The Tax Foundation’s recently released 2022 International Tax Competitiveness Index (ITCI), measures the extent to which a country’s tax system adheres to two important aspects of tax policy: competitiveness and neutrality. Over the years, the Index has helped many European countries like Austria, Greece, and the UK design tax reform proposals. As the Index continues to grow, policymakers from Latin […]
Launch Our Interactive Tool Executive Summary The Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Climate Index enables business leaders, government policymakers, and taxpayers to gauge how their states’ tax systems compare. While there are many ways to show how much is collected in taxes by state governments, the Index is designed to show how well states structure their tax systems and provides […]
Nearly five years ago, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) brought dramatic changes to U.S. tax policy. The federal corporate tax rate fell from 35 percent to 21 percent and other reforms improved the tax treatment of business investment, lowered taxes for individuals and families, and introduced a new system for taxing foreign profits. Unfortunately, many changes in the […]
Table of Contents Note: Each year we review and improve the methodology of the Index. For that reason, prior editions are not comparable to the results in this 2022 edition. All data and methodological notes are accessible in our GitHub repository. Below is a preview of the 2022 Index. To access the full report, click the download button above. Introduction The structure […]
“Tax fairness” has been a lingering theme in EU policy circles since the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent Euro crisis. The prevailing sentiment among policymakers is that European tax authorities need to work together to eliminate tax fraud and avoidance because government budgets depend on these missing revenues to provide essential public services. Without them, large corporations are given a […]
Executive Summary The Regional Tax Competitiveness Index (RTCI) for Spain allows policymakers, businesses, and taxpayers to evaluate and measure how their regions’ tax systems compare. This Index has been designed to analyze how well regions structure their tax system. Additionally, it serves as a road map for policymakers to reform their tax systems and make their regions more competitive and […]
On 30 September, the Council of the European Union agreed to impose an EU-wide windfall profits tax on fossil fuel companies to fund relief for households and businesses facing high energy prices (due primarily to Putin’s war on Ukraine). Given the dire economic environment for families and the urgency to transition away from Russian energy, extracting profits from fossil fuel […]
As energy prices continue to rise, more European countries have been looking at windfall profit taxes—a one-time tax levied on a company or industry when economic conditions result in large, unexpected profits—to fund relief measures for consumers. As early as March 8, the European Commission recommended in its REPowerEU communication that member states temporarily impose windfall taxes on all energy […]
Italy’s legislative elections on 25 September resulted in the country’s first right-wing government since 2011. Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy, will likely become Prime Minister and govern in a coalition with the League (led by Matteo Salvini) and Forza Italia (led by Silvio Berlusconi). On national tax policy, the coalition has been vague. This could be because […]
Note: This report was published in partnership with the Centre for Policy Studies, one of the oldest and most influential think tanks in Westminster. With a focus on taxation, economic growth, business, welfare, housing and green growth, its goal is to develop policies that widen enterprise, ownership and opportunity. Key Findings For many years, the UK has adopted a strikingly ungenerous approach to capital […]
Most countries’ personal income taxes have a progressive structure where tax rates increase as individuals earn higher wages. However, if wages are pushed up by inflation, people may pay higher taxes even if their real earnings have not increased. This is known as bracket creep. In the first quarter of 2022, labor costs in the European Union rose 4 percent […]
A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of testifying before members of the New Mexico legislature regarding policies that could generate greater economic growth and promote more stable revenue streams for the state. That afternoon, I heard a particular comment raised more than once: there are many factors that influence why a business might locate in a particular state. […]
Key Findings Property taxes are the primary source of tax collections at the local level, responsible for 72.2 percent of local tax revenue in fiscal year 2020 (the most recent year for which data are available). Once a significant driver of state budgets as well, their share of state collections has dropped to a mere 1.8 percent. Corporate income taxes […]
In response to high oil prices, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) has proposed raising taxes on oil and gas companies in three ways. His “Taxing Big Oil Profiteers Act” would create an additional 21 percent tax on so-called excess profits earned over 10 percent of revenues of oil companies with annual revenues over $1 billion; levy a tax on stock buybacks; […]
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. You might not be very organized with your financial records during the beginning stage of your business or side hustle. Less than half of small business owners monitor cash flow, and 65 percent of entrepreneurs who fail say they mismanaged their finances. The mismanagement may be because all income and expenses go […]
Tax Foundation has engaged constructively in the OECD Pillar One and Pillar Two process since it was launched in 2019. The consultation on the Progress Report on Pillar One provides another opportunity for that. However, at this point it is challenging to be constructive when the policy seems designed to fail. The Progress Report reveals that the ongoing technical work […]
A good accountant, preferably with a background in the franchising industry, can help mitigate your financial risk. If you need capital, they can help service your debt structuring. If your franchise requires employees, they can manage payments, expenditures and tax reporting. When it comes to the most important factor — cash flow management — they can help by structuring available […]
Imagine that a government provides subsidies to single parents that actually increase tax rates on additional work. This is the case for a Japanese single parent who earns a rough equivalent of US $39,981 and faces a 57 percent marginal tax rate. With just a small increase in pay of $599, she would face a 359 percent marginal tax rate. […]
The Senate-passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) calls for a new 1 percent excise tax on stock buybacks, the argument being it would be better for the economy if firms invested their surplus cash in the business, rather than returning this value to shareholders. However, research suggests that buybacks do not hinder investment opportunities, and actually help support a dynamic economy. […]
Over the last few years, concerns have been raised that the existing international tax system does not properly capture the digitalization of the economy. Under current international tax rules, multinationals generally pay corporate income tax where production occurs rather than where consumers or, specifically for the digital sector, users are located. However, some argue that through the digital economy, businesses […]