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Tax Files under New Council of EU Presidency: Belgium
In such a determinant semester for Europe, principled tax policy can be an important tool for a more competitive European Union.
5 min read
Spanish Regions Are Not Surrendering Their Tax Competitiveness without a Fight
Spain’s central government could learn some valuable lessons from its regional governments about sound tax policy.
7 min read
Why Moore v. U.S. Won’t Get Us a Consumption Tax Base
At first glance, a ruling for the plaintiffs in Moore might seem to solve some of the timing problems with the U.S. tax system. Unfortunately, upon greater inspection, such a ruling might create new timing problems. And the more rigid the ruling, the harder it would be to fix the timing problems it would create.
5 min read
Is EU VAT Compliance Actually Improving?
While the European Commission focuses on improving VAT compliance, policy is a major contributor to VAT revenue losses. The VAT actionable policy gap is 15.65 percent, more than triple the compliance gap.
5 min read
Movers and Shakers in the International Tax Competitiveness Index
The 2023 version of the International Tax Competitiveness Index is the 10th edition of the report. Let’s take a look back and see how country ranks have changed over time.
5 min read
2023 European Tax Policy Scorecard
The variety of approaches to taxation among European countries creates a need to evaluate these systems relative to each other. For that purpose, we have developed the European Tax Policy Scorecard—a relative comparison of European countries’ tax systems.
52 min read
2024 State Business Tax Climate Index
In recognition of the fact that there are better and worse ways to raise revenue, our Index focuses on how state tax revenue is raised, not how much. The rankings, therefore, reflect how well states structure their tax systems.
111 min read
International Tax Competitiveness Index 2023
While there are many factors that affect a country’s economic performance, taxes play an important role. A well-structured tax code is easy for taxpayers to comply with and can promote economic development while raising sufficient revenue for a government’s priorities.
88 min read
Most Successful Fiscal Consolidations Do Not Rely Solely on Tax Hikes
If tax increases are included in a package, international experience points toward raising consumption taxes, rationalizing tax expenditures, and broadening the tax base—not hiking income taxes.
6 min read
How Taxing Consumption Would Improve Long-Term Opportunity and Well-Being for Families and Children
Income taxes impose steeper economic costs, and often steeper administrative and compliance costs, than consumption taxes. Moving to a consumption tax would end the tax bias against saving and investment and provide an opportunity to greatly simplify anti-poverty programs embedded in the tax code.
45 min read
Tax Trends in European Countries
In recent years, European countries have undertaken a series of tax reforms designed to maintain tax revenue levels while protecting households and businesses from high inflation.
8 min read
How to Rein in the National Debt
Now is the time for lawmakers to focus on long-term fiscal sustainability, as further delay will only make an eventual fiscal reckoning that much harder and more painful. Congressional leaders should follow through on convening a fiscal commission to deal with the long-term budgetary challenges facing the country.
35 min read
The Tax Policy Implications of the Spanish Elections at the Regional, National, and European Levels
The Spanish election results are moving the country away from pro-growth tax reforms while launching the government’s tax agenda, and the agenda of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union, into uncertainty.
7 min read
Benefits of Principled Tax Policy: EU VAT Reform Results
The EU’s recent VAT reform is an example of a win for governments, consumers, and companies. Charting a new path toward a more successful tax system.
4 min read
A Tax Reform Plan for Growth and Opportunity: Details & Analysis
This tax reform plan would boost long-run GDP by 2.5%, grow wages by 1.4%, and add 1.3M jobs, all while collecting a similar amount of tax revenue as the current code and reducing the long-run debt burden.
38 min read
Beer Taxes by State, 2023
Taxes are the single most expensive ingredient in beer, costing more than the labor and raw materials combined.
3 min read
Why the Estonian Tax System Would Remain Competitive after Tax Reform
When a country has a broad base with a simple and transparent tax code, small rate changes have little influence. Therefore, policymakers shouldn’t only focus on rate changes when it comes to increasing tax competitiveness.
4 min read
Reforming EU Own Resources: Competitiveness versus Raising Revenue
When it comes to EU-level tax policy ideas, competitiveness seems to be less of a priority than raising revenue or pursuing social objectives.
4 min read
Tax Policy and Economic Downturns in Europe
While some temporary policies can help in a crisis, policymakers should focus their efforts on sustainable policies that support growth and the resilience of businesses (and government coffers) over the long term.
6 min read
How to Unlock Global Growth: The Role of Taxation
Our recent policy conference brought together academics and political leaders to present research on some of the most pressing issues in global tax policy and to discuss solutions that can unlock genuine global growth.
9 min read