Summary of the Latest Federal Income Tax Data, 2023 Update
The latest IRS data shows that the U.S. federal individual income tax continued to be progressive, borne primarily by the highest income earners.
43 min read
Expert
Erica York
Senior Economist, Research Director
Erica 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.
Latest Work
Fair Tax FAQ
The FairTax is a proposal to replace all major sources of the federal government’s revenue—the individual income tax, corporate income tax, estate and gift taxes, and payroll tax—with a national sales tax and rebate, abolishing the IRS in the process.
7 min read
Frustration and Delays as the 2023 Tax Filing Season Begins
A combination of long-standing IRS operational deficiencies, the agency’s temporary closure due to the pandemic, and the now-expired pandemic relief produced a perfect recipe for a paper backlog.
4 min read
Improved Tax Treatment of Saving Included in Year-End Federal Spending Deal
The year-end omnibus federal spending package makes a number of reforms to retirement savings accounts.
3 min read
Bonus Depreciation and New Corporate Investment in 2018
If bonus depreciation is allowed to phase out, then the tax bias against capital investments will increase, discouraging firms from making otherwise profitable investments.
14 min read
Details and Analysis of Canceling the Scheduled Business Tax Increases in Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
The business tax changes originally introduced in the TCJA are scheduled to increase tax burdens on businesses at a time when economic headwinds and broader uncertainty are higher than they have been in decades.
12 min read
The Economic, Revenue, and Distributional Effects of Permanent 100 Percent Bonus Depreciation
The phaseout of 100 percent bonus depreciation, scheduled to take place after the end of 2022, will increase the after-tax cost of investment in the U.S. Permanently extending it would increase long-run economic output by 0.4 percent and increase employment by 73,000 FTE jobs.
20 min read
It Would Be a Mistake to Resurrect Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax
The Inflation Reduction Act may be smaller than the proposed Build Back Better legislation from 2021, but both sets of legislation propose a reintroduced corporate alternative minimum tax (AMT). The 30-year experience with a corporate AMT shows it is not a good solution.
4 min read
Sources of Personal Income, Tax Year 2019
Reviewing 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.
10 min read
Lawmakers Revive Prescription Drug Pricing Policies and 1,900% Excise Tax
While the bulk of the proposed tax increases and spending programs remain under debate, Democratic lawmakers have reportedly agreed on prescription drug pricing provisions as a starting point for a revived Build Back Better package.
3 min read
Efforts to Improve Tax Treatment of Saving Gain Traction on Hill
The proposals share a common goal of improving incentives for households to save during a time when inflation is impacting their finances.
3 min read
Biden’s FY 2023 Budget Would Result in $4 Trillion of Gross Revenue Increases
President Biden’s budget proposes several new tax increases on high-income individuals and businesses, which combined with the Build Back Better plan would give the U.S. the highest top tax rates on individual and corporate income in the developed world.
5 min read
3 Takeaways from the New Congressional Budget Office Outlook
The CBO projections show policymakers’ top priority over the next five years will need to be cleaning up our country’s fiscal situation while maintaining a pro-growth and competitive tax code.
5 min read
Comparing the Corporate Tax Systems in the United States and China
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.
34 min read
Tax Filing Season: Options for Improvement
Efforts to improve the taxpayer experience should focus on the IRS’s operations and include structural improvements to the tax code.
4 min read
The Misguided Notion of Government-Set Prices for Prescription Drugs
Government-set pricing of prescription drugs is not a fix for today’s rampant inflation and further, it would give rise to new problems of its own.
6 min read
State and Local Tax Burdens, Calendar Year 2022
Tax burdens rose across the country as pandemic-era economic changes caused taxable income, activities, and property values to rise faster than net national product. Tax burdens in 2020, 2021, and 2022 are all higher than in any other year since 1978.
24 min read
Biden’s Trade Agenda Should End the Trade War and Promote Free Trade
The Biden administration should lift the Trump administration’s tariffs, as they have failed in their objective to bring better trading practices and instead brought about significant damage to U.S. businesses and workers.
6 min read
Improving Tax Treatment of Structures Offers Commonsense Way to Boost Competitiveness
The U.S. tax system is biased against capital investments. Ending these tax penalties would boost economic output, productivity, and employment.
4 min read
Taxes, Tariffs, and Industrial Policy: How the U.S. Tax Code Fails Manufacturing
Policymakers actively marginalized the manufacturing sector by saddling them with cost recovery rules that prevent them from deducting the full cost of investment in physical plant and equipment. Going forward, policymakers should avoid haphazard fixes, targeted measures, and protectionism.
50 min read