Sales Taxes

A Comparison of the Tax Burden on Labor in the OECD, 2021

Governments often justify higher tax burdens with more extensive public services. However, the cost of these services can be more than half of an average worker’s salary.

How Much Does Your State Collect in Sales Taxes Per Capita?

Rightsizing a state’s sales tax base can not only make the tax more equitable and better align it with the modern economy but also generate revenue that can be used to pay down the rates of more harmful taxes. That is why sales tax base broadening, which is favored by public finance scholars across the political spectrum, features in many tax reform plans.

What Location Matters Can Tell Us About State Tax Competitiveness

Location Matters is an account of tax complexity and the ways that tax structure affect competitiveness. For policymakers, it represents an opportunity to explore the seemingly more arcane tax provisions that can have a significant impact on business tax burdens, and to discover how their tax code—often completely by accident—picks winners and losers.

Location Matters 2021: The State Tax Costs of Doing Business

A landmark comparison of corporate tax costs in all 50 states, Location Matters provides a comprehensive calculation of real-world tax burdens, going beyond headline rates to demonstrate how tax codes impact businesses and offering policymakers a road map to improvement.

Outlier No More: Kansas Adopts Tax Reform with Wayfair Safe Harbor, GILTI Exclusion

After three years of deliberations, more than two-thirds of members in both the Senate and the House enacted tax reform and relief legislation Monday over the veto of Gov. Laura Kelly (D).

These States Will Pay You to Move. Does That Strategy Make Sense?

State and local tax policy have always mattered, but the rise of remote work is bringing tax burdens and economic competitiveness to the forefront. It is a development that states cannot afford to ignore.

Kansas Lawmakers to Consider Veto Override on Tax Reform Bill

Kansas has the revenue cushion it needs to provide tax relief to individuals and businesses and improve the structure of its tax code in the process. These pro-growth reforms would not only help taxpayers amid the pandemic but would also promote economic recovery and growth in a state that is lagging behind its competitors.

Louisiana Aims at Comprehensive Tax Reform

While many of the tax proposals work in tandem, some conflicts continue to exist. If lawmakers were able to repeal federal deductibility, reduce income tax rates, finish the job on inventory taxation, and phase out the capital stock tax, this would represent a marked improvement in the state’s tax climate, eliminating several of the most uncompetitive features of the current code.

Modernizing Rental Car and Peer-to-Peer Car Sharing Taxes for a Post-Pandemic Future

The economic evidence shows that travelers and tourists are sensitive to price changes for rental cars and adjust their behavior to avoid the tax, harming state economies and the travel sector right as the industry is trying to recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Controversy Erupts as Florida Follows Forty-Three States in Adopting Uncontroversial Tax Provision

Imposing New Taxes on Peer-to-Peer Car Sharing Will Not Help Texas Economic Recovery

Imposing the rental car excise tax on peer-to-peer car sharing would be a move in the wrong direction by expanding a costly and distortive tax for visitors whose business will help Texans recover post-pandemic.

How High Are State and Local Tax Collections in Your State?

Although Tax Day has been pushed back this year, mid-April is still a good occasion to take a look at tax collections in the United States. Because differing state populations can make overall comparisons difficult, today’s state tax map shows state and local tax collections per capita in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Evaluating West Virginia Income Tax Repeal Plans

States which forgo income taxes have seen population and economic growth vastly outstripping their peers, and a post-pandemic culture that is friendlier to remote work will greatly enhance tax competition.

Are Excise Taxes on Beverages a Good Substitute for Income Taxes?

Policymakers should be very cautious about relying too heavily on excise tax increases to pay down tax reductions elsewhere. Ideally, revenue offsets would come from more stable, broader-based revenue sources.

Facts and Figures 2021: How Does Your State Compare?

Our updated 2021 edition of 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.

Join Us for a Free “State Tax Policy Boot Camp”

The Tax Foundation’s “State Tax Policy Boot Camp,” is ideal for anyone interested in gaining a better understanding of state taxation.

Sources of Government Revenue in the OECD, 2021 Update

Developed countries have on average become more reliant on consumption taxes and less reliant on individual income taxes. These policy changes matter, considering that consumption-based taxes raise revenue with less distortionary effects than taxes on income.

Tax-A-Rama in Maryland

The potential override of Gov. Larry Hogan’s (R) veto of a digital advertising tax (HB732) looms large over the current legislative session in Maryland, though it is only one of many tax proposals under consideration in the state.

State Sales Tax Breadth and Reliance, Fiscal Year 2020

By failing to keep pace with modern consumption patterns, sales taxes have become less neutral, less equitable, and less economically efficient over time.

Florida and Missouri, the Last Wayfair Holdouts, Consider Remote Sales Tax Bills

Two states—Florida and Missouri—have held back on online sales taxes thus far following the landmark 2018 Supreme Court case, South Dakota v. Wayfair. Now, lawmakers in both states have filed bills to address the issue this session.