Taxes defined Congress’s agenda for much of 2017, culminating in passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) in late December. Because of that new federal law, taxes will dominate many state legislative sessions in 2018. The TCJA changed many federal tax provisions, and how states choose to...
Current discussions about federal tax reform include a number of proposals that could impact the states. These items may broaden the tax base and increase state revenue, or put pressure on states to cut taxes and reduce revenue, or even create administrative challenges for states. In this...
To help analysts craft next year’s state budgets, and to help reporters explain them and the public understand them, we compiled the Urban Institute’s and the Tax Policy Center’s best state-focused research in one place. The research in this compendium will help analysts better evaluate agency...
This year, Congress will consider what may be the biggest tax bill in decades. This is one of a series of briefs the Tax Policy Center has prepared to help people follow the debate. Each focuses on a key tax policy issue that Congress and the Trump administration may address. This brief...
This year, Congress will consider what may be the biggest tax bill in decades. This is one of a series of briefs the Tax Policy Center has prepared to help people follow the debate. Each focuses on a key tax policy issue that Congress and the Trump administration may address. This brief looks at...
The election of Donald Trump as president and Republican majorities in Congress have Washington primed for major legislative reforms. But it’s important to keep in mind that what the new government in the nation’s capital does will reverberate in all 50 statehouses. Knowing changes are coming,...
This year, Congress will consider what may be the biggest tax bill in decades. This is one of a series of briefs the Tax Policy Center has prepared to help people follow the debate. Each focuses on a key tax policy issue that Congress and the Trump administration may address. This brief walks...
This paper updates an analysis of Hillary Clinton’s tax proposals, which would raise taxes on high-income taxpayers, increase the child tax credit, modify taxation of multinational corporations, reform capital gains taxes, and increase estate and gift taxes. Her proposals would increase revenue...
Tax policy is one of the most challenging and controversial components of state governance. Determining how and from whom to collect revenue involves questions of equity, fairness, efficiency, and simplicity. As a result, states often create special tax commissions before attempting major tax...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...