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.

 

Arkansas state income tax rates
Blog

Arkansas Cuts Income Tax Rates for the Fourth Time in Four Years

During a recent special session called by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), Arkansas policymakers cut the state’s top individual and corporate income tax rates, continuing Arkansas’s years-long tax reform streak and making the Razorback State one of five states to cut income taxes so far in 2026.

5 min read
externality definition externality economics negative externalities like social costs Alcohol while how is a topic for Excise Tax Reforms federal gas tax holiday proposal for suspending the gas tax federal gas tax suspension gas tax holiday highway trust fund infrastructure funding
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Federal Gas Tax Holiday? Suspending the Gas Tax Is a Mistake

In response to surging gas prices, President Trump and several lawmakers have proposed suspending the federal gas tax via a gas tax holiday. Gas tax holidays have appeal across the political aisle, but suspending the federal gas tax is a uniquely ill-suited policy for addressing rising prices.

3 min read
Rental Car Taxes and Fees
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Renting a Car? Half Your Bill May Be Taxes and Fees

Rental cars are some of the most heavily taxed transactions in the US. Rather than levying additional taxes on rental cars by trying to export the tax burden to nonresidents, municipalities should enact principled, neutral transportation tax policy that is unlikely to discourage visitors, tourists, and other economic activity.

5 min read
Germany Tax Burden on Labor and Consumption, Vale-Added Tax Base
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Europe

Shifting Germany’s Tax Burden from Labor to Consumption Requires a Broad VAT Base

Shifting Germany’s tax mix away from labor to consumption remains a sound policy route to strengthen the country’s labor supply, but further eroding the VAT base with preferential rates for selected goods and services would counteract this goal by depleting the extra revenue for labor tax cuts while providing less-targeted relief for low-income households.

6 min read
California Worldwide Combined Reporting, CA Corporate Income Taxation
Blog

California’s Mandatory Worldwide Combined Reporting Proposal Is a Mistake

California lawmakers are considering mandating worldwide combined reporting, bringing back a policy the state abandoned in the 1980s due to strong pushback from international trading partners and the federal government. The policy failed to work as intended then and doesn’t make any better sense now.

8 min read