Research

Wireless Taxes and Fees in 2017

A typical American household with four wireless phones paying $100 per month for wireless voice service can expect to pay about $221 per year in wireless taxes, fees, and surcharges.

Time to Shoulder Aside “Crowding Out” As an Excuse Not to Do Tax Reform

This paper evaluates the arguments for and against “crowding out” and compares these arguments to empirical studies. It discusses the impact of tax changes on the allocation of national income between consumption and saving, and the allocation of saving between private investment and government deficits. It finds that the crowding out argument is largely based on a mistaken assumption about the flexibility and availability of saving and credit for the financing of government deficits and private investment.

Cigarette Taxes and Cigarette Smuggling by State, 2015

Excessive tax rates on cigarettes approach de facto prohibition in some states, inducing black and gray market movement of tobacco products into high-tax states from low-tax states or foreign sources.

Updated Details and Analysis of the 2017 House Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

This comprehensive overview of the of the House Tax Cuts and Jobs Act includes a summary of its details and macroeconomic analysis of how it would impact federal revenue, wages, GDP, and after-tax incomes.

2017 International Tax Competitiveness Index

Hampered by high marginal tax rates and complex business tax rules, the United States again ranks towards the bottom of the pack on our 2017 International Tax Competitiveness Index, placing 30 out of 35 OECD countries.

There Is More Than Meets the Eye When Analyzing the UK’s Corporate Tax Cut

When taking a closer look at the UK’s recent corporate tax reform experiment, it becomes clear that there was significantly more at work than just a simple rate cut. Increasing the effective marginal tax rate on new investments could have had a negative effect on wages, potentially offsetting the positive effects from the corporate rate cut.

Labor Bears Much of the Cost of the Corporate Tax

Recent empirical evidence shows that workers bear upwards of 70 percent of the corporate income tax burden, much more than popular tax models claim, which make errors in how they account for super-normal returns and the openness of our economy.

Sales Tax Base Broadening: Right-Sizing a State Sales Tax

Due in part to historical accident and also to the proliferation of exemptions, the effectiveness of the state sales tax continues to erode. The median state sales tax, which should apply to all personal consumption, is nonly applied to 23 percent of personal consumption.

2018 State Business Tax Climate Index

For 15 years, our State Business Tax Climate Index has been the standard for legislators and taxpayers to understand how their state’s tax code compares and how it can be improved. Now, for the first time ever, you can explore our Index’s 100+ variables in an easy to use, interactive format.

Economic and Budgetary Impact of Temporary Expensing

Instead of making expensing temporary, lawmakers could pursue other ways to speed up cost recovery with permanent economic gains and without drastically reducing revenue. One way to do that is by enacting “depreciation indexing.”

Testimony: The Startup Slump: Can Tax Reform Help Revive American Entrepreneurship?

Tax reform should aim to get the tax code out of the way of entrepreneurship by making it simpler, less burdensome, and eliminating its anti-growth biases.

Ohio’s Commercial Activity Tax: A Reappraisal

The Ohio Commercial Activity Tax, a 0.26 percent tax on business gross receipts above $1 million, is a throwback to an earlier era of taxation, bringing back a tax type that had been in steady retreat for nearly a century.

Four Plans for Permanent, Pro-Growth Tax Reform in the 115th Congress

These four Tax Foundation tax plans demonstrate ways in which lawmakers could achieve permanent, pro-growth tax reform while keeping the level of federal revenue and the distribution of the tax burden roughly the same as current law.

The Four Pillars of Corporate Tax Reform: Testimony before the Senate Finance Committee

The most important thing that Congress and the administration can do to boost economic growth, lift workers’ wages, create jobs, and make the U.S. economy more competitive globally, is reform our business tax system.

A Comparison of the Tax Burden on Labor in the OECD, 2017

Corporate and Individual Tax Expenditures

The elimination of tax expenditures is a popular way to pay for tax reform, but not all tax expenditures are equally worthy of elimination. It is important to ask, for each expenditure, whether it serves a reasonable purpose and whether it accomplishes that purpose in a reasonable way.

Soda Tax Experiment Failing in Philadelphia Amid Consumer Angst and Revenue Shortfalls

Aside from hurting low-income earners, the poor revenue performance of Philadelphia’s soda tax, 24 times higher than the excise rate on beer, threatens the sustainability of the education programs it is intended to fund.

IRS Rehiring Employees Terminated for Performance Reasons

Designing a Territorial Tax System: A Review of OECD Systems

A well-designed territorial tax system would reduce the incentive for companies to invert, encourage businesses to invest in and expand operations throughout the world, and allow capital to flow more freely back to the U.S., but would also come with some new challenges.

Sales Tax Holidays by State, 2017

Sales tax holidays have enjoyed political success, but rather than providing a valuable tax cut or a boost to the economy, they impose serious costs on consumers and businesses without providing offsetting benefits.