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Evaluating U.S. Tax Reform Options & Trade-Offs

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.

Brexit, UK tax system, UK CFC rules, UK controlled foreign corporation, UK BEPS

How Controlled Foreign Corporation Rules Look Around the World: United Kingdom

The UK rules are designed to arrive at the most accurate definition of foreign income that should be taxed in the home country. These rules apply one of the most detailed approaches to solving the issue of taxing the right type and amount of foreign income. The method can be considered more effective, but the compliance implications and derived costs may be higher compared to those that are derived from the application of other methods.

7 min read
Transfer pricing regulations, transfer pricing anti-base erosion rules, transfer pricing BEPS, transfer pricing base erosion

The Impacts of Tightening up on Transfer Pricing

As with other anti-base erosion policies, transfer pricing regulations reveal the challenges of designing rules that address problems associated with various strategies businesses use to minimize their tax burdens. While countries may want to target specific abuses, the way the rules are designed can have real economic impacts on cross-border investment.

6 min read