100 Percent Bonus Depreciation (Full Expensing)

Taxes, Fiscal Policy, and Inflation

Consumer prices rose by 7 percent in 2021, the highest annual rate of inflation since 1982. Where did this inflation come from and what might its impacts be? Tax and fiscal policy offer important clues.

Bonus Depreciation Helps Disadvantaged Workers, Study Finds

Low-skilled workers have been the hardest hit by the pandemic-induced economic slowdown. When deciding on bonus depreciation, which is currently set to expire in 2026, policymakers should remember that disadvantaged workers would be the most likely to benefit from making it permanent.

Fixing Tax Treatment of Capital Investments Could Improve Supply Chain Resiliency

While taxes are not at the root of supply chain disruptions, improvements to the tax code could make supply chains more resilient in the future.

How Biden’s Tax Plans Could Negatively Impact Housing

While President Biden has many proposals aimed at increasing the supply of affordable housing, including tax credits, his plans to raise business taxes could hinder that goal.

Tax Treatment of Nuclear Energy Should Be Simplified, Neutral, with Renewable Energy Sources

Tackling climate change and shifting the economy towards renewable energy has been a key part of the Biden administration’s agenda. However, this effort must first confront an overly complicated and non-neutral tax code, particularly in how it treats nuclear energy, for the White House to reach its ambitious goals.

Three Reasons Why Full Cost Recovery Is Right Even if Assets Increase in Value

The ideal treatment is to match the tax code to a firm’s cash flow—allow immediate deductions for all expenses, including all forms of investment, while taxing the resulting returns from the investments.

Tax Expenditure

Policymakers Offer Proposals to Fix Three Upcoming Tax Changes

Three upcoming tax law changes scheduled by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) to help offset its revenue losses would be canceled by proposed legislation that would prevent the tax treatment of investment from worsening over the coming years.

U.S. Corporate Tax Expenditures and Effective Tax Rates in Line with OECD Peers

Last week, an analysis by Reuters suggested that U.S. firms pay less income tax than foreign competitors, in part because “the U.S. tax code is unusually generous with tax breaks and deductions,” also known as corporate tax expenditures. However, the Reuters analysis is at odds with other data and studies indicating that U.S. corporate tax expenditures and effective tax rates are about on par with those in peer countries in the OECD.

How the Tax Code Handles Inflation (and How It Doesn’t)

While parts of the U.S. tax code can handle inflation, full expensing of capital investment would be a major improvement along these lines.

Expensing Is Infrastructure, Too

The Biden administration has suggested several tax increases for his infrastructure plan. Public infrastructure can help increase economic growth, but by raising taxes on private investment, the net effect on growth may be negative. However, tax options like retaining expensing for private R&D investment or making 100 percent bonus depreciation for equipment permanent would be complementary to the goals of infrastructure spending.

Combined Effect of a Higher Corporate Rate and Permanent Bonus Depreciation

The negative effects of President Biden’s proposed 28 percent corporate income tax rate could be tempered by improving how the corporate income tax base treats investment expenses.

Two Important Issues that Must Be Resolved in “Global Tax Reform”

If the U.S. is suggesting a 15 percent effective rate as the minimum acceptable rate for a global agreement, then the tax bases of the various minimum taxes adopted as part of the agreement should be aligned to minimize complexities and unintended consequences.

Tax Policy Ideas in the Republican Study Committee Budget

While much of the tax policy now under debate aims to increase the tax burden on businesses, several policies in the newly released Republican Study Committee (RSC) budget for Fiscal Year 2022 focus on reducing the tax code’s barriers to investment and saving.

Tax Policy Lessons from Down Under

This week the Australian government released its latest budget proposal and two policies that stand out in its fiscal response to the pandemic should be helpful as the economic engine of the country turns back on. The first is full expensing for some investments and the second is the introduction of a loss carryback provision. The new budget takes both these temporary policies and extends them into 2023.

Reviewing Options to Raise Tax Revenue and the Trade-offs for Economic Growth and Progressivity

There’s a useful contrast between two revenue options related to President Biden’s infrastructure push. The president’s American Jobs Plan includes a proposal to raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent. Meanwhile, historically, the gas tax is the main revenue source for transportation funding.

Providing Full Cost Recovery for Investment and Lowering Taxes on Firms Are Best Options for Boosting Growth

As policymakers consider tax options to boost the U.S. economy’s long-run economic growth, they should consider reforms that would increase growth the most while minimizing forgone tax revenue.

IMF Tax Proposals: Shrink Inequality or Sink Post-Pandemic Recovery?

To help countries face the pandemic-related financing needs while reducing inequality, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released a series of policy recommendations based on a temporary COVID-19 tax, levied on high incomes or wealth.

Leveling Up: The UK’s Super-Deduction and its Regional Divide

As part of the 2021 Budget, the UK introduced a 130 percent super-deduction for plant and equipment for the next two years, meaning that businesses can take a deduction amounting to 130 percent of the costs in the year the investment is made.

Capital Cost Recovery across the OECD, 2021

The ongoing pandemic has once again highlighted the importance of investment. To address the economic fallout of the pandemic, several OECD countries have temporarily accelerated depreciation schedules for various assets.