Taxes

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) now estimates that the federal government received $370 billion in corporate tax revenue over the past year (fiscal year 2021), matching the record high level from 2007. This is a 75 percent increase over the previous year’s total, reflecting a rebound in corporate profits and the broader economy. This year’s

In 2019, revenue from personal income taxes made up 24 percent of total tax revenue across OECD countries. Countries tax labor income in various ways through payroll taxes, personal income taxes, and, in some cases, surtaxes. Between 2018 and 2021, eight European countries in the OECD changed their top personal income tax rates. Of these eight countries, four cut their

Recent proposals to increase the effective tax rates (ETRs) faced by multinationals rely on the argument that these firms achieve artificially low tax rates by shifting profits to foreign tax havens and other low-tax countries. By raising the tax rates on the foreign income of U.S. multinationals, these proposals would supposedly reduce profit shifting. However,

Following the release of the House Democrats’ proposed Build Back Better Act, federal tobacco and nicotine taxation has been a hot topic in the United States. In an effort to raise roughly $100 billion, the House proposal would double cigarette taxes and increase all other tobacco and nicotine taxes to comparable rates—a strategy with severe

Note: The following is the testimony of Dr. William McBride, Tax Foundation Vice President of Federal Tax and Economic Policy, prepared for a Joint Economic Committee hearing on October 6, 2021, titled, “Building Back Better: Raising Revenue to Invest in Shared Prosperity.” Chairman Beyer, Ranking Member Lee, and members of the Joint Economic Committee, thank you for

A recent Tax Foundation analysis considered how various proposals from the Biden administration, from Congress, and from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development would affect the effective tax rates (ETRs) on the foreign profits of U.S. multinationals. That analysis focused on how each policy and proposal would affect the overall ETRs. But which industries

Over the course of the last year, it has become clear that Democratic lawmakers want to change U.S. international tax rules. However, as proposals have surfaced in recent weeks, there are clear divides among various proposals. While President Biden has led a renewed effort on global negotiations over minimum taxation, his own proposals for U.S.

As policymakers weigh whether to lift or repeal the $10,000 cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions enacted by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), they have to wrestle with how that change would primarily benefit high-earning taxpayers. As some have pointed out, other TCJA changes may further increase the benefits of an

Last week, The New York Times reported that in opposing corporate or individual income tax increases, Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) has pushed other Senate Democrats, such as Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), to consider a carbon tax to finance some of the infrastructure package. A carbon tax would be a less economically harmful pay-for than either

Recent proposals from the Biden administration and congressional Democrats aim to hike taxes on the foreign profits of U.S. multinationals, resting on the claim that U.S. multinationals pay very low tax rates on these foreign profits. But how heavily taxed are they, and how would various proposals affect these tax rates? U.S. multinational enterprises (MNEs)

Florida is now the ninth state to implement or adopt a corporate income tax cut in 2021, with the state’s new rate the nation’s second lowest—for now. Five states adopted corporate income tax cuts legislatively this year, two states (Arkansas and Indiana) implemented rate relief as part of previously enacted phased reductions, and now Florida,

One of the Senate’s proposals to pay for the Build Back Better Act is a federal excise tax on virgin plastics, which are plastics that are not reprocessed or recovered. The tax would be $0.20 per pound of virgin plastics used to make single-use plastics products. While few details have been released about this pay-for,

As Congress considers President Biden’s proposal to tax unrealized capital gains at death, the history of previous efforts suggests it faces a perilous road ahead. Lawmakers must resolve tricky design and implementation details that derailed past attempts to change how capital gains are treated when assets are passed from one generation to the next. Under

Under the House Ways and Means tax plan, the United States would tax corporate income at the third-highest integrated tax rate among rich nations, averaging 56.6 percent. The integrated tax rate reflects the two layers of tax that apply to income earned through corporations: the entity-level corporate income tax and the shareholder-level capital gains and

Kentucky and Tennessee won an important legal victory Friday when a federal court ruled that the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)’s restrictions on state fiscal autonomy were unconstitutional and enjoined (blocked) the enforcement of those provisions against both states. Specifically, Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove held that the ARPA provision, which limited states’ authority to cut

Key Findings Policymakers should carefully analyze tax expenditures before categorizing one as a loophole—some tax expenditures are important structural elements of the tax code while others are unsound. Generally, if a provision is broadly available and helps to eliminate the double taxation of saving, or broadly contributes to a consumption tax base, it is sound

Echoing other reports from this year, the White House Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) published a report Thursday that estimates an approximate average federal individual income tax rate for the top 400 wealthiest households in the U.S of 8.2 percent, lower than typically estimated for top earners. The CEA arrived at a lower tax rate

Corporate income tax rates have been declining around the world for the last two decades. Today’s map shows the most recent changes in corporate tax rates in European OECD countries, comparing how combined statutory corporate income tax rates have changed between 2018 and 2021. The average tax rate of all European countries covered has declined

Key Findings States have paid out $175 billion in unemployment benefits since the start of the pandemic, with the federal government providing an additional $660 billion. Taking debt into account, state trust funds now have a negative aggregate balance of -$11 billion and are $115 billion shy of minimum adequate solvency levels. States are authorized

The latest version of the Biden Build Back Better agenda, released last week by the House Ways and Means committee (see our estimates of the budgetary, economic, and distributional impacts), is dense, with too many provisions to flesh out completely. Here’s a rundown of the good, the bad, and the ugly of it. The Good