Stay informed with quick and accessible analysis of today's top tax policy topics. Read Tax Foundation's Tax Policy Blog for insight from our experts on tax policies across the U.S. and abroad.
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Short FormWorld War II shaped many aspects of the modern world, including the US tax code. But the dramatic changes to our system that military mobilization required didn’t subside when the fighting finished; they’ve persisted to today.
4 min read
States would do better to broaden the sales tax base to include currently exempt classes of final consumption than to impose disproportionate taxes on prepared foods.
6 min read
If lawmakers are convinced that new revenues must be part of any long-term effort to solve the budget crisis or offset the cost of extending the TCJA, they must choose the least harmful ways of raising new revenues or else risk undermining their efforts by slowing economic growth.
7 min read
When 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 read
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 read
The recently released FY 2025 budget for New York State signals a degree of optimism, with caveats. New York cannot tax itself toward a balanced budget.
6 min read
Pillar Two risks creating a more complex and unfair international tax system. It is inadvertently fostering new, opaque, and complex forms of competition, and policymakers should consider alternative approaches to creating a fairer international tax environment.
4 min read
Short FormWith pandemic-era savings now fully depleted and the majority of Americans pointing to their finances as their biggest source of stress, one thing is clear: the US needs policies that help people save more.
4 min read
Not every change in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act simplified the tax code. However, the TCJA reduced compliance costs overall for individual filers, and allowing fundamental structural improvements to expire would make the tax code worse.
5 min read
Gov. Walz’s tax policy record is notable because of how much it contrasts with broader national trends. In recent years, most governors have championed tax cuts. Walz, rare among his peers, chose tax increases.
5 min read
According to recent reports, 72 percent of the current marijuana market in the US is illicit. Evidently, the federal criminalization of marijuana has failed to prevent its sale or consumption.
6 min read
Exempting Social Security benefits from income tax would increase the budget deficit by about $1.6 trillion over 10 years, accelerate the insolvency of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, and create a new hole in the income tax without a sound policy rationale.
6 min read
Short FormThe 2024 Summer Olympics are underway, drawing the attention of billions and continuing a tradition dating back thousands of years. But you know what else originated thousands of years ago and affects even more people? Taxes.
3 min read
Next year, West Virginians will see an income tax cut thanks to revenue triggers in a 2023 law. The Mountain State joins 14 other states that have cut income taxes this year.
4 min read
As much as 98 percent of vaping products sold in the US are illicit. Most states levy an excise tax on vaping products, but these tax systems vary substantially. The result is a messy tax system covering largely illicit products, and no one knows whether taxes are being collected and remitted on most products sold nationwide.
7 min read
While 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 read
Short FormProject Apollo achieved its clear objective to put a man on the moon. But not all government spending projects are so simple (that is, if you consider flying a spaceship to the moon simple).
3 min read
“No tax on tips” might be a catchy idea on the campaign trail. But it could create plenty of headaches, from figuring out tips on previously untipped services to an unexpectedly large loss of federal revenue.
6 min read
Gov. Pillen is searching for tax burden relief. But his plan, which reportedly involves a two-tiered sales tax and the state’s assumption of most school funding responsibility, would have profound implications that even those most convinced of the urgency of property tax relief may find unworkable and unpalatable.
12 min read
A 15 percent corporate rate would be pro-growth, but it would not address the structural issues with today’s corporate tax base.
4 min read