Stay informed with quick and accessible analysis of today's top tax policy topics. Read Tax Foundation's Tax Policy Blog for insight from our experts on tax policies across the US and abroad.
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No one enjoys paying taxes, but the property tax serves an important purpose, and Wyoming has already implemented significant property tax relief. Proposition 1 would undercut local finances to a degree that would likely force reliance on worse taxes (local or state) and prompt spending cuts that reduce homeowners’ property values.
5 min read
Nearly half of all hospitals are exempt from paying US corporate income taxes. As healthcare spending rises, lawmakers have questioned whether hospitals are providing as much in community benefits as they derive from tax exemptions.
11 min read
As scrutiny over data center investment and AI rises, some commentators are concerned about how expensing interacts with these ongoing investments. Most of these concerns misunderstand what expensing does.
5 min read
Hall’s research helped economists understand how taxes distort investment decisions, while his work with Rabushka shows how to minimize those distortions. Although the US remains far from a pure consumption tax, Hall’s work informs efforts to reduce the tax burden on investment, improve neutrality, and promote long-run economic growth.
3 min read
Washington’s new income tax on high earners doesn’t take effect until 2028, but it is already generating a lot of activity. A measure on the ballot this November, Initiative 645, would reverse the legislature’s decision, preventing the new tax from taking effect.
5 min read
The 2026 Regional Tax Competitiveness Index for Spain highlights a growing divergence between regions that have embraced tax reform and those whose tax systems have remained largely unchanged.
7 min read
The federal government’s debt burden and interest on the debt are near record levels and headed higher, raising legitimate concerns about an eventual debt crisis. Given the increasingly dysfunctional budget process, the most viable option on the table to stave off such a crisis is a statutory bipartisan fiscal commission with buy-in from leaders of both parties.
6 min read
Imposing sales taxes on rental car companies’ fleet purchases, in addition to the sales and rental car excise taxes levied when those cars are rented, yields double taxation and causes harmful tax pyramiding.
9 min read
Rather than continuing the Trump administration’s tariff policy, policymakers should explore new solutions that can raise sustainable revenue with fewer distortions, like replacing the tariffs with a value-added tax.
5 min read
On Election Day, Coloradans will get to decide on two competing measures on income taxes: an initiated statute that would cap income taxes at the current 4.4 percent rate; and a constitutional amendment that would authorize a graduated-rate individual and corporate income tax, paired with an initiated statute setting new rates, with a top rate of 8.4 percent.
6 min read
The Rental Housing Investment Act (RHIA) would remove much of that tax penalty by allowing developers of new rental housing to immediately deduct up to $150,000 of cost per unit.
7 min read
Congress has passed some major simplifying reforms in recent years, but the tax code has still grown more complex over the past few decades. New carveouts, savings vehicles, and targeted tax increases would complicate it further.
8 min read
The proposed GROWTH Act would make the tax treatment of investment funds more consistent and improve the tax treatment of saving in the US by allowing investors to defer tax on qualifying reinvested capital gains distributions until they sell their fund shares.
6 min read
Studies have repeatedly shown that US businesses and consumers are bearing a disproportionate share of the tariff burden.
7 min read
Many states levy taxes on liquids on a per-barrel basis. However, some states define a “barrel” differently than the standard measurement. The landscape of unharmonious units creates complexity and compliance costs for businesses that must pay these taxes in multiple states.
5 min read
The European Union’s revised Tobacco Excise Directive (TED) is the latest proposal from Brussels that raises questions about the role that the EU plays in relation to the Member States.
7 min read
Expensing for capital investment is not a special tax break. Expensing aligns the timing of tax deductions with the timing of actual capital expenditures so that the tax code does not discourage marginal investment projects.
7 min read
The “no tax on” deductions show the drawbacks of using narrowly tailored provisions to provide tax relief.
6 min read
On September 15th, Canada announced that full expensing for machinery, equipment, and patent rights will be made permanent and broadened from around 15 percent to two thirds of business capital investment.
6 min read
Policymakers considering AI-specific token or compute taxes can learn from the “bit tax” proposals of the 1990s during the rise of the internet.
6 min read