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...
Nearly all state tax commissions—independent groups that study and make recommendations for improving a state’s tax system—are tasked with improving economic development within the state. Their report introductions include phrases such as “growth-friendly,” “unleash innovation,” and “optimum...
States vary in how much governments collect in revenue and spend on goods and services. To understand the sources of these differences, we examined what states could raise (revenue capacity) and would spend (expenditure need) if they followed national averages, taking into account their own...
Hillary Clinton proposes raising taxes on high-income taxpayers, modifying taxation of multinational corporations, repealing fossil fuel tax incentives, and increasing estate and gift taxes. Her proposals would increase revenue by $1.1 trillion over the next decade. Nearly all of the tax...
The State & Local Finance Initiative’s State Economic Monitor tracks economic-performance data across the states and the District of Columbia, highlighting differences in key indicators including employment, wages, housing, and taxes. This quarter’s report finds the unemployment rate fell in...
The federal government and most states have per-unit gas taxes. Because they tax gallons purchased, and not a percentage of purchase price, revenues are falling across the country as Americans buy less gas. If states do not want to cut transportation projects they now have to increase tax rates...
This paper examines the incidence of the federal income tax exemption of interest on state and local bonds, applying a fixed-savings, simplified general equilibrium approach to estimate incidence effects on both the sources and uses of income. In contrast to traditional empirical work that...
In 2021, the American Rescue Plan (ARP) temporarily but significantly expanded the federal child tax credit (CTC), and child poverty fell from 9.7 percent to...
While most of the political world looks ahead to 2024, voters are making important choices on property taxes, wealth taxes, cannabis taxes, and more this...
As the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) celebrated its two-year anniversary on March 11, some applauded a law that sped an economic recovery while others...
The past two years were a great time to make state tax policy. Booming revenue collections combined with hundreds of billions of dollars from Congress...
Americans voted on dozens of ballot initiatives this year, including tax hikes, tax cuts, cannabis taxes, sports betting, and even the future of ballot measures...
Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota will vote on legalizing recreational marijuana this November. And cannabis initiatives are already on the 2023 or...
After years of growth, some states saw cannabis tax collections decline for the first time in fiscal year 2022. But, while politicians occasionally promote marijuana...
On Monday, the Georgia Department of Revenue (DOR) released guidance for unborn children newly eligible for the state’s existing dependent deduction. Making unborn children eligible...
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...
