Improving Tax Treatment of Structures Offers Commonsense Way to Boost Competitiveness
The U.S. tax system is biased against capital investments. Ending these tax penalties would boost economic output, productivity, and employment.
5 min read
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Taxes, Tariffs, and Industrial Policy: How the US Tax Code Fails Manufacturing
Policymakers actively marginalized the manufacturing sector by saddling them with cost recovery rules that prevent them from deducting the full cost of investment in physical plant and equipment. Going forward, policymakers should avoid haphazard fixes, targeted measures, and protectionism.
50 min read
10 Tax Reforms for Growth and Opportunity
By reducing the tax code’s current barriers to investment and saving and simplifying its complex rules, lawmakers would greatly enhance the ability of Americans to pursue new ideas, create more opportunities, and build financial security for themselves and their families.
40 min read
What the Internet Can Teach Us About Capital Investment, Infrastructure, and Tax Policy
The lockdowns imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic induced an increase in demand for broadband internet, as work from home and other social distancing measures pushed people to spend more time online. As broadband becomes a more important piece of America’s infrastructure, it makes sense to look at tax policy that will help drive more investment and better service.
2 min read
Toomey Introduces Legislation to Make Bonus Depreciation Permanent and Fix the Retail Glitch
Making 100 percent bonus depreciation permanent avoids the uncertainty associated with the phaseout of a powerful pro-growth policy and would provide a cost-effective boost to long-run economic output, wages, and employment in the United States.
2 min read
The White House Budget Highlights the Need to Extend Pro-Growth TCJA Business Tax Provisions
Full expensing, if made permanent, would be one of the most cost-effective ways to increase growth as it would produce about 4.5 times more GDP growth per dollar of revenue than making the law’s individual tax provisions permanent, according to our analysis.
3 min read
Depreciation Requires Businesses to Pay Tax on Income That Doesn’t Exist
While tax rates matter to businesses, so too does the measure of income to which those tax rates apply. The corporate income tax is a tax on profits, normally defined as revenue minus costs. However, under the current tax code, businesses are unable to deduct the full cost of certain expenses—their capital investments—meaning the tax code is not neutral and actually increases the cost of investment.
3 min read
Taxable Income vs. Book Income: Why Some Corporations Pay No Income Tax
Why do some companies appear to be profitable but pay little or no federal income taxes? It’s largely due to differences between book and taxable income.
4 min read
Testimony: The Positive Economic Growth Effects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
Tax Foundation President, Scott Hodge, provides written testimony before the United States Joint Economic Committee on the economic growth effects of TCJA.
Permanence for 100 Percent Bonus Depreciation Provides More Cost-Effective Growth than Permanence for Individual Provisions
In the long run, permanent full expensing produces about 4.5 times more GDP growth per dollar of revenue than making individual TCJA provisions permanent.
2 min read
The TCJA’s Expensing Provision Alleviates the Tax Code’s Bias Against Certain Investments
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made significant progress in improving businesses’ ability to recover the cost of making investments in the United States by enacting 100 percent bonus depreciation.
11 min read
Here’s What GDP Actually Tells Us
4 min read
Lowering the Corporate Income Tax Rate Benefits Old and New Capital
Cutting the corporate tax rate improves the United States’ international tax competitiveness, incentives new investment and benefits both old & new capital.
3 min read
The Tax Treatment of Capital Assets and Its Effect on Growth: Expensing, Depreciation, and the Concept of Cost Recovery in the Tax System
How capital assets are accounted for in the tax code dramatically affects what is defined as taxable income and, thereby, directly influences the cost of capital. The higher the cost, the less capital is formed, and the slower the economy will grow.
2 min read