Stock buybacks have gained a bad rap in recent years as policymakers have blamed them for a range of economic ills, from encouraging a focus on short-term profits to reduced investment. Now, Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) have targeted buybacks for a 2 percent excise tax in the reconciliation package. But research […]
On August 23rd, Jared Bernstein and Ernie Tedeschi, two members of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, released a blog post arguing that the Biden administration’s spending agenda would help keep long-term inflation in check. Their theoretical argument is sound: in the long run, productivity enhancements should put downward pressure on prices. However, the major […]
Key Findings: The Tobacco Tax Equity Act would double taxes on cigarettes and equalize rates on all other tobacco and nicotine products to match the new higher cigarette rate. The increase would result in substantial increases on chewing tobacco (2,034 percent), pipe tobacco (1,651 percent), and snuff (over 1,677 percent). Vapor products, which are not […]
Of the many tax policies modeled in our new Options for Reforming America’s Tax Code 2.0, repealing the tariffs imposed under President Trump’s administration would be one of the simplest ways policymakers could boost economic growth. Starting in 2018, the U.S. imposed tariffs on a variety of goods, including aluminum, solar panels, steel, and washers […]
The Biden administration’s proposed American Families Plan (AFP) would partially pay for about $1.8 trillion in new federal spending on education and family programs with about $661 billion in additional taxes on higher-income individuals and pass-through businesses like partnerships, sole proprietorships, and S corporations. The tax system would become more progressive than under current law […]
Note: The following is the testimony of Scott A. Hodge, President of the Tax Foundation, prepared for the Senate Finance Committee (Subcommittee on Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Growth of the Committee on Finance) for a hearing on April 27, 2021, titled, “Creating Opportunity Through a Fairer Tax System.” Table of Contents Thank you, Madame Chairman, […]
In our new book, Options for Reforming America’s Tax Code 2.0, we illustrate the economic, distributional, and revenue trade-offs of 70 tax changes, including President Biden’s proposal to increase the corporate tax rate to 28 percent from 21 percent today. The Options guide presents the economic effects we estimate would occur in the long term, […]
Families with children will see a significant increase in their maximum child tax credit (CTC) in 2021 thanks to the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) expanding child-related tax benefits. President Biden is now exploring how to make the ARPA’s temporary expansion of the CTC permanent. Whether and how lawmakers choose to finance a permanent expansion […]
Table of Contents Key Findings President Joe Biden and congressional policymakers have proposed several changes to the corporate income tax, including raising the rate from 21 percent to 28 percent and imposing a 15 percent minimum tax on the book income of large corporations. The proposals are being considered to raise revenue for new spending […]
In December, scholars David Hope and Julian Limberg released a study with the London School of Economics (LSE) examining the economic effects of reducing tax rates for high-income individuals and corporations. The paper illustrates how overlooking an important element of the tax system—the structure of the tax base—can lead to an incomplete understanding of how […]