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.
The EV fee in the reconciliation package would help the fiscal situation but would overcorrect the hole in the gas tax base EVs create. There are intermediate options, such as VMT taxes for EVs and commercial traffic or pairing flat EV fees with gas and diesel tax increases, that would be incrementally better than the reconciliation package’s approach.
7 min read
Sean Bray interviewed Professor of Business Accounting and Taxation at the University of Kiel, Jost Heckemeyer, about the future of the EU tax mix. The interview shows that there is a trade-off between stability and flexibility in European tax policymaking. It also shows that there ought to be a balance between fairness and competitiveness when thinking about improving tax policy.
16 min read
We break down the House GOP’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill—a sweeping tax package designed to extend key parts of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act before they expire in 2026.
William McBride discussed how and why the budgetary cost of the IRA’s tax credits has grown, described who benefits from the tax credits, and recommended ways to reform the credits amid budget reconciliation.
As lawmakers continue to debate the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” they should abandon temporary and complex policy in favor of simplicity and stability.
4 min read
The unique complexities of tax design for sports betting excise taxes make optimal tax design particularly challenging. Any reforms to the federal sports betting tax should ensure that both bettors and operators find legal markets more attractive than illicit markets.
6 min read
Tax simplification has two aspects. The first is a code without a mess of targeted provisions for various social policy goals. The second is a code with provisions that are simple and easy to comply with. The bill succeeds at the first, but fails at the second.
7 min read
The Trump administration advocates an “energy dominance” agenda to boost US energy production and lower costs. Its tariff agenda runs directly counter to it.
5 min read
Hemp, intoxicating or otherwise, is a growing market that needs to be addressed with tax policy. A well-designed tax will generate tax revenues for states while improving public health by shifting consumers away from illicit markets.
5 min read
New leadership at the FDA will have the opportunity to revisit decisions that have shifted consumption to illicit products and discouraged harm reduction—policies that, however well intended, have come at a significant cost in lives.
7 min read
Among the many other tax proposals being considered in Washington this year, policymakers have proposed separate bills that would impose a carbon tax on cigarettes and implement a state-wide flavor ban on tobacco products.
3 min read
Congressional Republicans are looking for ways to pay for extending the tax cuts scheduled to expire at the end of the year. Repealing the green energy tax subsidies expanded or introduced in the Inflation Reduction Act is an appealing option.
The empirical evidence thus far on sugar-sweetened beverage taxes fails to support claims that these taxes will create substantial health benefits. At the same time, their structural limitations make them ill-suited for generating stable, equitable revenue.
54 min read
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
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) introduced a series of new targeted tax breaks, many of which seem to be much more expensive than originally forecasted. Understandably, repealing these subsidies is a key option for policymakers looking to pay to extend the expiring broader tax cuts passed in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).
7 min read
An update to the EU’s Excise Tax Directive that embraces harm reduction principles would save lives and provide a steady stream of revenue to support public health expenditures.
22 min read
As we learned in the first trade war, retaliation will exact harm on US exporters by lowering their export sales—and the US-imposed tariffs will directly harm exporters too. US-imposed tariffs can burden exporters by increasing input costs, which acts like a tax on exports.
4 min read
In a perilous economic and fiscal environment, with instability created by Trump’s trade war and publicly held debt on track to surpass the highest levels ever recorded within five years, a lot rides on how Republicans navigate tax and spending reforms in reconciliation.
6 min read
While fixing infrastructure funding has not been a focus of the tax expiration debate, it would be a smart way to pay for at least a small portion of the expiring tax cuts. In recent years, highway funding has exceeded highway revenues, and the introduction of electric vehicles has made the gas tax increasingly obsolete.
7 min read
The House Budget Committee has released a budget resolution that specifies large reductions in both taxes and spending over the next decade, paving the way to extend the expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and potentially cut other taxes.
6 min read