Mississippi, like most states, realized a significant budget surplus in 2021 and projects continued revenue growth over the coming years. As lawmakers in Jackson determine how to best invest these funds, they must also reconcile the state’s position in an increasingly competitive tax environment. Over the last two years, Mississippians watched as the region was […]
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released data on individual income taxes for tax year 2019, showing the number of taxpayers, adjusted gross income, income tax paid, and income tax shares by income percentiles.[1] The new data outlines the tax system under the second year of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the last […]
Recent discussions of a proposed wealth tax for the United States have included little information about trends in wealth taxation among other developed nations. However, those trends and the current state of wealth taxes in OECD countries can provide context for U.S. proposals. The OECD maintains detailed tax revenue statistics for its 38 member countries. […]
Key Findings Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia had significant tax changes take effect on January 1, 2022 Five states (Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Oklahoma) cut individual income taxes effective January 1. The District of Columbia was the only jurisdiction to increase income taxes. Four states (Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, and Oklahoma) saw […]
A proposed constitutional amendment (ACA 11) in California would increase taxes by $12,250 per household, roughly doubling the state’s already high tax collections, to fund a first-in-the-nation single-payer health-care system. The top marginal rate on wage income would soar to 18.05 percent—nationally, the median top marginal rate is 5.3 percent—and the state would adopt a […]
Americans were on the move in 2021, and they chose low-tax states over high-tax ones. That’s the finding of recent U.S. Census Bureau population data, along with commercial datasets released this week by U-Haul and United Van Lines. Nationally, the U.S. population only grew by 0.1 percent between July 2020 and July 2021, the lowest […]
When is an income tax an excise tax? And for that matter, what exactly is an excise tax? The fate of Washington’s capital gains tax, currently in litigation, rests at least in part on the answer to these questions. By way of background, Washington’s supreme court has repeatedly held that the state’s constitution functionally prohibits […]
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has given us a sobering look into our fiscal future under the Build Back Better Act (BBBA), estimating that if all the bill’s policies were made permanent, $3 trillion would be added to the national debt over the next 10 years. This is on top of more than $7 trillion […]
Faced not only with immediate surpluses but with the expectation of sustained revenue growth in coming years, Arkansas policymakers have chosen to return some of the additional revenue to taxpayers in the form of individual and corporate income tax rate reductions, with additional rate cuts if future revenues permit. Whenever a state has a short-term […]
There’s no place like home for the holidays, ’cause no matter how far away you roam, state tax collectors will be waiting. It’s not that state tax authorities are a bevy of Ebenezer Scrooges keeping a wary eye on travelers during the holiday season, of course. No, they do this all the time. In most […]