State Sales Tax Breadth and Reliance, Fiscal Year 2020
By failing to keep pace with modern consumption patterns, sales taxes have become less neutral, less equitable, and less economically efficient over time.
16 min readBy failing to keep pace with modern consumption patterns, sales taxes have become less neutral, less equitable, and less economically efficient over time.
16 min readBelgium, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom currently levy a type of financial transaction tax
2 min readThe latest IRS data shows that the U.S. federal individual income tax continued to be progressive, borne primarily by the highest income earners.
8 min readNorth Carolina’s 2.5 percent corporate tax rate is the lowest in the country, followed by Missouri (4 percent) and North Dakota (4.31 percent). Seven other states impose top rates at or below 5 percent: Florida (4.458 percent), Colorado (4.55 percent), Arizona (4.9 percent), Utah (4.95 percent), and Kentucky, Mississippi, and South Carolina (5 percent).
7 min readValue-added taxes (VAT) make up approximately one-fifth of total tax revenues in Europe. However, European countries differ significantly in how efficiently they raise VAT revenues. One way to measure a country’s VAT efficiency is the VAT Gap.
4 min readNewly published data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) shows that the first round of economic impact payments primarily benefited households earning less than $100,000.
3 min readConsumption taxes (like sales taxes) are more economically neutral than taxes on capital and income because they target only current consumption. Consumption taxes are generally more stable than income taxes in economic downturns as well.
3 min readSome lawmakers have expressed interest in repealing the SALT cap, which was originally imposed as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) in late 2017. It is important to understand who benefits from the SALT deduction as it currently exists, and who would benefit from the deduction if the cap were repealed.
6 min readMany countries incentivize business investment in research and development (R&D), intending to foster innovation. A common approach is to provide direct government funding for R&D activity. However, a significant number of jurisdictions also offer R&D tax incentives.
4 min readNew Hampshire and Alaska rely most heavily on property taxes. Neither have individual income taxes, and in New Hampshire, significant government authority often vested in state government is devolved to the local level, where services are overwhelmingly funded by property taxes.
4 min read