Our dedicated excise tax experts, Adam Hoffer and Jacob Macumber-Rosin, provide leading tax policy research, analysis, and commentary of the latest proposals and trends related to excise taxes. Explore the vast and changing world of excise taxation.
In the United States, taxes are the single most expensive ingredient in beer. The tax burden accounts for more of the final price of beer than labor and materials combined—the many different layers of applicable taxes combining to total as much as 40.8 percent of the retail price.
7 min read
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
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.
8 min read
Alcohol taxes in Illinois have been broken for decades, and the state is now considering a “fix” that moves policy in the wrong direction.
6 min read
The significant disparity in tax rates across states underscores the complex tax and regulatory environment governing distilled spirits.
9 min read
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.
5 min read
In response to surging gas prices, President Trump and several lawmakers have proposed suspending the federal gas tax via a gas tax holiday. Gas tax holidays have appeal across the political aisle, but suspending the federal gas tax is a uniquely ill-suited policy for addressing rising prices.
3 min read
Academic research has continually found that making alternative nicotine products to cigarettes more expensive results in fewer smokers switching to less harmful products.
7 min read
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.
5 min read
Rental cars are some of the most heavily taxed transactions in the US. Rather than levying additional taxes on rental cars by trying to export the tax burden to nonresidents, municipalities should enact principled, neutral transportation tax policy that is unlikely to discourage visitors, tourists, and other economic activity.
5 min read
Two bills in Oklahoma and Louisiana shift towards a weight-based system for taxing moist snuff tobacco (MST), a policy that ensures neutral taxation across products and less revenue volatility.
4 min read
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.
61 min read
The Trump tariffs have not meaningfully altered the trade balance and amount to an average tax increase per US household of $700 in 2026.
55 min read
In 2022, incomes for the bottom 80 percent of earners were slightly lower after taxes and transfers compared to 2020 and 2021, driven by expiring pandemic-era policies.
6 min read
The evidence overall paints a far different picture than American Compass presents, and a consistent theoretical framework undercuts its assertions of how tariffs should be expected to impact the economy moving forward.
25 min read
Nearly half of US states regulate and tax recreational markets, and only 10 states still lack a comprehensive medical marijuana program.
8 min read
Cigarette smokers in the European Union pay far more in excise taxes than they do for the cigarettes themselves. Our latest map illustrates the wide variance in cigarette excise taxes across EU Member States.
6 min read
Gas tax prices are soaring across the country, and lawmakers are naturally looking for ways to alleviate the pain at the pump. While gas tax holidays—which temporarily suspend fuel taxes to artificially lower the price of gas—are a politically welcomed intervention, taxpayers shouldn’t be so quick to celebrate.
Facts & Figures serves as a one-stop state tax data resource that compares all 50 states on over 40 measures of tax rates, collections, burdens, and more.
2 min read