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.

What Does Moving Toward a More Competitive EU Tax System Mean?
As the geopolitical scene continues to change, policymakers in Europe should focus on lowering effective marginal tax rates to drive much-needed investment and long-term economic growth.
6 min read
Brazil Proposes Major Overhaul of Its Alcohol Tax System
The Brazilian government is poised to make the biggest change to its alcohol tax policy in recent history.
6 min read
Oregon Measure 118 Is an $8 Billion Tax Increase That Raids $2 Billion from the State Budget
Due to the peculiar design of the proposed tax increase, it’s true: the largest tax increase Oregon has ever seen would create a substantial budget shortfall.
8 min read
South Dakota’s Initiated Measure 28 Undermines Sales Tax Rate Reductions
Especially for a state that relies so heavily on the sales tax as a source of revenue—and where most people want to keep it that way—a broad base and a low rate is crucial.
5 min read
The French Budget: Moving from Public Debate to Principled Solutions
Focusing on competitiveness, neutrality, and efficient policies to raise revenue would go a long way in increasing economic growth and stabilizing public finances over the long term.
7 min read
Georgia Amendment 1 Threatens the State’s Housing Market
Georgia should focus on policies that restrict the overall growth of property taxes, not policies that functionally freeze property taxes for current owners by shifting costs onto new owners and into the sales tax.
6 min read
Taxpayers Shoulder a Heavy Burden for Sports Stadium Subsidies
Sports stadium subsidies are salient political gimmicks designed to appear as if politicians are providing tangible benefits to taxpayers. The empirical evidence shows repeatedly that stadium subsidies fail to generate new tax revenue and new jobs or attract new businesses.
6 min read
Combined Corporate Rates Would Exceed 30 Percent in Most States Under Harris’s Tax Plan
Raising the combined US corporate rate to the second highest in the OECD would encourage corporations to depart from the US, reducing economic output and worker wages across the income spectrum.
2 min read
Trump’s Tariff Proposals Would Raise Tariff Rates to Great Depression-Era Levels
Using tariff policy to reallocate investment and jobs is a costly mistake—that’s a history lesson we should not forget.
6 min read
What Are the Tax Consequences of Rescheduling Marijuana?
The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that it would move to reschedule marijuana. This move doesn’t do as much for legal cannabis sales as proposed federal legislation like the States 2.0 Act, but rescheduling cannabis has major ramifications for cannabis businesses.
4 min read