TaxVox

Exempting Tips From Federal Income Tax Would Benefit Very Few Workers

September 19, 2024 –

Only a handful of all employees and fewer than 60 percent of tipped workers would benefit from proposals to exempt gratuities from federal income tax,...

Individual Taxes

The Rich are Different From You and Me, with Trillions of Dollars Escaping Taxation

September 19, 2024 –

Trillions of dollars of unrealized capital gains permanently escape taxation, disproportionately benefitting the richest Americans. Congress could close this loophole.

Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

Harris Wants To Make Tax Filing Easier For Small Businesses

September 16, 2024 –

One of the most common tax complaints I hear from small business owners is about filing their taxes. Paying isn’t their biggest objection, though they...

Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

Harris and Trump Would Create Hyper-Narrow Targeted Tax Breaks

September 9, 2024 –

Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are promoting a troubling idea: Hyper-targeting tax subsidies to narrowly favored activities or occupations. While Trump and Harris are...

Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

Five Questions About Trump’s Made-in-America Corporate Tax Rate

September 9, 2024 –

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump recently proposed cutting the current 21 percent corporate tax rate to 15 percent for companies that do not outsource, offshore, or replace American workers. The Trump campaign has not yet indicated how this rate would be structured or enforced, but, drawing on past experience and research evidence, TPC staff below suggest some issues to consider.

Individual Taxes

More Can Be Done To Improve The Child and Dependent Care Credit

September 4, 2024 –

Many families find child care expensive and difficult to access . Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Katie Britt (R-AL) have proposed legislation that would expand...

Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

A Newborn Tax Credit Could Be Worthwhile, With Sound Administration

August 29, 2024 –

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has vowed to make permanent temporary expansions to the child tax credit (CTC) and earned income tax credit (EITC) enacted...

Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

Trump And Harris Efforts To Fight Inflation Are Unlikely To Succeed

August 27, 2024 –

GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump is making inflation-fighting a key policy plank in his campaign. The problem: Many of his specific policy prescriptions would make...

State and Local Issues

Tipped Workers, Their Income Taxes, and States

August 23, 2024 –

Both Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have pledged to exempt tip income from taxes if elected. Our TPC colleague Howard Gleckman has written about how these plans raise design and administration issues . Another question is who would benefit and how that varies by state.

Business Taxes

TPC: Trump Tariffs Would Raise Household Taxes And Slow Imports

August 15, 2024 –

A worldwide 10 percent tariff and a 60 percent tariff on Chinese goods proposed by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump would lower average after-tax incomes...