Janelle Fritts Tax Foundation
Expert

Janelle Fritts

Senior Policy Analyst

Janelle Fritts is a Senior Policy Analyst with the Tax Foundation’s Center for State Tax Policy. She is the lead researcher on the annual State Tax Competitiveness Index and serves as a resource to policymakers in their efforts to modernize and improve the structures of their state tax codes. Her work has been cited in The New York Times, the Associated Press, Bloomberg, and numerous state media outlets across the country.

Janelle has been with the Tax Foundation since 2019, with a brief hiatus to teach high school literature, logic, and rhetoric. Before joining the state team, she interned at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the Reason Foundation, and the Illinois Policy Institute. She graduated from Dordt University (Sioux Center, Iowa) with a bachelor’s degree in English with a writing emphasis and a minor in Chemistry.

Born and raised in Midland, Michigan, Janelle now lives in Reston, Virginia. In her free time, she enjoys baking, thrifting, and spending time with her husband and infant daughter.

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Latest Work

marriage penalty, marriage tax penalty in their tax brackets,
Data

Does Your State Have a Marriage Penalty?

A marriage penalty is when married couples filing jointly face a higher effective tax rate than they would if they filed as two single individuals with the same amount of combined income.

2 min read
2019 sales tax holiday, tax-free weeks, tax-free weekends, back-to-school tax-free weeks, back-to-school tax-free weekends
Data

Sales Tax Holidays by State, 2019

If a state must offer a “holiday” from its tax system, it is an implicit recognition that the state’s tax system is uncompetitive.

44 min read
state sales tax rates, local sales tax rates, 2019 state sales taxes, 2019 local sales taxes, state sales tax base
Data

State and Local Sales Tax Rates, Midyear 2019

The role of competition in setting sales tax rates is often overlooked. One study shows that per capita sales in border counties in sales tax-free New Hampshire have tripled since the late 1950s, while per capita sales in border counties in Vermont have remained stagnant.

13 min read
State sales tax reliance 2019 state sales taxes reliance
Data

To What Extent Does Your State Rely on Sales Taxes?

Many states are seeing a significant narrowing of their bases as lawmakers continue to carve out exemptions, and as consumption patterns shift ever more towards relatively-untaxed services.

4 min read