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.
Five states currently collect corporate AMTs: California, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, and New Hampshire. This is a significant drop from the eight states that levied AMTs in tax year 2017.
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After six unsuccessful tries at passage, it appears the coronavirus crisis has tipped the scales in favor of Gov. Phil Murphy’s (D) millionaires tax. New Jersey may be feeling the financial squeeze right now, but this large income tax change will not solve budget problems and may exacerbate funding issues by making the state even unfriendlier to businesses.
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Under an individual AMT, many taxpayers are required to calculate their income tax liability under two different systems and pay the higher amount.
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A marriage penalty exists when a state’s income brackets for married taxpayers filing jointly are less than double the bracket widths that apply to single filers.
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In addition to the federal estate tax, with a top rate of 40 percent, some states levy an additional estate or inheritance tax.
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New Jersey has the highest effective rate on owner-occupied property at 2.21 percent, followed closely by Illinois (2.05 percent) and New Hampshire (2.03 percent).
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The five counties with the highest median property tax payments are all located near New York City and have bills exceeding $10,000.
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Nevada is not alone in its need to find revenue, but it should take care not to embrace bad tax policy in the process. Significant rate increases, a shift in the tax base, and provisions which make it easier to hike taxes than to cut them would heavily burden the mining industry in the state.
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The question, “Does my state tax Social Security benefits?” may be simple enough, but the answer includes a lot of nuance. Many states have unique and specific provisions regarding the taxation of Social Security benefits, which can be broken into a few broad categories.
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California pumps out the highest tax rate of 62.47 cents per gallon, followed by Pennsylvania (58.7 cpg), Illinois (52.01 cpg), and Washington (49.4 cpg).
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Seeking new sources of funding, New York and New Jersey—two states at the heart of global financial markets—are considering financial transaction taxes.
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In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, some states are hoping that a sales tax holiday might help restart struggling industries by stimulating the economy. However, sales tax holidays can mislead consumers about savings and distract from genuine, permanent tax relief.
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Sales tax rates differ by state, but sales tax bases also impact how much revenue is collected from a tax and how the tax affects the economy.
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As New Jersey lawmakers grapple with reduced revenues due to the coronavirus pandemic, they have turned to an unusual solution: the issuance of bonds that would be repaid, if necessary, through temporarily higher sales and property taxes.
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Many states may be looking toward vapor and other excise taxes to fill budget holes caused by the coronavirus crisis. While those areas may represent untapped revenue sources for many states, taxing those activities is unlikely to raise much revenue in the short term.
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