Tax News

The votes are in. The French election results are paralyzing for French pro-growth tax reforms, pessimistic for EU own resources, and dire for overall economic certainty. Despite winning a second presidential mandate in April, French President Emmanuel Macron’s parliamentary party, alliance Ensemble!, lost its absolute majority in the National Assembly. The National Assembly’s support of... View Article

Note: The following is Tax Foundation testimony regarding how Pennsylvania can mitigate challenges of inflation through structural tax reforms. It was presented, by request, to the Pennsylvania House Majority Policy Committee on June 21, 2022. Good morning, Chairman Causer and Members of the Committee, My name is Timothy Vermeer, and I am a Senior Policy... View Article

The Biden administration has put forward significant plans for changing tax policy, including tax changes that would impact workers. While the administration is trying to narrowly target tax hikes to individuals who earn more than $400,000 and provide tax relief to families, it is helpful to understand what the tax burden looks like for workers outside of... View Article

Key Findings By driving changes to the climate, carbon emissions will impose major long-term economic costs, both here in the U.S. and around the world. Carbon taxes are an option to make the market reflect future costs of carbon emissions, discouraging emissions and incentivizing development and implementation of clean technology. Carbon taxes also come with... View Article

In addition to the federal estate tax, with a top rate of 40 percent, some states levy an additional state estate tax or state inheritance tax. Twelve states and the District of Columbia impose estate taxes and six impose state inheritance taxes. Maryland is the only state to impose both a state estate tax rate and a state... View Article

The taxation of large companies has been in the spotlight recently as governments around the world have sought to make significant changes to how corporate profits are taxed in a global economy. Last year more than 130 jurisdictions agreed to an outline of policies that would change where companies pay taxes and institute a global... View Article

The Biden administration has offered several proposals to reform the taxation of U.S. multinationals, addressing profit shifting as well as a broader view that offshoring is bad for the U.S. economy and firms should be encouraged to “reshore” as much activity to the United Sates as possible. Contrary to the Biden administration’s claims, raising taxes... View Article

Key Findings Research almost invariably shows a negative relationship between income tax rates and gross domestic product (GDP). The mobility of higher-skilled and higher income earners in an open economy works against the effort of progressive state and local tax systems to achieve long-term redistribution of income. The likelihood of an employed head of household... View Article

In recent years, several countries have taken measures to reduce carbon emissions, including instituting environmental regulations, emissions trading systems (ETS), and carbon taxes. In 1990, Finland was the world’s first country to introduce a carbon tax. Since then, 19 European countries have followed, implementing carbon taxes that range from less than €1 per metric ton... View Article

Noted economist Dale W. Jorgenson, the Samuel W. Morris University Professor at Harvard University, passed away on June 8. He was 89. Dr. Jorgenson’s insights and analytical approach have enormously improved the understanding by the economics community of the effect of taxation on capital formation. He developed the concept of the cost of capital, the... View Article

The Republican Study Committee (RSC) released its FY 2023 budget today, led by Budget and Spending Task Force Chair Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK) and RSC Chairman Jim Banks (R-IN), and prescribes several pro-growth tax reforms that would simplify the tax code and encourage business investment. Among the most impactful reforms are permanence for the Tax... View Article

This week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will testify before the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee on President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Proposals. Combined with the tax increases in the Build Back Better Act (BBBA), which the budget assumes becomes law, President Biden would raise revenues by $4 trillion on... View Article

Today’s map looks at which states levy a gross receipts tax, which is often considered one of the most economically damaging taxes. Shifting from state gross receipts taxes would represent a pro-growth change to make tax codes friendlier to businesses and consumers alike, which is especially necessary in an increasingly mobile economy. Gross receipts taxes are applied... View Article

Last week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its long overdue report on the nation’s budget and economic outlook for the years 2022 through 2032. Normally published at the beginning of the year, the delayed report reflects higher-than-anticipated inflation, tax revenues, deficits, and debt since the previous update CBO published nearly a year ago in... View Article

Over the past decade, the state tax landscape has grown increasingly competitive as policymakers have sought to attract investment and promote economic opportunity and growth in their states. The past two years in particular have seen an extraordinary increase in tax reform efforts, given states’ strong revenue growth despite the pandemic and policymakers’ desire to... View Article

To ensure the functioning of its internal market, the European Union (EU) sets a minimum excise duty on cigarettes. It consists of a specific component and an ad valorem component, resulting in a minimum overall excise duty of €1.80 (US $2.13) per 20-cigarette pack and 60 percent of an EU country’s weighted average retail selling price... View Article

A decade after Kansas’s failed tax experiment, memories linger and continue to color the debate on tax reform and tax relief across the country, no matter how dissimilar other states’ plans are from the unbalanced and imprudent plan championed by then-Gov. Sam Brownback (R). The Kansas experience is so infamous that “what about Kansas?” is... View Article

Today we continue our map series on the 2022 State Business Tax Climate Index with a map showing states’ rankings on the Index’s sales and excise tax component. The sales tax rate and structure can make a state more or less attractive to businesses for two key reasons: (1) some states apply the sales tax to business inputs, which drives up... View Article

As out-of-control inflation strains families’ budgets, lawmakers across the country are casting about for ways to respond. In Oklahoma, legislators have proposed sending taxpayers $75 checks in December ($150 for married couples) to help blunt the impact of higher prices. In one respect, it’s a drop in the bucket, with inflation costing the average household... View Article

Starting this year, firms must amortize their research and development (R&D) expenses over five years rather than immediately deduct them from taxable income, a policy change designed to raise federal tax revenue in the short term. As policymakers consider the future of the R&D tax change, one option on the table is to delay the... View Article

This week it was reported that during her recent trip Poland, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen offered estimates from the EU Tax Observatory as evidence that the Polish government would benefit from supporting the global tax deal. Poland has been cautious to lend its support to the EU legislation to implement the minimum tax rules, and... View Article

The Tax Foundation respectfully submits comment on the state tax and revenue implications of the proposed tobacco product standard for menthol in cigarettes. Alongside the intended consequence of limiting sales of menthol cigarettes, menthol cigarette prohibition will have a significant impact on state revenue collections, in excess of the losses associated with individuals who respond... View Article

Inheritance tax dates to the Roman Empire, which collected 5 percent of inherited property to pay soldiers’ pensions. Today, the practice of inheritance tax 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,... View Article

Last month the European Union (EU) gave the final green light to update the EU Value-added Tax (VAT) Directive and broaden the list of goods and services to which two reduced VAT rates can be applied while allowing for a reduced VAT rate below 5 percent for the first time. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,... View Article

Congress is hammering out the details of legislation designed to make the U.S. more competitive with China. Any package to incentivize further R&D should begin by ending the current tax penalty against it.   While the House and Senate-passed versions of the competitiveness legislation differ, they would support American semiconductor manufacturing, increase public funding for... View Article

In light of high inflation and rising prices, the Biden administration announced it’s considering dropping its current tariffs on Chinese imports to ease inflationary pressures. The tariffs have indeed hurt both U.S. industry and workers. Another consequence of the U.S. imposed tariffs is that they invited retaliatory tariffs, primarily from China, on U.S. exports. Retaliatory... View Article

Today’s map shows states’ rankings on the property tax component of our 2022 State Business Tax Climate Index. The Index’s property tax component evaluates state and local taxes on real and personal property, net worth, and asset transfers. The property tax component accounts for 14.4 percent of each state’s overall Index score. Property taxes matter to businesses for several reasons. First, businesses own a... View Article

Wyoming is, without question, a low tax state, with the nation’s second-lowest overall tax burdens on residents and highly competitive taxes for many businesses. Residents benefit from the high exportability of state taxes, particularly those on extractive industries. Taxes on oil, gas, coal, and other industries are borne by investors and consumers across the country... View Article

Key Findings Sales taxes account for 29.52 percent of state tax revenue, but most sales taxes are imposed on narrow—and still-narrowing—bases, with average sales tax breadth of only 29.71 percent and a median of 35.72 percent. Sales tax bases range from 19.32 percent of personal income in Massachusetts to 93.89 percent in Hawaii; the Massachusetts... View Article

Key Findings Federal policymakers are debating a legislative package focused on boosting U.S. competitiveness vis-a-vis China; however, it currently contains little to no improvements to the U.S. tax code. The existing U.S. tax code is biased against capital investment and it is scheduled to worsen over the next decade. The tax bias against domestic investment... View Article

At a moment when we are seeing clear weaknesses in supply chains and needs for gearing production toward more environmentally friendly approaches, capital investment is critical. Policymakers have an opportunity to change a coming decline in investment incentives by adopting permanent policies to support growth. Expiring tax policies in major economies could create a setback... View Article

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) unveiled long-anticipated proposed regulations banning the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, part of ongoing efforts to support smoking cessation. Critics doubt, however, whether banning mentholated cigarettes will reduce smoking or instead simply channel menthol smokers toward other tobacco products—or smuggled menthols. And states have yet... View Article

Tax Day came and went on April 18th with the regular tax filing deadline, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is facing difficulties. It struggled to manage a deluge of 282 million calls made in fiscal year 2021, only answering 11 percent, and a backlog of several million returns from 2021 were left to be... View Article

In more than a century of state income taxes, only four states have ever transitioned from a graduated-rate income tax to a flat tax. Another four may adopt legislation doing so this year, and a planned transition in a fifth state can now go forward under a recent court decision. In what is already a... View Article

Today’s map examines another major component of our 2022 State Business Tax Climate Index: unemployment insurance (UI) taxes. Compared to individual, corporate, sales, and property taxes, UI taxes are less widely understood, but they have important implications for a state’s business climate. A state’s performance on the UI tax component accounts for 9.8 percent of that... View Article

Key Findings A capital allowance is the amount of capital investment costs a business can deduct from its revenue through the tax code via depreciation. Ideally, countries should provide higher capital allowances, as they can boost business investment which, in turn, spurs economic growth. The average of OECD countries’ capital allowances gradually decreased between 2000... View Article

Among the many achievements in the illustrious career of former Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), who passed away Saturday at 88, was his commitment to tax reform. The longest-serving Republican senator in history helped shepherd passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, when he was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. The Tax... View Article

This legislative session, the sales tax on food has garnered a great deal of attention in Kansas, with policymakers on both sides of the aisle proposing the removal of groceries from the sales tax base. While this issue has long been a subject of debate in Kansas, it has gained increased attention this year in... View Article

A centerpiece of the Build Back Better Act (BBBA) as passed by the House last year was drug pricing legislation, which could be included in the next version of the BBBA, now rebranded as an inflation-control, climate, and deficit-reduction bill. While headline inflation is at an alarming rate, with the most recent 12-month reading at... View Article

Tax reform has become a major focus for state legislatures this session, and Missouri lawmakers are tuned in to the action: after adjusting individual income tax triggers in 2021, the legislature is exploring further tax reform options. Senate Bill 739 would create an additional tax trigger mechanism for the individual income tax, while SB 701... View Article

The second round of voting in the French presidential election will be 24 April between incumbent Emmanuel Macron and National Rally candidate Marine Le Pen. Although tax policy has not been a central theme of the campaign due to the war in Ukraine, immigration debates, and cost of living issues, the winner’s policy preferences over... View Article

“New own resources should fulfil the criteria of simplicity, transparency, predictability, and fairness.” One would think that the above recommendation came from a Tax Foundation report on principled EU own resources policy. While we would like to claim credit, the recommendation, rather, comes from the EU’s own 2016 Monti report and more recently, the EU’s... View Article

Net wealth taxes are recurrent taxes on an individual’s wealth, net of debt. The concept of a net wealth tax is similar to a real property tax. But instead of only taxing real estate, it covers all wealth an individual owns. As today’s map shows, only three European OECD countries levy a net wealth tax, namely... View Article

After corporate tax revenue came in at a record high of $372 billion in fiscal year 2021, we have been eagerly awaiting the forecast for fiscal year 2022, which the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) normally publishes in January but now plans for the week of May 23rd. The White House has included a forecast in... View Article

In times of inflation, like we are experiencing now, a review of the tax code shows that some provisions are automatically indexed, or adjusted, to match inflation, while others are not. And that creates unfair burdens for taxpayers. But it’s not always as simple as just “adjusting for inflation.” That works for some structural components... View Article

Key Findings Exempting groceries from the sales tax base reduces economic efficiency without achieving its objective of enhancing tax progressivity. The poorest decile of households experiences 9 percent more sales tax liability with a grocery tax exemption than they would if groceries were taxed and the general rate were reduced commensurately. Grocery tax credits provide... View Article

After several rounds of negotiations, Georgia lawmakers enacted HB 1437 on April 4th. If certain financial conditions are met, this tax reform bill will consolidate the state’s six individual income tax brackets into one flat rate, ultimately reaching 4.99 percent over a number of years. The bill is awaiting action by the governor. As it... View Article

As part of President Biden’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2023, the White House has once again endorsed a major tax increase on accumulated wealth, adding up to a 61 percent tax on wealth of high-earning taxpayers. Biden’s latest budget includes two major tax increases on accumulated wealth originally proposed in last year’s American Families... View Article

This week’s state tax map looks at throwback and throwout rules in states’ corporate tax codes. These rules may not be widely understood, but they have a notable impact on business location and investment decisions and reduce economic efficiency for the states which impose such rules. Over the long run, these rules reduce competitiveness while yielding very... View Article

Before competing in the UEFA Champions League, football clubs in Europe also compete to lure the best players. After the “Bosman ruling” abolished the limit of foreign players allowed on a team, in 1995, the share of foreign players in the European football clubs went up dramatically. With Europe’s high degree of cross-border mobility, taxes... View Article