Note: Below is an excerpt of the 2021 Spanish Regional Tax Competitiveness Index (RTCI), a recent report published in collaboration with Fundación para el Avance de la Libertad. The RTCI for Spain is designed to analyze how well regions structure their tax systems, allows policymakers, businesses, and taxpayers to evaluate and measure how their regions’ tax systems compare, […]
As Congress considers several tax proposals designed to raise taxes on high-income earners, it’s worth considering the distribution of the existing tax code. While the image that rich Americans pay little taxes is popular, it’s a misconception: high-income individuals already pay a large share of taxes, even when compared to their share of national income. […]
Under the House Democrats’ reconciliation plan, the top tax rate on pass-through business income would exceed 50 percent in most states. Pass-through businesses, such as sole proprietorships, S corporations, and partnerships, make up a majority of businesses and majority of private sector employment in the United States. The owners of these firms pay individual income tax on income derived from these […]
The International Tax Competitiveness Index has been used to compare the tax systems of OECD countries since 2014. At that time, the United States ranked 28th out of 36 countries in the Index. Following the 2017 tax reform, the rank improved dramatically, to 20th, and the U.S. now ranks 21st. The legislation put forward by […]
“If churches paid taxes,” runs a popular claim on social media (hashtag #taxthechurches), “everyone would only have to pay 3 percent taxes.” Other claims put the forgone tax revenue haul at $76 billion or $85 billion, oddly specific figures conspicuously lacking a meaningful citation. Whether spurred by a belief that government is improperly favoring religious […]
Download PDF As Congress considers repealing or making more generous the $10,000 state and local tax deduction cap in the budget reconciliation process, it is helpful to review how the state and local tax (SALT) deduction is taken by taxpayers across U.S. counties. Using 2018 data from the Internal Revenue Service, we can examine how […]
The Biden administration recently cited an analysis from Treasury claiming that “the President’s agenda will protect 97 percent of small business owners from income tax rate increases.” However, the figure is misleading. To assess the economic effect of higher marginal tax rates, it matters how much income or investment will be affected—not how many taxpayers. […]
On Wednesday, the Tax Policy Center (TPC) released estimates on the portion of households with no federal income tax liability, finding that in 2020, about 60.6 percent of households did not pay income tax, up from 43.6 percent of households in 2019. Much of the 2020 increase was due to pandemic-related factors, but the growing […]
August 15th was the deadline to take advantage of the premium tax credits (PTC) originally provided in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and recently expanded in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Future extensions may provide longer-lasting benefits, although the extensions may create trade-offs for consumer choice and program costs. The ACA provided a refundable […]
Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) published its annual analysis of the distribution of American household incomes and tax burdens, this time for 2018, the year after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was enacted. CBO data shows that the TCJA reduced federal tax rates for households across every income level while increasing the […]