Siim Kallas Proved the Hard Work of Sound Tax Reform Pays Off
If America’s leaders today want to learn how to build a lasting system on the foundation of simplicity and neutrality, they should follow the Siim Kallas blueprint.
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If America’s leaders today want to learn how to build a lasting system on the foundation of simplicity and neutrality, they should follow the Siim Kallas blueprint.
4 min read
Federal government debt is over $32 trillion, around the size of the nation’s annual economic output (its gross domestic product, or GDP). Debt levels this high mean US borrowing costs are sensitive to interest rate changes that may otherwise seem small.
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In 2025, the CTP reduced the backlog of premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) by about 70 percent. This year, the CTP is already accelerating PMTA reviews further and allowing some leeway for products under review but not yet officially authorized. This is great progress, but much more can be made.
7 min read
The new public country-by-country reporting regimes adopted by the EU and Australia, and changes from the Financial Accounting Standards Board for financial accounts, are meant to promote transparency by multinational enterprises but have ubiquitous structural differences.
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While uncapping the payroll tax and raising individual income tax rates are often the go-to reform options for policymakers, base broadeners like ESI and other fringe benefits are much better alternatives. They can raise significant revenue, while improving the neutrality of the tax code and preventing the need for increases in statutory tax rates.
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Privacy concerns are a primary driver of opposition to vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax systems, but VMT taxes do not need to invade drivers’ privacy to efficiently fund the roads.
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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.
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In June, the Dominican Republic rushed through a package of tax legislation in seven days. International examples demonstrate that consultation, transparency, and clarity are key factors for successful tax reform.
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US policymakers have put forward two new tax proposals to address concerns about how artificial intelligence (AI) will impact land, energy, and the workforce.
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If Canada doesn’t make these provisions permanent, it will drop to 12th place in the capital cost recovery ranking once provisions expire in 2034.
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Some taxes have more powerful economic effects than others, and that’s a lesson policymakers should absorb as they work to craft a tax code that encourages growth and raises sustainable revenue.
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The economic damage from a chaotic tariff regime can outweigh the revenue itself, and unlike the tariffs, it cannot be refunded.
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Rather than adopt temporary policies that phase out and expire, policymakers should focus their efforts on long-term reforms to support investment.
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The 12-year history of Tax Foundation’s ITCI shows that tax policy is constantly in flux around the world and that tax policy design choices matter for economic growth.
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Retail prices make poor targets for excise tax policy, often reflecting factors that have little to do with the underlying reasons for which an excise tax is levied in the first place. Unfortunately, the World Health Organization (WHO) has a growing preference for using tax share of retail price (tax incidence) as a primary policy target.
6 min read
Foreign R&D generally complements domestic innovation rather than substituting for it, so penalizing foreign R&D weakens US firms in cross-border mergers and acquisitions and in domestic production that depends on global scale.
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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.
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The EU public country-by-country data provides information on taxes and profits that do not align with standard financial disclosure requirements.
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Because withholding taxes can create double taxation and administrative friction even where foreign tax credits are available, the European Commission’s 2026 Tax Omnibus proposal to eliminate them on dividend, interest, and royalty payments between EU companies regardless of holding percentage would foster stronger cross-border savings and investment.
6 min read
NYC’s congestion tolling has reduced congestion, raised money for the MTA, and sped up vehicles in the city. Its success has inspired proposals for congestion tolling in other major US cities, like Los Angeles and Washington, DC.
4 min read