Earlier this week we published our annual State Business Tax Climate Index, which measures tax structure. It’s an extremely valuable diagnostic tool, enabling readers to compare states’ tax structures across more than 120 variables. Unlike most studies of state taxes, it is focused on the how more than the how much, in recognition of the […]
October 2020 Update: Since our September analysis of the Biden plan, we have included the campaign proposal to expand the estate and gift tax by reducing the exemption amount to $3.5 million and increasing the top rate for the estate tax to 45 percent, which has impacted our economic, revenue, and distributional estimates. We have also […]
Last week, we released the International Tax Competitiveness Index 2020, a study that measures and compares the competitiveness and neutrality of all 36 OECD countries’ tax systems. In the coming weeks, we will illustrate how European OECD countries rank in each of the five components of the Index: corporate income taxes, individual taxes, consumption taxes, […]
Explore Our Interactive Map Tool Table of Contents Executive Summary The Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Climate Index enables business leaders, government policymakers, and taxpayers to gauge how their states’ tax systems compare. While there are many ways to show how much is collected in taxes by state governments, the Index is designed to show […]
Our International Tax Competitiveness Index has been used to compare the tax systems of OECD countries since 2014. At the beginning of that period, the United States ranked 28th out of 36 countries in the Index. Following the 2017 U.S. tax reform, the rank improved dramatically to 20th, and the U.S. now ranks 21st. The […]
While there is still plenty of work to be done to get unemployed Americans back to work, the U.S. economy as a whole is now recovering strongly from the pandemic-induced economic downturn, outperforming forecasts from earlier in the year and outperforming most other developed countries. The Atlanta Federal Reserve’s “nowcast” indicates that the U.S. economy […]
Launch Interactive Tool Note: Each year we review and improve the methodology of the Index. For that reason, prior editions are not comparable to the results in this 2020 edition. All data and methodological notes are accessible in our GitHub repository. Introduction The structure of a country’s tax code is an important determinant of its economic […]
Monday, the OECD released blueprints for proposals on changing international tax rules alongside an impact assessment based on the overall design of the proposals. While the blueprints cover proposals both for changing where large multinationals owe corporate tax and designing a global minimum tax, there are still many unanswered questions. The OECD has been working […]
This week’s state tax map looks at throwback and throwout rules in states’ corporate tax codes. These rules may not be widely understood, but they have a notable impact on business location and investment decisions and reduce economic efficiency for the states which impose such rules. Over the long run, these rules reduce competitiveness while yielding very […]
Note: This report was originally published on March 11, 2019, based on the information in Governor J.B. Pritzker’s “Fair Tax for Illinois” presentation, delivered on March 7, 2019. The report has been updated to reflect the rates as adopted in Public Act 101-0008, which will take effect if a constitutional amendment is approved by voters on […]