If lawmakers want to pay for new government spending, better approaches include broadening the income tax base, reforming the corporate tax, or taxing consumption.
9 min read
Savings and investment are essential for individuals’ and families’ financial security and for long-term economic growth. Policymakers should therefore consider reforms that can help mitigate—rather than add to—tax codes’ biases against saving and investment.
5 min read
Explore the IRS inflation-adjusted 2027 tax brackets, for which taxpayers will file tax returns in early 2028.
5 min read
Taxes are an important part of the mix, and modernizing a state’s tax structure helps position it for growth. States that rank better on the Index have better-structured tax codes, and states with better-structured tax codes get Wins Above Replacement.
5 min read
The State Tax Competitiveness Index enables policymakers, taxpayers, and business leaders to gauge how their states’ tax systems compare. While there are many ways to show how much state governments collect in taxes, the Index evaluates how well states structure their tax systems and provides a road map for improvement.
121 min read
With Democrats retaking control of the US House of Representatives and US Senate, several new federal tax issues are on the table for 2027.
7 min read
In red and blue states alike, voters showed wariness toward novel changes to the tax code, with two notable exceptions.
3 min read
Short FormEconomics isn’t just a course with supply and demand graphs and a quirky usage of “guns and butter.” It’s a discipline focused on incentives and responses, and we can see its impact all around us, shaping our world and our choices.
3 min read
The Senate recently passed the Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act, which contains 65 provisions to improve tax administration and the IRS.
4 min read
A new paper shows raising top income tax rates on the current tax base may not yield as much revenue as previously estimated, due to opportunities to shift income to different tax bases within the tax code.
5 min read
While the government will never close the tax gap or fully eliminate tax fraud, lawmakers and the IRS can institute several reforms to reduce the gap, including simplifying the tax code, increasing third-party information reporting, and coordinating anti-fraud efforts.
7 min read
With Social Security insolvency rapidly approaching and policymakers exploring changes to benefits and taxation, Congress could look to base-broadening reforms like the ECT as a guide for how to think about taxing compensation and broadening the tax base.
4 min read
Under Spain’s current Social Democratic government, the country has fallen from 27th to 35th (out of 38 OECD countries) in the International Tax Competitiveness Index.
8 min read
Want to know how much you’ll owe during tax filing season? Then you need to know your taxable income.
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
Wealth taxes have been a failure everywhere they’ve been tried, which may be why advocates for the California amendment are saying this is a new frontier. But the countries that have tried this gamble know the frontier well, and they’ve left it in the dust.
Washington’s new income tax on high earners doesn’t take effect until 2028, but it is already generating a lot of activity. A measure on the ballot this November, Initiative 645, would reverse the legislature’s decision, preventing the new tax from taking effect.
5 min read
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
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
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.