What Is Taxable Income? How It’s Calculated for Tax Filing
Want to know how much you’ll owe during tax filing season? Then you need to know your taxable income.
All Related Articles
Options to Reform the Tax Treatment of Exempt Hospitals
Nearly half of all hospitals are exempt from paying US corporate income taxes. As healthcare spending rises, lawmakers have questioned whether hospitals are providing as much in community benefits as they derive from tax exemptions.
11 min read
Expensing Concentrates the Corporate Tax Burden on Economic Profits
As scrutiny over data center investment and AI rises, some commentators are concerned about how expensing interacts with these ongoing investments. Most of these concerns misunderstand what expensing does.
5 min read
2026 Economics Nobel Laureate Robert Hall Helped Lay Foundation for Pro-Growth Tax Reform
Hall’s research helped economists understand how taxes distort investment decisions, while his work with Rabushka shows how to minimize those distortions. Although the US remains far from a pure consumption tax, Hall’s work informs efforts to reduce the tax burden on investment, improve neutrality, and promote long-run economic growth.
3 min read
Amendment 3: A Restructuring of Florida’s Local Tax Base
Florida has long maintained one of the nation’s most competitive state tax codes, but a fundamental change proposed by Amendment 3 could undermine that competitiveness.
30 min read
International Tax Competitiveness Index 2026
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.
72 min read
Spain’s Transformation After a Decade of Fiscal Competition
The 2026 Regional Tax Competitiveness Index for Spain highlights a growing divergence between regions that have embraced tax reform and those whose tax systems have remained largely unchanged.
7 min read
Why the US Needs a Fiscal Commission to Help Solve the Debt Crisis
The federal government’s debt burden and interest on the debt are near record levels and headed higher, raising legitimate concerns about an eventual debt crisis. Given the increasingly dysfunctional budget process, the most viable option on the table to stave off such a crisis is a statutory bipartisan fiscal commission with buy-in from leaders of both parties.
6 min read
Rental Cars Shouldn’t Face Another Layer of Tax
Imposing sales taxes on rental car companies’ fleet purchases, in addition to the sales and rental car excise taxes levied when those cars are rented, yields double taxation and causes harmful tax pyramiding.
9 min read
Combined State and Federal Corporate Income Tax Rates in 2026
Corporations in the United States pay federal corporate income taxes levied at a 21 percent rate. Forty-four states and DC also levy taxes on corporate income, with top marginal rates ranging from 2.5 percent in North Carolina to 11.5 percent in New Jersey.
2 min read
The 2026 Ballot Measures Shaping State Taxes
What happens when voters decide tax policy directly? This November, roughly 40 tax measures are on the ballot across 17 states. Some states want higher taxes on top earners, others want to write low rates into their constitutions, and Missouri voters will decide whether to start a fund that could one day replace every state tax.
A Small Value-Added Tax Could Pay for Tariff Repeal
Rather than continuing the Trump administration’s tariff policy, policymakers should explore new solutions that can raise sustainable revenue with fewer distortions, like replacing the tariffs with a value-added tax.
5 min read
Real Property Taxes in Europe, 2026
High property taxes levied not only on land but also on buildings and structures can discourage investment in infrastructure, which businesses would have to pay additional tax on.
3 min read
Colorado’s Election Day Choice on Income Taxes
On Election Day, Coloradans will get to decide on two competing measures on income taxes: an initiated statute that would cap income taxes at the current 4.4 percent rate; and a constitutional amendment that would authorize a graduated-rate individual and corporate income tax, paired with an initiated statute setting new rates, with a top rate of 8.4 percent.
6 min read
2026 Spanish Regional Tax Competitiveness Index
The 2026 Spanish Regional Tax Competitiveness Index allows policymakers and taxpayers to evaluate and measure how their regions’ tax systems compare.
8 min read
Why Expensing New Rental Housing Is One of the Best Ways to Tackle the Housing Supply Problem
The Rental Housing Investment Act (RHIA) would remove much of that tax penalty by allowing developers of new rental housing to immediately deduct up to $150,000 of cost per unit.
7 min read
Top Five Options Guide Reforms to Simplify the Tax Code
Congress has passed some major simplifying reforms in recent years, but the tax code has still grown more complex over the past few decades. New carveouts, savings vehicles, and targeted tax increases would complicate it further.
8 min read
Federal Surcharge Drives Another Increase in Wireless Taxes and Fees in 2026
Applying the sales tax, a traditional broad-based consumption tax, is perfectly appropriate, but excessive targeted taxation of wireless services lacks the traditional justifications—a user-pays system or the internalization of social costs—for excise taxation, raising consumer costs and discouraging investment.
5 min read
The Hidden Tariff Burden of Related-Party Trade
Studies have repeatedly shown that US businesses and consumers are bearing a disproportionate share of the tariff burden.
7 min read
Tax Complexity Now Costs the US Economy over $544 Billion Annually
Americans will spend 6.9 billion hours complying with IRS tax filing and reporting requirements in 2026, costing about $387 billion in lost productivity. Including an additional $157 billion in out-of-pocket costs, complying with the federal tax code will cost Americans more than $544 billion this year, over 1.7 percent of GDP.
10 min read