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.
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.
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A study from the Fraser Institute finds the US tax code is highly progressive relative to other OECD countries.
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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.
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Europe’s turn toward the UN is ultimately not a sign that governments are ready to resolve fundamental disputes over taxing rights. If anything, international cooperation on the goal that matters most—fair treatment of cross-border trade—is crumbling.
AI may be a transformative technology, but that is not a good justification for throwing core principles of tax policy out the window.
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.
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Publicly held debt is projected to rise to a new record high of 106 percent of GDP within the next four years and continue to rise to 120 percent by 2036 and 175 percent by 2056.
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Currently, the European Commission has plans to generate more tax revenue to fund the forthcoming MFF, the long-term budget running from 2028 to 2034. But the truth is, without serious reform, the EU isn’t ready for new taxation.
Oregon’s Extended Producer Responsibility program to incentivize recycling does so with a complicated and unprincipled series of regulations, including confidentially determined tax rates on various materials derived from a revenue goal.
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Debates over tax fairness and anti-avoidance rules have dominated European tax policy circles for over a decade. However, as geoeconomic pressures increase around the world, policymakers are looking for ways to boost European competitiveness and economic growth.
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Military action around the Strait of Hormuz has increased global oil prices. In response, policymakers around the world have put forward proposals targeting oil and gas producers who are seeing profits increase in the short run from the spike in prices.
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Revenue-neutral proposals, like many things in politics, have become a relic of the past.
During a recent special session called by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), Arkansas policymakers cut the state’s top individual and corporate income tax rates, continuing Arkansas’s years-long tax reform streak and making the Razorback State one of five states to cut income taxes so far in 2026.
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Carryover provisions help businesses “smooth” their risk and income, making the tax code more neutral across investments and over time.
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Tax collections vary widely by state, making per capita collections figures—a measure of collections per person—especially useful, as they allow comparisons across differences in tax rates and bases, economic capacities, and policy decisions that impact the size and scope of government.
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The economic literature overwhelmingly finds that an income tax increase of this magnitude would negatively affect economic growth and opportunity in Rhode Island.
The carbon tax is often considered the ideal climate policy. However, existing carbon taxes do not match the ideal theoretical policy. More than two dozen carbon taxes exist in the world today, and they vary widely in terms of design.
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The Trump tariffs have not meaningfully altered the trade balance and amount to an average tax increase per US household of $700 in 2026.
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Currently, about half of all European OECD countries have either announced, proposed, or implemented a digital services tax. Because these taxes mainly impact US companies and are thus perceived as discriminatory, the US responded with retaliatory tariff threats.
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