Jared Walczak is a Senior Fellow at the Tax Foundation, where he spent five years as Vice President of State Projects, and president of Walczak Policy Consulting.
Jared has written or co-written tax reform guides for more than a dozen states and has served as the principal author of the Tax Foundation’s State Tax Competitiveness Index and Location Matters. He is also a regular on the conference circuit and has testified before legislatures in 35 states. His efforts have been instrumental in securing tax reform in many states, including sweeping reforms in Iowa and Louisiana, along with substantive reforms in Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming, among others.
Jared also serves as a member of the faculty of the Institute for Professionals in Taxation, sits on the state tax advisory board of the Institute for State Policy Leaders, and contributes to Tax Notes State magazine. He is the author of the “SALT Road” Substack, a free newsletter on state and local tax policy.
The Maryland Tax Court has struck down the state’s digital advertising tax and ordered that refunds be paid to taxpayers for five and a half years’ worth of collections under the unconstitutional tax.
5 min read
The California Billionaire Tax Act (Proposition 40), which imposes a one-time 5 percent tax on billionaires’ net worth, is vulnerable to numerous constitutional challenges, any of which could invalidate the tax in whole or in part.
28 min read
The California Billionaire Tax Act’s residency provisions are exceptionally vulnerable to legal challenge. Even if the tax passes and survives challenges to its broader constitutionality, billionaires who leave California sometime in 2026 have good reason to believe they can escape some or all of the tax.
Policymakers are increasingly considering taxes on data processing and other businesses’ digital services, but these taxes increase costs at many stages of the production process for virtually all businesses, not just tech-oriented businesses.
7 min read
Illinois plans to impose a complicated, legally fraught new social media tax based on a few pages of confused, contradictory, and almost laughably incomplete legislative text embedded in the new budget.
10 min read
If approved by voters, the wealth tax will face a flurry of serious legal challenges—some to its overall constitutionality, and some regarding who can be taxed and to what degree if the tax survives broader legal scrutiny.
24 min read
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
The proposed California wealth tax could be levied on founders’ voting interests in their companies, despite the initiative’s drafters insisting otherwise.
6 min read
Maine’s proposed millionaire’s tax would bring Maine’s top income tax rate to 9.15 percent, dealing a blow to the state’s economic competitiveness.
5 min read
Proponents of a California wealth tax ballot initiative insist that the proposed wealth tax is temporary: a one-time 5 percent tax that can be paid upfront or over five years with deferral charges. Others are skeptical that the wealth tax would be allowed to expire.
6 min read
Under HB26-1221, Colorado would make two changes that raise additional revenue by taxing income that doesn’t actually exist. The proposed changes to the state’s alternative minimum tax and net operating loss provisions are designed to overstate income, leading to double taxation and distorting taxpayer behavior.
5 min read
A digital advertising tax in Utah will increase costs for Utah businesses and expose the state to complicated legal battles.
4 min read
Washington lawmakers are holding their first hearing on long-anticipated legislation that would create a new 9.9 percent tax on income over $1 million.
6 min read
Lawmakers in many states continue to pursue additional income tax relief, while their counterparts elsewhere pursue the opposite goal.
3 min read
While the CEA’s analysis of the benefits of reduced reliance on income taxes is sound, its revenue replacement estimates are not. The actual revenue replacement rate could be as high as 17.51 percent.
6 min read
Michigan’s proposed 5 percent income surtax on high earners, yielding a top marginal rate of 9.25 percent, is also a tax on the small businesses that employ nearly 2 million Michiganders.
25 min read
The 2026 Billionaire Tax Act, a California ballot initiative, would ostensibly impose a one-time tax of 5 percent on the net worth of the state’s billionaires. Due, however, to aggressive design choices and possible drafting errors, the actual rate on taxpayers’ net worth could be dramatically higher.
18 min read
A proposed “millionaire’s tax” in Washington State would yield the highest combined state and local top rate in the country.
6 min read
While Wyoming is outcompeting California in attracting data centers due to affordability and sound tax policy, lawmakers should avoid imposing discriminatory sales tax on data centers’ machinery and equipment (M&E) purchases.
6 min read
The Chicago Bears are threatening to relocate from Illinois to Indiana as they negotiate over taxes and public financing. Illinois’ uncompetitive and burdensome tax environment makes it difficult for the NFL team to operate.
4 min read