The Tax Foundation is the world’s leading independent tax policy 501(c)(3) nonprofit. For over 80 years, our mission has remained the same: to improve lives through tax policies that lead to greater economic growth and opportunity.
Our Center for Federal Tax Policy, Center for State Tax Policy, and Center for Global Tax Policy each produce timely and high-quality research and analysis that influences the debate toward economically principled tax policies. Our experts are continuously analyzing the day’s most relevant tax policy topics and are relied upon routinely for presentations, testimony, and media appearances on tax issues spanning every level of government.
Likewise, providing journalists, taxpayers, and policymakers with basic data on taxes and spending has been a cornerstone of the Tax Foundation’s educational mission since its founding. As we wrote in our first edition of Facts & Figures in 1941, “Facts give a broader perspective; facts dissipate predilections and prejudices…[and are] an important step to meet the challenge presented by the broad problems of public finance.”
In recognition of the fact that there are better and worse ways to raise revenue, our Index focuses on how state tax revenue is raised, not how much. The rankings, therefore, reflect how well states structure their tax systems.
111 min read
While there are many factors that affect a country’s economic performance, taxes play an important role. A well-structured tax code is easy for taxpayers to comply with and can promote economic development while raising sufficient revenue for a government’s priorities.
88 min read
The federal tax code remains a major source of frustration and controversy for Americans, and a hindrance to economic growth and opportunity. Other countries, such as Estonia, have proven that sufficient tax revenue can be collected in a less frustrating and more efficient way.
42 min read
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
States are unprepared for the ongoing shift to remote and flexible work arrangements, or for the industries and activities of today, to say nothing of tomorrow. In some states, moreover, existing tax provisions exacerbate the impact of high inflation and contribute to the supply chain crisis.
40 min read
A landmark comparison of corporate tax costs in all 50 states, Location Matters provides a comprehensive calculation of real-world tax burdens, going beyond headline rates to demonstrate how tax codes impact businesses and offering policymakers a road map to improvement.
8 min read
The mix of tax sources states choose can have important implications for both revenue stability and economic growth, and the many variations across states are indicative of the different ways states weigh competing policy goals.
29 min read
Patent box regimes (also referred to as intellectual property, or IP, regimes) provide lower effective tax rates on income derived from IP. Most commonly, eligible types of IP are patents and software copyrights. Currently, 13 of the 27 EU member states have a patent box regime.
3 min read
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. In other words, married couples who file jointly under this scenario have 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
About half of all European OECD countries have either announced, proposed, or implemented a digital services tax.
4 min read
However well-intended they may be, sales tax holidays remain the same as they always have been—ineffective and inefficient.
43 min read
’Tis the season to crack open a cold one. Ahead of International Beer Day on August 5th, let’s take a minute to discover how much of your cash is actually going toward the cost of a brew with this week’s tax map, which explores excise duties on beer.
3 min read
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
While many factors influence business location and investment decisions, sales taxes are something within policymakers’ control that can have immediate impacts.
12 min read
The Netherlands has the highest gas tax in the European Union, at €0.82 per liter ($3.69 per gallon). Italy applies the second highest rate at €0.73 per liter ($3.26 per gallon), followed by Finland at €0.72 per liter ($3.24 per gallon).
4 min read
If the policy goal of taxing cigarettes is to encourage cessation, vapor taxation must be considered a part of that policy design.
4 min read
To make the taxation of labor more efficient, policymakers should understand the inputs into the tax wedge, and taxpayers should understand how their tax burden funds government services.
3 min read
Although the U.S. has a progressive tax system and a relatively low tax burden compared to the OECD average, average-wage workers still pay nearly 30 percent of their wages in taxes.
4 min read
In addition to the federal estate tax, with a top rate of 40 percent, some states levy an additional estate or inheritance tax.
4 min read
In recent years, several countries have taken measures to reduce carbon emissions, including instituting environmental regulations, emissions trading systems, and carbon taxes. In 1990, Finland was the world’s first country to introduce a carbon tax.
3 min read
Eliminating state gross receipts taxes would be a pro-growth change to make the tax code better for businesses and consumers. How does your state compare?
4 min read
Ireland and France levy the highest excise duties on cigarettes in the EU, at €8.85 ($10.47) and €6.88 ($8.13) per 20-cigarette pack, respectively.
3 min read
An ideal sales tax applies to a broad base of final consumer goods and services, with few exemptions, and is levied at a low rate.
3 min read
Which states have the highest property taxes in 2022? See how your state compares in property taxes across the United States
3 min read
The sales tax is too important a part of states’ revenue toolkits to be permitted further erosion, making sales tax modernization a vital project of the 2020s.
17 min read