It’s that time of year when we review which items of the tax code are scheduled to expire or otherwise change in just a few days. An eclectic group of temporary tax policies approach their expiration dates, but at the last minute typically hitchhike onto must-pass legislation for another temporary extension. Not so this year, as the must-pass bills (the […]
As the Senate considers which components of the House Build Back Better Act (BBBA) to include, one key difference between the original Ways and Means draft and the later Rules Committee version is on corporate taxes. The original draft would have raised the corporate tax rate to 26.5 percent, while the Rules Committee version would leave the corporate tax rate […]
Boosting American industry is a policy objective shared by many lawmakers and is a key issue at debate in the Build Back Better Act as well as other year-end legislation. Missing from the debates is how the tariffs put in place by the Trump administration, and largely maintained by the Biden administration, are negatively affecting U.S. manufacturers. If policymakers want […]
One concern that some lawmakers and academics share is whether policies that incentivize investments in capital, such as full expensing or bonus depreciation, may hurt workers by encouraging firms to automate. A new paper casts doubt on that concern and finds the opposite—low-skilled workers are most helped by policies that encourage capital investments because those policies result in more employment […]
Today, Representative Nancy Mace (R-SC) released the States Reform Act, which would deschedule, regulate, and tax cannabis products with a novel federal excise tax design—based on quantities and predefined categories, not dissimilar from how the federal government taxes alcohol and tobacco. Rep. Mace’s bill would impose a tax of 3 percent on the removal price of cannabis products. That’s significantly […]
President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda has changed several times in the past few months. In September, the House Ways and Means Committee released a draft that included $3.5 trillion in spending and tax credits, paired with roughly $2.1 trillion in tax increases (resulting in a net tax increase of about $1 trillion). On October 27, the House Rules Committee […]
With corporate and individual rate hikes potentially out of the Build Back Better (BBB) reconciliation package, lawmakers are weighing alternative options to raise revenue. Rather than come up with complicated changes to the tax base, or untested proposals such as mark-to-market for billionaires, they should prioritize options that raise revenue while improving the structure of the tax code. When looking […]
Under the House Build Back Better Act, the average top tax rate on personal income would reach 52.3 percent, tying Sweden as the 9th highest rate in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The House Build Back Better Act would raise the top federal marginal tax rate on ordinary income from 37 percent to 39.6 percent. High-income taxpayers would face […]
In an effort to raise revenue, House Democrats have proposed increasing federal tobacco taxes and creating a new tax on other nicotine products in the Build Back Better Act. While the proposed increase on cigarettes is dramatic, it is relatively simple: an additional dollar per pack of 20 cigarettes. On the other hand, simplicity is not a good descriptor for […]
One way to put the House Build Back Better Act’s tax increases in historical context is to compare them to previous tax increases as a share of gross domestic product (GDP). Compared to previous tax changes, this House tax plan would impose the largest gross tax increase since President Lyndon Johnson’s tax hike to help fund the Vietnam War in […]
Last week, The New York Times reported that in opposing corporate or individual income tax increases, Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) has pushed other Senate Democrats, such as Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), to consider a carbon tax to finance some of the infrastructure package. A carbon tax would be a less economically harmful pay-for than either personal or corporate income tax […]
Under the House Ways and Means tax plan, the United States would tax corporate income at the third-highest integrated tax rate among rich nations, averaging 56.6 percent. The integrated tax rate reflects the two layers of tax that apply to income earned through corporations: the entity-level corporate income tax and the shareholder-level capital gains and qualified dividends tax. The Ways […]
Key Findings Policymakers should carefully analyze tax expenditures before categorizing one as a loophole—some tax expenditures are important structural elements of the tax code while others are unsound. Generally, if a provision is broadly available and helps to eliminate the double taxation of saving, or broadly contributes to a consumption tax base, it is sound and should remain in the […]
The latest version of the Biden Build Back Better agenda, released last week by the House Ways and Means committee (see our estimates of the budgetary, economic, and distributional impacts), is dense, with too many provisions to flesh out completely. Here’s a rundown of the good, the bad, and the ugly of it. The Good R&D Cost Recovery Improvement Most […]
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 Democratic members of the House […]
House Democrats’ newly released $3.5 trillion tax legislation includes a tax increase on tobacco, nicotine, and vapor products levied on tobacco manufacturers. But ultimately it would fall heavily on tobacco consumers—many of the group that earns less than $400,000 that President Biden pledged would not see a tax increase. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, this increase would contribute […]
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) has introduced a series of proposals that may be considered in the budget reconciliation process, including two bills that would change the tax treatment of financial services: derivatives and carried interest. Notably, both proposals would enact “mark-to-market” taxation for derivatives and carried interest, which could be a precursor to broader taxation of capital gains on a […]
The technological advancements that allowed many employees to work from home and patients to seek medical care remotely throughout the COVID-19 pandemic would have been impossible without earlier investments in research & development (R&D). Likewise, thanks to decades of R&D in the pharmaceutical industry and the resulting technological breakthroughs, nearly every adult in the United States has access to safe […]
President Biden has proposed increases to corporate taxes as part of the fiscal year 2022 budget proposal. Using Tax Foundation data on how these tax proposals would impact each congressional district, we isolate the corporate changes to see which districts would have the largest change in tax liability over the next ten years if the Biden corporate tax plan is […]
The Tax Foundation is pleased to submit comments on the cannabis excise tax provisions of the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA). Tax Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization that has monitored fiscal policy at all levels of government since 1937. As a Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, we take no position on any pending legislation, nor do we […]