Most states avoid municipal income taxes for good reason. These taxes are more volatile and less economically competitive than other forms of taxation available to local governments, and add substantial complexity for governments and taxpayers alike.
23 min read
Levied in thousands of cities, counties, school districts, and other localities, local income taxes are often used to either lower other taxes (like property taxes) or raise more revenue for local services. While they may make sense on paper, local income taxes come with more challenges than other local revenue sources.
Individual income taxes are a major source of state government revenue, accounting for more than a third of state tax collections:
9 min read
Immediately balancing the $20 trillion budget shortfall would take drastic, unwanted policy changes. Instead, lawmakers should target a more achievable goal, such as stabilizing debt and deficits with an eye toward comprehensive tax reform that can produce sufficient revenue with minimal economic harm.
4 min read
While hoping for inflation’s continued decline, policymakers should finish the job and index the tax code to prepare for future bouts of high inflation and as a contingency in case it takes longer to defeat elevated inflation than expected.
4 min read
Despite robust revenues, some state lawmakers are champing at the bit to raise taxes on higher-income households, sometimes to extraordinary levels.
7 min read
Taking into account central and subcentral taxes, Portugal has the highest corporate tax rate in Europe at 31.5 percent, followed by Germany and Italy at 29.8 percent and 27.8 percent, respectively
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When peeling back layers of the JCT report, it becomes clear that many tax expenditures are not “loopholes” or benefits for narrow special interests, but important structural elements of the tax code.
6 min read
President Biden shared his policy aspirations during the State of the Union address, outlining three tax proposals in his remarks: quadrupling the brand-new excise tax on stock buybacks, instituting a “billionaire minimum tax,” and extending the now-lapsed expanded Child Tax Credit. We discuss the prospects of major tax changes becoming law in a divided government and what these proposals signal about how President Biden thinks about tax policy as he enters the latter half of his first term.
If your state issued tax rebates last year, you might have to pay federal income tax on the rebate you received. Maybe. Who knows? Unfortunately, not the IRS—at least not yet.
5 min read