Individual Income and Payroll Taxes

Ensuring Tax Rates Don’t Rise with Inflation

If ever there was a paycheck protection program, defending people from bracket creep may be the most important one ever designed.

Taxes and the UK’s new Prime Minister

In an already-challenging economic environment, new UK Prime Minister Liz Truss must get tax rates correct to avoid over-burdening a population and business sector facing immense uncertainty. Focusing only on rates while ignoring the base misses an opportunity for real, pro-growth reform.

Gift Tax

Inflation and Europe’s Personal Income Taxes

With continued concerns over inflation, individuals may be wondering how their tax bills will be impacted. Less than half of OECD countries in Europe automatically adjust income tax brackets for inflation every year.

Idaho to Consider Flat Income Tax in Special Session

As Idaho attempts to further solidify its position as a growth-oriented, taxpayer-friendly state this special session, other states should look to its example and pursue similar reforms.

New Mexico and the Question of Tax Competitiveness

Every change to a state’s tax system makes its business tax climate more or less competitive compared to other states and makes the state more or less attractive to business.

Missouri Should Consider Flat Income Tax in Special Session

As Missouri legislators head into a special session, they should consider making a pro-growth change that the state is already so close to achieving: creating a flat income tax.

Unpacking the State and Local Tax Toolkit: Sources of State and Local Tax Collections (FY 2020)

The mix of tax sources states choose can have important implications for both revenue stability and economic growth, and the many variations across states are indicative of the different ways states weigh competing policy goals.

Arkansas’s Rate Reduction Acceleration

Arkansas recently became the 13th state to authorize an individual income tax rate reduction this year. This round of tax cuts accelerated reforms enacted eight months ago.

Japan’s Tax and Benefit System for Working Parents Isn’t Working

The Japanese tax and benefit system comes with trade-offs that policymakers must keep in mind when planning to reform the tax policy.

Australia’s Tax and Benefit System Might Deter Working Parents from Advancing in Their Careers

While the tax and benefit system can be successful in keeping low-income working households out of poverty and encouraging workforce participation, high marginal tax rates like the one observed in the case of this Australian working parent act as barriers to upward mobility.

Indiana Should Use Surplus to Expedite Rate Cuts, Index Exemptions for Inflation

Expediting income tax rate reductions and indexing major income tax provisions for inflation are two of the most important tax policy changes policymakers could make to provide meaningful tax relief to Hoosiers both now and in the years to come.

Health-care Premiums Could Deter Canadians’ Upward Mobility

Canadian workers could face up to two important marginal tax rate spikes and lose 60 percent of additional earnings to the provincial health-care premium.

Push for Higher Taxes Is Misguided During a Time of Inflation and Looming Recession

Some 40 years ago, the U.S. dealt with high inflation and slow economic growth. Then as now, the solution is a long-term focus on stronger economic growth and sustainable federal budgets.

Tax Wedge

Sources of Personal Income, Tax Year 2019

Reviewing reported income helps to understand the composition of the federal government’s revenue base and how Americans earn their taxable income. The individual income tax, the federal government’s largest source of revenue, is largely a tax on labor.

Lithuanian Model Could Help French Workers’ Upward Mobility

Reshaping some of these policies to generate a smoother variation of marginal tax rates over different income levels would likely raise labor supply and encourage the upward mobility of workers and especially that of average-income workers.

Idaho’s Tax Hiking Ballot Measure Is Riddled With Mistakes

Idaho Ballot initiative would impose an incredibly high top marginal rate that would fall on many small businesses, not just high-income earners.

Navigating the Complex Income Tax System in Italy

High marginal tax rates can act as barriers to upward mobility, discouraging people from advancing in their careers.

State Tax Reform and Relief Enacted in 2022

Among the 46 states that held legislative sessions this year, structural state tax reform and temporary tax relief measures were recurring themes.