers’ pensions. Today, the practice is widespread. The majority of European countries covered in today’s map currently levy estate, inheritance, or gift taxes. These countries are Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland,

The Kansas legislature will reconvene next week for its 2021 veto session, when legislators will reconsider bills that were vetoed by the governor. One such bill that has a second chance of being enacted, Senate Bill 50, would enhance Kansas’ economic competitiveness by improving the state’s corporate, individual, and sales tax structure while providing tax

In his first 100 days as president, Joe Biden has proposed more than a dozen significant changes to the U.S. tax code that would raise upwards of $3 trillion in revenue and reduce incentives to invest, save, and work in the United States. While proposing ways to pay for new spending and for expanded refundable

This year, state relocation incentives are striking closer to home. Once the near-exclusive domain of economic development offices seeking to attract employers and business investment, the incentives battle has taken a personal turn, with cities and states increasingly offering incentives to individuals, not just companies, as the opportunity for many people to work remotely shakes