The economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic poses a triple challenge for tax policy in the United States. Lawmakers are tasked with crafting a policy response that will accelerate the economic recovery, reduce the mounting deficit, and protect the most vulnerable.
To assist lawmakers in navigating the challenge, and to help the American public understand the tax changes being proposed, the Tax Foundation’s Center for Federal Tax Policy modeled how 70 potential changes to the tax code would affect the U.S. economy, distribution of the tax burden, and federal revenue.
In tax policy there is an ever-present trade-off among how much revenue a tax will raise, who bears the burden of a tax, and what impact a tax will have on economic growth. Armed with the information in our new book, Options for Reforming America’s Tax Code 2.0, policymakers can debate the relative merits and trade-offs of each option to improve the tax code in a post-pandemic world.
![OECD harmful tax practices, FHTP, OECD BEPS, OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting](https://taxfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/international-global-copy-e1568816297733-300x220.jpeg)
OECD Tackling Harmful Tax Practices
Countries around the world often design their tax policies to become attractive targets for foreign investment. These policies can be anything from a system with special preferences for certain industries to a well-designed tax system based on principles of sound tax policy. Systems that are rife with special preferences and complexities can create distortions in local jurisdictions and across the global economy.
3 min read![Chicago budget shortfall, Chicago Budget deficit, Chicago higher taxes in Chicago](https://taxfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/linkedin-In-Stream_Wide___chicago-4-e1568726947508-300x158.jpg)
No Good Options as Chicago Seeks Revenue
Facing an $838 million budget shortfall, a looming pension crisis, and an aggressive spending wish list, some Chicago policymakers and activists are expressing interest in a laundry list of new and higher taxes that could, collectively, raise as much as an additional $4.5 billion a year.
6 min read![Standard deduction, itemized deduction, itemized deductions under current law, itemize under current law, itemize under Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, itemize under TCJA](https://taxfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/tax-compliance-1040-costs-e1568302630986-300x200.jpeg)
![Senator Wyden capital gains tax, unrealized capital gains tax, mark-to-market capital gains tax proposal](https://taxfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/linkedin-In-Stream_Wide___money-300x158.jpg)
Evaluating Senator Wyden’s “Mark-to-Market” Capital Gains Tax
Wyden’s “mark-to-market” proposal strives to subject capital gains to the same treatment as ordinary income. While the plan resolves the “lock in effect” issue and would make the tax code more progressive, it would increase the tax burden on savers and increase tax code complexity.
2 min read![German meat, German VAT, Germany VAT, German tax on Meat,](https://taxfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Cow-meat-german-e1567176840126-300x200.jpeg)
![Malaysia digital tax, Malaysia’s digital services tax, Digital services in Malaysia](https://taxfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/linkedin-In-Stream_Wide___malaysia-1-e1566491959327-300x158.jpg)
![Biden minimum tax on foreign earnings Biden approach to taxing corporate income Us tariffs on french goods in response to france digital services tax](https://taxfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/France-US-e1594416842240-300x200.jpeg)
![full expensing, 100% bonus depreciation,](https://taxfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/factory-equipment-manufacturing-machine-expensing-300x225.jpg)
New Evidence on the Benefits of Full Expensing
Additional evidence on the economic benefits of full expensing of investment was recently published in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.
4 min read![Poland income tax cut for young workers, Polish income tax cut](https://taxfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Warsaw-poland-e1565791137586-300x200.jpg)
![France Digital Services Tax, France's digital services tax, France's digital tax, France section 301](https://taxfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/france-300x225.jpg)