Research

The Alternative Minimum Tax Still Burdens Taxpayers with Compliance Costs

Although Congress intended the AMT to be a tax on wealthy taxpayers, for much of its history it has subjected middle-income taxpayers in high-tax states to heavy compliance burdens. TCJA reforms that have increased the AMT’s exemption and exemption phaseout threshold will shield some taxpayers from the AMT through 2025, but the number of taxpayers impacted will increase in 2026 when the TCJA’s individual income tax reforms expire.

Tax Policy and Entrepreneurship: A Framework for Analysis

A key element of America’s dynamism problem is a drop in entrepreneurship. Removing tax barriers for entrepreneurs would improve America’s dynamism while making America’s tax code more neutral, efficient, and simple for all taxpayers.

Capital Cost Recovery across the OECD, 2019

Capital cost recovery, though often overlooked, can have a significant impact on investment decisions—with far-reaching economic consequences.

Reforming Rental Car Excise Taxes

The growing number of options that travelers have for rental cars, including peer-to-peer car-sharing arrangements, is an opportunity for policymakers to revisit the policy rationale for these discriminatory taxes.

Tax Treatment of Worker Training

Testimony: Temporary Policy in the Federal Tax Code

Tax policy can increase the size of the economy by having a positive impact on the incentives to work and invest. However, when tax policy is temporary or retroactive, these positive effects are muted, and policies do not effectively incentivize the intended activity.

Analysis of the Cost-of-Living Refund Act of 2019

We estimate that a new proposal to expand the EITC would reduce federal revenue by $1.8 trillion and decrease long-run GDP by 0.29 percent, while boosting labor force participation for low-income tax filers by 822,788 full-time equivalent jobs.

The Case for Universal Savings Accounts

Evaluating Education Tax Provisions

Research shows that the current menu of education-related tax benefits is not effectively promoting affordability or the decision to attend college. Lawmakers wishing to provide education assistance should reconsider whether the tax code is the best tool to achieve that goal.

Wisconsin Tax Options: A Guide to Fair, Simple, Pro-Growth Reform

Despite tax cuts in recent years, Wisconsin’s overall tax structure lags behind competitor states in simplicity, tax rates, and business climate for residents and investment. Explore our new comprehensive guide to see how the Badger State can achieve meaningful tax reform.

The Status of State Personal Exemptions a Year After Federal Tax Reform

Resisting the Allure of Gross Receipts Taxes: An Assessment of Their Costs and Consequences

Amortizing Research and Development Expenses Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

Expensing, or the immediate write-off of R&D costs, is a valuable component of the current tax system. The TCJA’s change to amortization in 2022, requiring firms to write off their business costs over time rather than immediately, would raise the cost of investment, discourage R&D, and reduce economic output.

The Real Lesson of 70 Percent Tax Rates on Entrepreneurial Income

The fall and then rise of entrepreneurial income claimed on the wealthy’s 1040 tax returns clearly tracks the seeming decline of inequality from 1950 to 1980, followed by the sudden rise in inequality since 1986. The shifting composition of income claimed by the rich due to changes in tax laws explains this illusion.

Toward a State of Conformity: State Tax Codes a Year After Federal Tax Reform

States incorporate provisions of the federal tax code into their own codes in varying degrees, meaning that federal tax reform has implications for state revenue beyond any broader economic effects of tax reform.

Opportunity Zones: What We Know and What We Don’t

Research suggests place-based incentive programs redistribute rather than generate new economic activity, subsidize investments that would have occurred anyway, and displace low-income residents.

Tax Trends Heading Into 2019

In 2019, key trends in state tax policy include reductions in corporate tax rates, updating sales tax systems to include remote online sales, taxes on marijuana and sports betting, gross receipts taxes, and more. Explore our new 2019 guide!

Tax Expenditures Before and After the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

Wireless Taxes and Fees Climb Again in 2018

A typical family with four cell phones paying $100 per month for service can expect to pay about $229 per year in wireless taxes, fees, and surcharges. Nationally, these impositions make up about 19.1 percent of the average customer’s cell phone bill.

The Economic and Distributional Impact of the Trump Administration’s Tariff Actions

The Trump administration has imposed $42 billion worth of new taxes on Americans by levying tariffs on thousands of products. Outstanding threats to impose further tariffs mean additional tax increases up to $129 billion.