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Sources of Government Revenue in the OECD, 2024
Designing tax policy in a way that sustainably finances government activities while minimizing distortions is important for supporting a productive economy.
3 min readVirginia Considers Expanding Its Sales Tax Base to B2B Digital Services
Expanding Virginia’s sales tax base to include B2B digital transactions could lead to tax pyramiding, hide the true cost of government, and make the sales tax system much less neutral and transparent.
5 min readCostly Inputs: Unraveling Sales Tax’s Impact on Businesses
Sales taxes go beyond a few extra bucks at the register. It’s not just about what you pay, but who pays. What are the implications of state sales tax bases across the U.S.?
Mind the Gap, Please! How Portugal Could Reform Its VAT System
Portugal’s value-added tax (VAT) policy is a treasure trove of tax oddities. Thankfully, VAT base broadening is an ideal instrument to give the Portuguese government the fiscal room to implement pro-growth tax reforms
5 min readVAT Rates in Europe, 2024
A few European countries have made changes to their VAT rates, including the Czech Republic, Estonia, Switzerland, and Turkey.
3 min readKentucky Sales Tax Modernization: Keeping the Sales Tax on Sales, Not Production
As policymakers continue efforts to improve Kentucky’s tax structure and competitiveness, they should keep in mind that not all offsets are created equal.
59 min readTax Files under New Council of EU Presidency: Belgium
In such a determinant semester for Europe, principled tax policy can be an important tool for a more competitive European Union.
5 min readSpanish Regions Are Not Surrendering Their Tax Competitiveness without a Fight
Spain’s central government could learn some valuable lessons from its regional governments about sound tax policy.
7 min readWhy Moore v. U.S. Won’t Get Us a Consumption Tax Base
At first glance, a ruling for the plaintiffs in Moore might seem to solve some of the timing problems with the U.S. tax system. Unfortunately, upon greater inspection, such a ruling might create new timing problems. And the more rigid the ruling, the harder it would be to fix the timing problems it would create.
5 min readIs EU VAT Compliance Actually Improving?
While the European Commission focuses on improving VAT compliance, policy is a major contributor to VAT revenue losses. The VAT actionable policy gap is 15.65 percent, more than triple the compliance gap.
5 min readMovers and Shakers in the International Tax Competitiveness Index
The 2023 version of the International Tax Competitiveness Index is the 10th edition of the report. Let’s take a look back and see how country ranks have changed over time.
5 min read2023 European Tax Policy Scorecard
The variety of approaches to taxation among European countries creates a need to evaluate these systems relative to each other. For that purpose, we have developed the European Tax Policy Scorecard—a relative comparison of European countries’ tax systems.
52 min read2024 State Business Tax Climate Index
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 readInternational Tax Competitiveness Index 2023
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 readMost Successful Fiscal Consolidations Do Not Rely Solely on Tax Hikes
If tax increases are included in a package, international experience points toward raising consumption taxes, rationalizing tax expenditures, and broadening the tax base—not hiking income taxes.
6 min readHow Taxing Consumption Would Improve Long-Term Opportunity and Well-Being for Families and Children
Income taxes impose steeper economic costs, and often steeper administrative and compliance costs, than consumption taxes. Moving to a consumption tax would end the tax bias against saving and investment and provide an opportunity to greatly simplify anti-poverty programs embedded in the tax code.
45 min readTax Trends in European Countries
In recent years, European countries have undertaken a series of tax reforms designed to maintain tax revenue levels while protecting households and businesses from high inflation.
8 min readHow to Rein in the National Debt
Now is the time for lawmakers to focus on long-term fiscal sustainability, as further delay will only make an eventual fiscal reckoning that much harder and more painful. Congressional leaders should follow through on convening a fiscal commission to deal with the long-term budgetary challenges facing the country.
35 min readThe Tax Policy Implications of the Spanish Elections at the Regional, National, and European Levels
The Spanish election results are moving the country away from pro-growth tax reforms while launching the government’s tax agenda, and the agenda of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union, into uncertainty.
7 min readBenefits of Principled Tax Policy: EU VAT Reform Results
The EU’s recent VAT reform is an example of a win for governments, consumers, and companies. Charting a new path toward a more successful tax system.
4 min read