Garrett Watson is Senior Policy Analyst and Modeling Manager at the Tax Foundation, where he conducts research on federal and state tax policy. His work has been featured in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Politico, the Associated Press and other major outlets.
Previously, Garrett was a program manager at a nearby think tank and conducted policy research on economic opportunity and labor markets, including non-compete clause reform.
Garrett earned a bachelor’s degree from St. Lawrence University in upstate New York, where he studied economics and philosophy. Garrett lives in northwest Arkansas and is an avid hockey fan and snowboarder.
Some tax hikes are more damaging than others, according to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and new Tax Foundation economic modeling.
5 min read
The IRS recently announced the extension of tax filing and payment deadlines from April 15th to May 17th to help taxpayers navigating the many tax changes amid the pandemic and give the IRS opportunity to clear its backlog of tax returns and correspondence.
7 min read
During the pandemic, an unemployment family of four previously earning $60,000 will have received $50,840 in federal and state unemployment benefits from April 1, 2020 to September 6, 2021, plus $11,400 in stimulus payments, plus $7,200 in Child Tax Credit, totaling $69,440 in combined COVID-19 relief benefits.
4 min read
The major tax-related benefits in the $1.9 trillion economic relief plan are a third round of direct payments, extended unemployment insurance (UI) benefits and a $10,200 unemployment insurance income exemption for 2020, and an expansion of the Child Tax Credit.
6 min read
As the Senate debates the relief package and makes progress in the budget reconciliation process, policymakers should keep in mind the trade-off between targeted economic relief and increasing marginal tax rates in the tax code, which can distort incentives to earn income and induce taxpayers to creatively adjust their AGI to receive a payment in the next tax season.
4 min read
The state with the highest combined corporate income tax rate is New Jersey, with a combined rate of 30.1 percent. Corporations in Alaska, California, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania face combined corporate income tax rates at or above 28 percent.
2 min read
President Biden and congressional policymakers have proposed several changes to the corporate income tax, including raising the rate from 21 percent to 28 percent and imposing a 15 percent minimum tax on the book income of large corporations, to raise revenue for new spending programs. Our new modeling analyzes the economic, revenue, and distributional impact of these proposals.
46 min read
A new study illustrates how overlooking an important element of the tax system—the structure of the tax base—can lead to an incomplete understanding of how tax reform impacts the economy.
4 min read
Sen. Mitt Romney’s Family Security Act would replace the Child Tax Credit with a monthly child allowance administered by the Social Security Administration, making the benefit more generous and accessible to low-income households without earned income.
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The House Ways and Means Committee measures would further extend the relief measures created by the CARES Act and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, and would go further by significantly expanding existing tax credits and making changes to the international tax system.
7 min read
House Ways and Means Democrats recently released a proposal to expand the child tax credit for one year as part of President Biden’s larger $1.9 trillion economic relief package.
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Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) recently proposed the Family Security Act, which features a new, more generous child allowance for families with children while reforming other sources of aid for low-income individuals.
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Some lawmakers have expressed interest in repealing the SALT cap, which was originally imposed as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) in late 2017. It is important to understand who benefits from the SALT deduction as it currently exists, and who would benefit from the deduction if the cap were repealed.
6 min read
President Biden’s plan builds on previous relief packages and would include larger payments to individuals, expanded relief for households and small businesses, funding for vaccine distribution, and aid to state and local governments.
7 min read
The latest $900 billion coronavirus relief bill extends and modifies several provisions first enacted in the CARES Act, Congress’s $2.2 trillion pandemic relief law that was passed in March. With this package, lawmakers will have responded to the coronavirus and related economic hardship with a record-setting $3 trillion of fiscal support.
14 min read
The coronavirus relief package represents the second-largest recovery legislation, behind only the CARES Act, for a combined total of more than $3 trillion in support.
8 min read
As Congress works to provide another round of emergency economic relief, it is a good time to step back and consider how tax policy affects entrepreneurs and small businesses.
3 min read
A bipartisan group of lawmakers released two compromise relief bills to address the COVID-19 pandemic, totaling about $908 billion: The Emergency Coronavirus Relief Act and the Bipartisan State and Local Support and Small Business Protection Act.
4 min read
Any additional relief to address a temporary economic crisis should be temporary, targeted toward those most in need, and consistent with good long-term tax policy.
3 min read
Policymakers should consider finding ways to simplify the administration of relief during future crises. This will help ensure the relief is timely and targeted, key components of any successful relief package for this crisis or crises in the future.
3 min read