Taxes

Of all alcoholic beverages subject to taxation, stiff drinks—and all distilled spirits—face the stiffest tax rates. Ostensibly, this is because distilled spirits (liquor) have higher alcohol content than the other categories, like wine and beer. This round of information is on us, so help yourself to the following map to see whether you’re shaken or stirred by how

Last month, the U.S. Department of the Treasury promulgated an interim final rule regarding its implementation of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) provision restricting states’ ability to cut taxes. We previously outlined four questions Treasury needed to answer in its guidance and subsequently analyzed the text of the rule when it was promulgated in

With many state legislative sessions wrapping up for this year, and a new fiscal year about to begin, it’s a good time to examine some of the 2021 legislative trends—and sports betting taxes are among the more prominent. This year, 11 states have made changes to sports betting regulation and taxes, and Ohio is still

One of the challenges policymakers face is designing solutions that are targeted at actual problems. If data concerning a problem is either low-quality or out-of-date, then developing solutions becomes rather difficult. This challenge is particularly relevant to international tax policy. A problem that was identified in many studies at the beginning of the 21st century

The Flavored Tobacco Product Prohibition Amendment Act of 2021 (B24-0020) under consideration by the D.C. City Council would, as the name suggests, ban all flavored tobacco product sales in the District. That means banning the majority of cigarettes being sold, since more than 50 percent of the market is menthol flavored, which could have a

As spending priorities are dividing lawmakers trying to negotiate among the various federal infrastructure plans, less time is being spent on the funding of one of the key components—our highways, both current and future taxes and fees. One of the current taxes, a federal excise tax on heavy commercial vehicles and trailers, is an important

The Biden administration has pledged to not raise taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000 a year. However, the administration’s corporate tax proposals would likely violate that pledge, given that corporations are comprised of people who also might earn less than $400,000. The economic evidence suggests that in the long run, workers and consumers, rather

There has been some confusion about how some parts of the recent G7 agreement on new tax rules for multinational companies might work. The new policies would target the largest and most profitable multinationals and bring in a global minimum tax. The G7 agreement is subject to further debate and further agreement at the G20

It took until the last day of the session, but Louisiana lawmakers succeeded in passing a tax reform package Thursday that would simplify a complicated tax code and make the state more economically competitive. Because these measures are reliant on constitutional amendments, voters will ultimately decide the success of the plan in October. However, if

With the introduction of the American Rescue Plan back in March, the Child Tax Credit underwent a couple temporary changes for tax year 2021. One of the main adjustments included allowing families to receive part of the Child Tax Credit as monthly payments rather than waiting to get all of the money as a refund

Krispy Kreme may have started the vaccine incentive ball rolling, but many states are putting big money into the effort with vaccine lotteries. Unlike a normal lottery, no one is paying for tickets—but the tax collector still gets paid when someone wins. With lots of restricted spending COVID-19 relief funds and a substantial number of

As Wisconsin legislators work to finalize the state budget for the fiscal year (FY) 2022-23 biennium that begins July 1, the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) on Tuesday reported the state has substantially more revenue to work with than was anticipated when the LFB issued revenue projections earlier this year. Specifically, the LFB’s revised three-year

A new report from ProPublica argues that wealthy taxpayers face low effective tax rates as a portion of their wealth and mentions taxing unrealized capital gains or imposing a wealth tax. However, a better approach to raising the tax burden on the wealthy would be to pursue progressive consumption taxes as they have fewer administrative

President Biden’s newly released budget and the Treasury Department’s “Green Book” of revenue proposals outlines a vision of more spending administered through the tax code. The proposals have revived the debate over the proper role of spending in the tax code, and relies on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to further expand beyond its revenue

President Biden has privately pitched dropping his proposed 28 percent corporate tax rate from an infrastructure package and funding it through his proposed minimum tax on corporate book income. However, the proposal for a minimum book tax misunderstands the important reasons why a corporation may not owe federal tax liability in a given year. Recently,

Montana adopted structural reforms to both individual and corporate income taxes during the recently adjourned legislative session, enacting three bills reducing individual tax rates, simplifying the state’s individual tax system, repealing 16 tax credits, and changing the apportionment factor for corporate income tax. This tax reform package, signed by Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) in early

Table of Contents Launch Resource Center: President Biden’s Tax Proposals The Biden administration’s proposed American Jobs Plan (AJP) would increase federal spending by about $2.2 trillion over 10 years, including $1.7 trillion for infrastructure, partially funded with permanently higher corporate taxes of about $1.7 trillion over 10 years (conventionally estimated). Using the Tax Foundation General

Ohio is one of a growing number of states which experienced revenue increases despite the economic slowdown from the coronavirus pandemic and is now looking to return some of that through tax relief. (See analysis of Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, and Oklahoma). The question for Ohio legislators is, how best to do that? This week,

In recent years, several countries have taken measures to reduce carbon emissions, including instituting environmental regulations, emissions trading systems (ETS), and carbon taxes. In 1990, Finland was the world’s first country to introduce a carbon tax. Since then, 18 European countries have followed, implementing carbon taxes that range from less than €1 per metric ton

Although most states are on solid financial footing following the coronavirus crisis, pension liabilities are a deep-seated problem that long predates the pandemic. The most recent data from Truth in Accounting (which analyzes government accounting data from every state) shows the strain on state retirement systems in 2019 as pension funds strive to keep pace with the