Tax
Another Way to Target Pandemic Relief Payments: Help Those Who Were Financially Hurt the Most In 2020
Some Senate Republicans say they want to scale back President Biden’s proposed $1,400 relief payments. Last week, my Tax Policy Center colleague Howard Gleckman proposed…
Read MoreValue-added Taxes in the Pandemic
Revenues from Value-added Taxes (VAT) make up a significant share of total tax revenues for many countries. Among OECD countries with a VAT, 21 percent of revenues come from that tax alone. The COVID-19 crisis has impacted tax policies in several ways, and VAT have also been affected both by reduced revenues, temporary carveouts and…
Read MoreThe Tax Hound
Tax policy isn’t just for economists, lawyers, or policymakers. Taxes affect us all and The Tax Hound engages the rest of us in interesting conversations about what government taxes, and why.
Read MoreWisconsin’s PPP Loan Recipients Face Hundreds of Millions in Surprise Taxes
Nearly 90,000 Wisconsin small businesses that have taken out loans under the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) will face hundreds of millions of dollars in state income tax liability on those loans this spring, despite the loans being tax-free at the federal level. Unless the legislature acts, businesses that have received PPP loans and related…
Read MoreWhat the GameStop Saga Can Teach Us About Mark-to-Market Taxation of Capital Gains
Imagine a mark-to-market capital gains tax, like the one proposed in New York, generating liability in a GameStop-style situation where retail investors have shares that have soared in value by orders of magnitude, get taxed on those gains, and then hold on too long and sell as the stock crashes back to earth. Whether you…
Read MoreWashington State Floats a Wealth Tax Which Relies Almost Exclusively on Four People
What happens if you create a tax and its base is, for all intents and purposes, four people? If some Washington lawmakers had their way, we might find out. House Bill 1406 would impose a wealth tax exclusively on billionaires, accomplished by exempting the first $1 billion in household wealth. While most European countries have…
Read MoreActionable VAT Policy Gap in Europe
Value-added taxes (VAT) make up approximately one-fifth of total tax revenues in Europe. However, European countries differ significantly in how efficiently they raise VAT revenues. One way to measure a country’s VAT efficiency is the VAT Gap. This measure looks at the difference between VAT revenue actually collected and collectable VAT revenue under an ideal…
Read MoreIRS Data Shows Who Benefited from the First Round of Economic Impact Payments
Newly published data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) shows that the first round of economic impact payments primarily benefited households earning less than $100,000. Lawmakers passed the first round of payments under the CARES Act in March 2020 and the Treasury Department began sending payments in early April 2020. The IRS sent more than…
Read MoreThere Are Ways Congress Could Better Target A New Round of Pandemic Relief Payments
Congressional Republicans and some Democrats are urging lawmakers to better target President Biden’s $1.9 trillion plan for new pandemic relief. And they are right: It…
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