CBO and JCT Preview Economic Analysis of Extending TCJA
The analysis provides key insights into how their models work and the sort of outputs we can expect from their models as part of next year’s tax debate.
8 min read
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State Tax Changes Taking Effect January 1, 2025
Thirty-nine states will begin 2025 with notable tax changes, including nine states cutting individual income taxes. Recent years have seen a wave of significant tax reforms, and the changes scheduled for 2025 show that these efforts have not let up.
25 min read
Blog
Short FormAre Tariffs the Ghost of Christmas Future?
The holiday season is marked by time with friends and family, joy, and gift-giving. But could tax policy make the sticker shock from your shopping list next year tariff-ying?
4 min read
National Tax Literacy Poll: Assessing Taxpayer Knowledge and Perceptions of the US Tax System
Taxes and their broader impact are generally overlooked in American education. Taxes influence earnings, budgets, voting, and decisions on where to live, but do American taxpayers understand the US tax system?
25 min read
Louisiana Now Boasts a More Competitive and Pro-Growth Tax Code
Lawmakers will enter the 2025 fiscal legislative session with an opportunity to build on the successes of the November special session. Efforts should include addressing the outstanding issues within the corporate and sales tax codes that currently hold the state back.
7 min read
Alabama Expands Tax-Free Overtime Eligibility, but Should Repeal Entire Exemption
Tax reform in Alabama is desirable and very possible. However, the overtime exemption, which complicates the tax code, reduces neutrality, and adds to compliance and reporting costs, is not a good example.
4 min read
How the Payroll Tax Base Has Changed Over Time
The Social Security trust funds face looming insolvency if policymakers don’t reform the program. One issue that garners a lot of attention in the debate over solutions is the payroll tax cap.
3 min read
Momentum Slows for State Drug Legalization Policies via 2024 State Ballot Initiatives
With the significant potential for state revenues, and the prior political success of arguments that legalization can shift consumers to safer legal markets, it seems likely that states will continue to see legislation and ballot initiatives to legalize marijuana at the state level—even states that failed to do so this election.
5 min read
Questions About Tax Cuts, Tariffs, and Reconciliation After the Election
Fiscal pressures are likely to weigh heavily on lawmakers as they craft a tax reform package. That increased pressure could result in well-designed tax reform that prioritizes economic growth, simplicity, and stability, or it could encourage budget gimmicks and economically harmful offsets. Lawmakers should avoid the latter.
8 min read
Spain’s Poorly Designed Tax Policy Hurts Its Competitiveness
Spain’s central government could learn some valuable lessons from its regional governments and other European countries about sound tax policy.
7 min read
Repealing Head of Household Filing Status: Details and Analysis
As lawmakers prepare for the debate over the expiration of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), they may face increasing pressure to offset the cost of lowering tax rates by changing other parts of the tax code. One potential option to raise additional revenue to cover the cost of the TCJA’s reforms—like lower rates, a larger standard deduction, and a larger child tax credit—would be to repeal the head of household filing status.
5 min read
Confronting the New Property Tax Revolt
Policymakers can and should address taxpayers’ legitimate grievances about out-of-control property tax bills, but they should do so without upending a system of taxation that is more efficient, fair, and pro-growth, and better suited to municipal finance, than any of the alternatives.
39 min read
2025 State Tax Competitiveness Index
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.
115 min read
Blog
Short FormTaxes in the Internet Age
Today marks 55 years since two students sent the first message across the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) between computers at four universities, which would later become the internet we enjoy today.
5 min read
2025 Tax Brackets
Explore the IRS inflation-adjusted 2025 tax brackets, for which taxpayers will file tax returns in early 2026.
4 min read
Kamala Harris Tax Plan Ideas: Details and Analysis
On tax policy, Harris carries forward much of President Biden’s FY 2025 budget, including higher taxes aimed at businesses and high earners. She would also further expand the child tax credit (CTC) and various other tax credits and incentives while exempting tips from income tax.
17 min read
Americans Abroad Need Compliance Cost Relief
Trump’s proposal would bring the US more in line with most other developed economies, which tax only those who live and work within their borders.
4 min read
Georgia Amendment 1 Threatens the State’s Housing Market
Georgia should focus on policies that restrict the overall growth of property taxes, not policies that functionally freeze property taxes for current owners by shifting costs onto new owners and into the sales tax.
6 min read
Taxpayers Shoulder a Heavy Burden for Sports Stadium Subsidies
Sports stadium subsidies are salient political gimmicks designed to appear as if politicians are providing tangible benefits to taxpayers. The empirical evidence shows repeatedly that stadium subsidies fail to generate new tax revenue and new jobs or attract new businesses.
6 min read
Minnesota High Court Ruling Will Increase Business Tax Compliance Costs
With a changing economy—the law is about companies selling tangible products, but our economy is increasingly service-oriented—and state-level tests to the ongoing validity of the law, perhaps the time has come for Congress to update and expand upon these protections, which are designed to limit states from imposing substantial tax remittance and compliance burdens on businesses with only the most minimal of contacts with the state.
5 min read