Why Neutral Cost Recovery Matters
Allowing full deductibility of residential structures would mean more housing construction, particularly multifamily housing—a practical solution to address housing affordability challenges.
6 min readErica York is Senior Economist and Research Director with Tax Foundation’s Center for Federal Tax Policy. She previously worked as an auditor at a large community bank in Kansas and interned at Tax Foundation’s Center for State Tax Policy.
Her analysis has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Politico, and other national and international media outlets. She holds a master’s degree in Economics from Wichita State University and an undergraduate degree in Business Administration and Economics from Sterling (KS) College, where she is currently an adjunct professor. Erica lives in Kansas with her husband and their two children.
Allowing full deductibility of residential structures would mean more housing construction, particularly multifamily housing—a practical solution to address housing affordability challenges.
6 min readIn her campaign for president, VP Kamala Harris has embraced all the tax increases President Biden proposed in the White House FY 2025 budget—including a new idea that would require taxpayers with net wealth above $100 million to pay a minimum tax on their unrealized capital gains from assets such as stocks, bonds, or privately held companies.
5 min readWhen the government imposes a tariff, it may be trading jobs and production in one part of the economy for jobs in another part of the economy by increasing production costs for downstream industries.
6 min readDive into the highlights from the DNC as we break down Vice President Kamala Harris’s tax proposals and their potential impact on everyday families. What do higher taxes on businesses and the wealthy mean for working Americans?
Depending on the 2024 US election, the current corporate tax rate of 21 percent could be in for a change. See the modeling here.
4 min readWhile both President Biden and Vice President Harris aim their proposed tax hikes on businesses and high earners, key differences between their tax ideas in the past reveal where Harris may take her tax policy platform in the 2024 campaign.
6 min readA 15 percent corporate rate would be pro-growth, but it would not address the structural issues with today’s corporate tax base.
4 min readFrom President Biden calling the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act the “largest tax cut in American history,” to former President Trump claiming that Biden “wants to raise your taxes by four times,” the campaign rhetoric on taxes may be sparking some confusion.
5 min readA higher tax burden for private infrastructure investments like wireless spectrum, 5G technology, and machinery and equipment makes an existing problem worse—especially against the backdrop of outright state subsidies in countries like China.
6 min readTax cuts vs. tax reform: what’s the real difference, and why does it matter?
While neither full expiration nor a deficit-financed full extension of the TCJA would be appropriate, lawmakers should consider the incentive effects of whichever tax reform they pursue. Because taxes affect the economy, they also affect the sustainability of debt reduction.
3 min readReviewing reported income helps to understand the composition of the federal government’s revenue base and how Americans earn their taxable income. The individual income tax, the federal government’s largest source of revenue, is largely a tax on labor.
9 min readThe Trump administration imposed nearly $80 billion worth of new taxes on Americans by levying tariffs on thousands of products in 2018 and 2019, amounting to one of the largest tax increases in decades. The Biden administration has kept most of the Trump administration tariffs in place
19 min readBoth candidates should provide clear and honest answers about their plans (or lack thereof) to address the nation’s urgent tax policy issues.
8 min readPresident Biden is proposing extraordinarily large tax hikes on businesses and the top 1 percent of earners that would put the US in a distinctly uncompetitive international position and threaten the health of the US economy.
19 min readFormer President Trump floated the possibility of entirely replacing the federal income tax with new tariffs. He also raised other ideas like eliminating taxes on tipped income and lowering the corporate tax rate by one percentage point.
8 min readThe Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s changes to family tax policy serve as a reminder to avoid looking at tax reform provisions in a vacuum.
5 min readTariffs are a hot topic this election cycle for both President Biden and former President Trump. But why are tariffs so popular despite their economic downsides?
As lawmakers consider which policies to prioritize in the upcoming tax policy debates, better cost recovery for all investment should be top of mind.
7 min readCalling the latest round of tariffs “strategic” does not change the underlying reality: these policies are just another form of protectionism, and therefore, subject to all the same economic problems.
4 min read