The COVID-19 pandemic brought increased attention to U.S. global supply chains, as the pandemic impacted critical components within U.S. manufacturing. The attention has led to calls to structure U.S. tax policy to encourage firms to expand their manufacturing capacity in the U.S., under the belief domestic supply chains are inherently less risky than global ones. […]
As out-of-control inflation strains families’ budgets, lawmakers across the country are casting about for ways to respond. In Oklahoma, legislators have proposed sending taxpayers $75 checks in December ($150 for married couples) to help blunt the impact of higher prices. In one respect, it’s a drop in the bucket, with inflation costing the average household […]
Tax Day came and went on April 18th with the regular tax filing deadline, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is facing difficulties. It struggled to manage a deluge of 282 million calls made in fiscal year 2021, only answering 11 percent, and a backlog of several million returns from 2021 were left to be […]
Download Data Key Findings A capital allowance is the amount of capital investment costs a business can deduct from its revenue through the tax code via depreciation. Ideally, countries should provide higher capital allowances, as they can boost business investment which, in turn, spurs economic growth. The average of OECD countries’ capital allowances gradually decreased […]
In recent years, EU countries have undertaken a series of tax reforms designed to maintain tax revenue levels while supporting investment and economic growth. In general, tax reforms focused on reducing individual and corporate income tax rates while increasing environmental or wealth taxes. However, as summarized here, not all tax reforms were created equal. Poorly […]
As the deadline for the 2022 tax filing season nears, the IRS faces scrutiny for its backlog of returns, inaccessible taxpayer service, and delays in issuing certain refunds. As of January 28th, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had 23.7 million returns awaiting action, compared to a typical backlog at that point of roughly 1 million […]
Key Findings Policymakers on both the left and right have brought industrial policy back into focus after slow growth over the past few decades and growing concern over the state of America’s manufacturing sector. In the context of the tax code, industrial policy usually comes in the form of non-neutral subsidies for specific industries or […]
Key Findings The waning pandemic and robust economic recovery have come with many benefits—plentiful jobs and fast-growing (nominal) incomes—but also serious challenges such as high and rising inflation. Rather than pushing for more fiscal stimulus or leaving it to the Federal Reserve to handle inflation through higher interest rates, policymakers should focus on boosting the […]
During the pandemic, policymakers relied on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to administer business relief through the tax code. The emergency relief, including business tax refunds for net operating losses (NOLs), was intended to quickly help businesses that lost their source of income during the pandemic. A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) […]
The Department of the Treasury has finalized its rule governing State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF), the $350 billion state and local governments received under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). State policymakers should have three key takeaways: If states want to use the funds to replenish their unemployment compensation (UC) trust funds—and they […]