Alan Cole is a Senior Economist with Tax Foundation’s Center for Federal Tax Policy. His areas of focus include business taxes, cross-border taxes, and macroeconomics.
In addition to work at Tax Foundation, Alan Cole has served on the Joint Economic Committee and with The Conference Board, and published on a variety of economic topics. Alan has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Yale University and an MBA majoring in finance and public policy from the Wharton School. Alan lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and daughter.
Senator Bernie Moreno’s (R-OH) Halting International Relocation of Employment (HIRE) Act is a proposal to discourage US companies from outsourcing jobs and services abroad for products consumed by Americans.
7 min read
The OBBBA moved the US international tax system in the right direction on several fronts. However, some of the changes, while encouraging certain domestic activity and exports, may harm physical activity abroad that supports US competitiveness and domestic activity.
8 min read
Even when international relations are frayed, there is value in finding ways to combat corporate profit shifting while also fostering a healthy commercial atmosphere and positive trade relations.
7 min read
We estimate the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would increase long-run GDP by 1.2 percent and reduce federal tax revenue by $5 trillion over the next decade on a conventional basis.
11 min read
Lawmakers should consider maintaining QBAI and applying the several billion dollars from the Senate’s change toward other pro-growth international tax reforms instead.
6 min read
The Senate draft overall makes more changes to international tax policy than the House draft. On net the changes are positive.
8 min read
The House-passed “One Big Beautiful Bill” includes a new 3.5 percent tax on remittances, or non-commercial transfers of money that people in the US send to people abroad.
7 min read
The US Ways and Means Committee’s “Big Beautiful Bill” includes a retaliatory provision called Section 899, along with an expansion of the base erosion and anti-abuse tax (BEAT).
7 min read
Despite characterizing the tariffs as “reciprocal,” the White House didn’t actually measure tariffs, currency manipulation, or trade barrier policies employed by other countries. Instead, it drew its estimates from something else entirely: bilateral trade deficits in goods.
7 min read
President Trump has announced that new tariffs will go into effect on April 2, following several weeks of threats. These new tariffs are likely to be broader in scope than the limited ones implemented thus far. So who is likely to pay for them?
7 min read
Tax legislation in 2025 may have good reason to address international corporate income taxes, because of scheduled changes slated to go into effect or because of international developments like the Pillar Two agreement.
63 min read
This week, the incoming Trump administration issued a day-one executive order on the global minimum tax agreement known as Pillar Two, which seeks to ensure multinational corporations pay at least 15 percent in income tax.
6 min read
Trump’s proposal would bring the US more in line with most other developed economies, which tax only those who live and work within their borders.
4 min read
The global tax deal and Pillar Two are shaking up the tax landscape worldwide, introducing a web of complexity and confusion.
Puerto Rico, a US territory with a limited ability to set its own tax policies, will be the first part of the US to be substantially affected by Pillar Two, the global tax agreement that seeks to establish a 15 percent minimum tax rate on corporate income.
17 min read
The government won in Moore. However, given the narrow opinion of the court and the reasoning in the Barrett concurrence and the Thomas dissent, it seems likely that future rulings under other facts and circumstances could favor taxpayers instead.
7 min read
The Moore case could have important impacts on tax policy.
5 min read
BEAT is intended to address a legitimate problem, and there are virtues to BEAT’s overall strategic approach; however, its execution leaves room for improvement.
7 min read
The global landscape of international corporate taxation is undergoing significant transformations as jurisdictions grapple with the difficulty of defining and apportioning corporate income for the purposes of tax.
22 min read
Pillar Two, the international global minimum tax agreement, has a considerable chance of failing and may ultimately allow the same problems it was designed to address.
6 min read