A few Tax Policy Center staffers and I spend tax season volunteering for the IRS's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, providing free tax preparation...

Despite some warnings of long-term fiscal risk, policymakers across the country continue to push big state tax cuts. While most are focused on income tax...

A few weeks into their 2022 legislative sessions, the question in most state capitols across the country—from Connecticut to Utah —is not whether to cut...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wants to use $1 billion in American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds to suspend Florida’s gas tax for five months. Suspending the...

Among other changes to the child tax credit (CTC), the American Rescue Plan (ARP) made the CTC available to far more families in Puerto Rico...

Bigger State EITCs Are Simple, Affordable, and Effective Currently, 28 states offer their own EITC . (Missouri and Washington State will join the list in...

In March 2020, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed a $11.8 billion budget that was $500 million lower than what he had proposed just weeks earlier—before...

Today the Supreme Court announced it will not resolve a key question of state taxation: Should income tax dollars support where you work or where...

On Monday, the U.S. Treasury Department released much-anticipated guidance for the American Recovery Plan ’s (ARP) $350 billion in direct state and local aid ,...

The American Rescue Plan (ARP) sends $350 billion to state and local governments with very few strings attached. Unlike the CARES Act , which originally...

In a new analysis , the Tax Policy Center’s State and Local Finance Initiative compared governors’ fiscal year (FY) 2022 budget proposals with their state’s...

In addition to that other election you might have followed last week, Americans voted on a whole bunch of state tax measures . And while...

There are a lot of state ballot measures affecting tax policy this year.

On the California ballot this year is an initiative that could partially unravel what is possibly one of the most consequential ballot initiatives.

For cities, the COVID-19 economy is turning many winners into losers.

Uber and Lyft are threating to shut down operations in California because the state considers their drivers employees rather than independent contractors. The distinction might...

The 50 states are diverse, but in the COVID-19 pandemic era, they share a key challenge: An economic and fiscal crisis of a size and...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) recently said he is “in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route,” instead of Congress providing them...

The $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act signed into law last week will allocate roughly $200 billion in fiscal relief to...

States often fail at tax reform. But few efforts flop as spectacularly as Utah’s did. Utah passed sweeping tax reform legislation in December 2019. Utah...

What are the biggest trends in state tax policy? Sometimes there are easy answers to this question. In recent years nearly every state made changes...

Politicians love to make claims about tax policy. This tax cut will create jobs! That one forced the school district to fire teachers! But too...

If there is a Halloween-themed tax it’s got to be the death tax (the poll-tested moniker for estate taxes). And the estate tax has scared...

Like most states, Colorado and Texas do not have legislative or gubernatorial elections in 2019. Still, their voters are facing tricky, and potentially far-reaching, tax...

Bloomberg recently reported that Sony sent Chicago a $1.2 million check , ending its legal challenge to the city’s so-called “Netflix tax.” That everyone called...