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.
4 min read
All Related Articles
Testimony: Legislative Proposal to Adapt the Income Tax Code to the Digital Economy Repeats the Economic and Legal Mistakes of Digital Services Taxes
The Belgian proposal departs significantly from sound tax policy principles and risks generating substantial economic distortions, legal uncertainty, and trade frictions while raising relatively little revenue.
New Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Should Reform the Center for Tobacco Products
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
How Poland’s Restrictive Tax Treatment of Losses Penalizes Risk-Taking and Business Expansion
Poland has one of the most restrictive approaches to the tax treatment of losses in the OECD. Loss carryover provisions allow businesses to deduct their losses in one year against taxable income in another, smoothing their taxable income over time. Their absence or restriction leads to firms with more variable profits and losses over time being taxed at higher rates, penalizing risky investment, such as research and development (R&D), and business expansion.
16 min read
Good Tax Reform Starts with Good Process
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.
5 min read
From Temporary to Permanent Full Expensing: Strengthening Canada’s Investment Climate
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.
5 min read
How Tax Cliffs Hold Back Poland’s Individual Business Owners
Poland taxes its individual business owners through alternative regimes and a series of thresholds, several of them sharp notches that imply significant tax costs for businesses crossing them.
11 min read
How Expensing for Capital Investment Transforms Project Economics: A Case Study Approach
The OBBBA made substantial improvements to cost recovery, but more opportunities remain for policymakers looking to improve the investment climate in the US.
48 min read
Sales Tax Holidays by State, 2026
However well-intended they may be, sales tax holidays remain the same as they always have been—ineffective and inefficient.
12 min read
Flawed EU Tax Disclosure Standards Will Cause Confusion
The EU public country-by-country data provides information on taxes and profits that do not align with standard financial disclosure requirements.
6 min read
How Withholding Taxes Affect Cross-Border Investment in Europe
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
Taxing the Matchmakers: How Digital Services Taxes Cascade Through Online Commerce
A destination-based value-added tax (VAT) or goods and services tax (GST) is a better instrument for taxing digital consumption by avoiding cascading. Recent experience shows that governments can tax digital consumption with a better structure than DSTs.
15 min read
Is the European Commission’s Tax Omnibus Proposal a Step in the Right Direction?
The European Commission’s new Tax Omnibus proposal marks a notable step towards improving the simplicity and competitiveness of the EU Single Market.
8 min read
What Pennsylvania’s Digital Ad Tax Proposal Would Actually Do
Pennsylvania lawmakers are looking to impose the Commonwealth’s existing telecom gross receipts tax (GRT) on companies providing digital advertising services in Pennsylvania.
5 min read
Three Questions to Ask About New Tax Transparency Regimes
The new data disclosures will draw significant attention in 2026 and beyond. However, because the data is rooted in financial accounting concepts, affected by timing issues, and shaped by inconsistent reporting regimes, it is poorly suited for drawing strong conclusions about tax policy or corporate behavior.
7 min read
Failing to Renew the USMCA Would Increase Tariff Uncertainty and Harm Americans
With nearly 2 million US jobs tied to trade with Canada and Mexico, stalling renewal — or withdrawing outright — would compound tariff uncertainty at exactly the wrong time.
6 min read
Testimony: Are Digital Services Taxes a Viable Solution for the EU Budget?
Digital services taxes address a real concern—the need to adapt taxation to the digital economy—but they are not the right solution. They raise limited revenue, are often passed on to consumers rather than large digital firms, create economic distortions, increase complexity and compliance costs, negatively impact innovation and competitiveness, and risk international retaliation.
Are Digital Services Taxes a Viable Solution for the EU Budget?
Since digital services taxes generate little revenue, place the cost on European consumers and not on large digital companies as intended, and risk escalating trade disputes, policymakers should rethink their strategy.
14 min read
VAT Exemption Thresholds in Europe, 2026
Worldwide, 175 countries—including all major European countries—levy a value-added tax (VAT) on goods and services. However, to reduce compliance and administrative costs, most countries have VAT exemption thresholds: if a business is below a certain annual revenue threshold, it is not required to participate in the VAT system.
3 min read
Illinois’ New Social Media Tax Is a Shambles
Illinois plans to impose a complicated, legally fraught new social media tax based on a few pages of confused, contradictory, and almost laughably incomplete legislative text embedded in the new budget.
10 min read