Tax Foundation

1. OECD Tackling Harmful Tax Practices

   Countries around the world often design their tax policies to become attractive targets for foreign investment. These policies can be anything from a system with special preferences for certain industries to a well-designed tax system based on principles of sound tax policy. Systems that are rife with special preferences and complexities can create distortions in […]

2. Does Your State Have a Marriage Penalty?

   Today’s map zeroes in on states that have a “marriage penalty” in their individual income tax brackets. Under a progressive, graduated-rate income tax system, tax rates increase as a taxpayer’s marginal income increases. A marriage penalty exists when a state’s income brackets for married taxpayers filing jointly are less than double the bracket widths that […]

3. No Good Options as Chicago Seeks Revenue

   Although the word is often applied to any difficult decision, a dilemma, properly speaking, arises when one is forced to choose exclusively from bad options. The two bad options are termed the “horns” of the dilemma. As Chicago contemplates how to close a revenue shortfall and potentially generate additional revenue for new spending priorities, however, […]

4. Vaping Taxes Should Be Carefully Designed

   The incidence of increased vaping among teens as well as a recent uptick in lung disease has captured the attention of everyone from President Trump, who Wednesday called for a ban on flavored nicotine liquids used for vapor products, to Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR), who followed by proposing legislation to levy […]

5. How Many Taxpayers Itemize Under Current Law?

   The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) increased the standard deduction from $6,500 to $12,000 for individuals (and from $13,000 to $24,000 for married filers) and reduced the value of certain itemized deductions. These changes reduce the percentage of taxpayers that itemize deductions and limit the ability of the tax code to encourage certain types […]