Congress Has a Chance to Improve the Taxpayer Experience in 2026
The Senate recently passed the Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act, which contains 65 provisions to improve tax administration and the IRS.
4 min read
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How Much Does the US Government Lose to Tax Fraud?
While the government will never close the tax gap or fully eliminate tax fraud, lawmakers and the IRS can institute several reforms to reduce the gap, including simplifying the tax code, increasing third-party information reporting, and coordinating anti-fraud efforts.
7 min read
Spain’s Tax Competitiveness Has Declined Since 2018
Under Spain’s current Social Democratic government, the country has fallen from 27th to 35th (out of 38 OECD countries) in the International Tax Competitiveness Index.
8 min read
Amendment 3: A Restructuring of Florida’s Local Tax Base
Florida has long maintained one of the nation’s most competitive state tax codes, but a fundamental change proposed by Amendment 3 could undermine that competitiveness.
30 min read
The California Billionaire Tax’s Ever-Shifting Goalposts
Wealth taxes have been a failure everywhere they’ve been tried, which may be why advocates for the California amendment are saying this is a new frontier. But the countries that have tried this gamble know the frontier well, and they’ve left it in the dust.
Washington Voters Will Decide Whether to Keep or Reject an Income Tax on High Earners
Washington’s new income tax on high earners doesn’t take effect until 2028, but it is already generating a lot of activity. A measure on the ballot this November, Initiative 645, would reverse the legislature’s decision, preventing the new tax from taking effect.
5 min read
Rental Cars Shouldn’t Face Another Layer of Tax
Imposing sales taxes on rental car companies’ fleet purchases, in addition to the sales and rental car excise taxes levied when those cars are rented, yields double taxation and causes harmful tax pyramiding.
9 min read
A Small Value-Added Tax Could Pay for Tariff Repeal
Rather than continuing the Trump administration’s tariff policy, policymakers should explore new solutions that can raise sustainable revenue with fewer distortions, like replacing the tariffs with a value-added tax.
5 min read
Colorado’s Election Day Choice on Income Taxes
On Election Day, Coloradans will get to decide on two competing measures on income taxes: an initiated statute that would cap income taxes at the current 4.4 percent rate; and a constitutional amendment that would authorize a graduated-rate individual and corporate income tax, paired with an initiated statute setting new rates, with a top rate of 8.4 percent.
6 min read
Inflation Costs New Jerseyans More than a Rebate Check
Missing out on a tax rebate check is certainly disheartening, but New Jersey wallets are getting actively drained by an even bigger problem in the tax code: the state’s graduated-rate income tax thresholds don’t change with inflation, either.
Tax Complexity Now Costs the US Economy over $544 Billion Annually
Americans will spend 6.9 billion hours complying with IRS tax filing and reporting requirements in 2026, costing about $387 billion in lost productivity. Including an additional $157 billion in out-of-pocket costs, complying with the federal tax code will cost Americans more than $544 billion this year, over 1.7 percent of GDP.
10 min read
Full Expensing to Be Made Permanent in Canada
On September 15th, Canada announced that full expensing for machinery, equipment, and patent rights will be made permanent and broadened from around 15 percent to two thirds of business capital investment.
6 min read
Power and Tax Policy: When Does Leveraging Market Access as a Coercive Geoeconomic Tool Succeed?
While economic levers like sanctions and tariffs have long been recognized as geoeconomic tools, tax policies have rarely been considered a part of this toolkit.
36 min read
What the 1990s-Era “Bit Tax” Can Teach Us About AI Tax Proposals
Policymakers considering AI-specific token or compute taxes can learn from the “bit tax” proposals of the 1990s during the rise of the internet.
6 min read
Getting Crypto Tax Reform Right Means Prioritizing Neutrality
Investment in digital assets, long thought of as a niche interest reserved for enthusiasts, has broken into the mainstream. In 2026, about one in five US adults report being invested in or using cryptocurrency.
5 min read
Maryland Ruling Exposes the Utah Targeted Advertising Tax’s Legal Vulnerability
Utah’s targeted advertising tax is not identical to Maryland’s, but it shares key characteristics that make it vulnerable to the same challenges that sank Maryland’s tax, starting with a clash with the Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA).
Testimony: Legislative Proposal to Adapt the Income Tax Code to the Digital Economy Repeats the Economic and Legal Mistakes of Digital Services Taxes
The Belgian proposal departs significantly from sound tax policy principles and risks generating substantial economic distortions, legal uncertainty, and trade frictions while raising relatively little revenue.
Diving into the Differences Between Tax Transparency Regimes
The new public country-by-country reporting regimes adopted by the EU and Australia, and changes from the Financial Accounting Standards Board for financial accounts, are meant to promote transparency by multinational enterprises but have ubiquitous structural differences.
10 min read
Vehicle Miles Traveled Taxes Need Not Invade Drivers’ Privacy
Privacy concerns are a primary driver of opposition to vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax systems, but VMT taxes do not need to invade drivers’ privacy to efficiently fund the roads.
6 min read
Maryland Court Strikes Down Digital Ad Tax
The Maryland Tax Court has struck down the state’s digital advertising tax and ordered that refunds be paid to taxpayers for five and a half years’ worth of collections under the unconstitutional tax.
5 min read