Federal Tax Updates Archive

State and Local Tax Decisions Abound
June 24, 2022
No Comments
TweetShareSharePin0 Shares No gas tax holidays in Oregon or Washington, but maybe one in Pennsylvania. Governors Kate Brown of Oregon and Jay Inslee of Washington will not pause local and state fuel taxes. However, Pennsylvania’s Senate Democrats did call for a three-month gas tax holiday. President Biden asked states to suspend their fuel taxes to

Beyer’s Steep Gun Tax Might Curb Some Very Lethal Weapons, But It Has Gaps
June 23, 2022
No Comments
TweetShareSharePin0 Shares In response to two recent mass shootings, Representative Don Beyer (R-VA) introduced a bill that would impose a 1,000 percent excise tax on certain guns. The Washington Post reports that Beyer hopes to include it in a larger budget reconciliation bill, which would allow it to pass the Senate with a simple majority.

Advancing Tax Breaks For Retirement Savings, A Sputtering Gas Tax Holiday
June 23, 2022
No Comments
TweetShareSharePin0 Shares Senate Finance Committee unanimously approves retirement savings bill. The catch-all bipartisan measure includes almost three dozen proposals affecting both retirement savings and account withdrawals. The Enhancing American Retirement Now (EARN) Act encourages employers to offer retirement savings plans, expands the savers credit, increases “catch-up” contributions for older workers and delays to age 75

Pennsylvania Inflation & Tax Reform Solutions
June 22, 2022
No Comments
TweetShareSharePin0 Shares Note: The following is Tax Foundation testimony regarding how Pennsylvania can mitigate challenges of inflation through structural tax reforms. It was presented, by request, to the Pennsylvania House Majority Policy Committee on June 21, 2022. Good morning, Chairman Causer and Members of the Committee, My name is Timothy Vermeer, and I am a

Better Ways to Use Synthetic Controls to Model State and Local Tax Policy
June 22, 2022
No Comments
TweetShareSharePin0 Shares The synthetic control method (SCM) is a relatively new and valuable tool that makes it possible to measure state or local policy against a theoretical baseline, when a real basis for comparison doesn’t exist. Because the technique is constantly evolving, we wrote “An Update on the Synthetic Control Method as a Tool to

US Tax Burden on Labor
June 22, 2022
No Comments
TweetShareSharePin0 Shares The Biden administration has put forward significant plans for changing tax policy, including tax changes that would impact workers. While the administration is trying to narrowly target tax hikes to individuals who earn more than $400,000 and provide tax relief to families, it is helpful to understand what the tax burden looks like for workers

A Senate Retirement Bill? Religious Education.
June 22, 2022
No Comments
TweetShareSharePin0 Shares Senate Finance will mark up a retirement savings bill today. Chair Ron Wyden released a chairman’s mark yesterday and the committee will consider the measure today. The bill, called the Enhancing American Retirement Now (Earn) Act, includes multiple changes to the tax treatment of retirement savings and withdrawals. The House passed a similar

A Federal Gas Tax Holiday Is A Terrible Idea
June 22, 2022
No Comments
TweetShareSharePin0 Shares President Biden is proposing a three-month federal gasoline tax holiday. He may want to appear to be doing something to address high inflation, which is both an economic concern and a growing political problem for his Administration. But suspending the gas tax is a terrible idea that, on the margin, will make inflation

Carbon Taxes: Green Tax & Climate Change Tax Reforms
June 21, 2022
No Comments
TweetShareSharePin0 Shares Key Findings By driving changes to the climate, carbon emissions will impose major long-term economic costs, both here in the U.S. and around the world. Carbon taxes are an option to make the market reflect future costs of carbon emissions, discouraging emissions and incentivizing development and implementation of clean technology. Carbon taxes also

The Year of State Tax Cuts: The Sequel
June 21, 2022
No Comments
TweetShareSharePin0 Shares Just as movie theaters are full of sequels (Top Gun, Jurassic Park, and Thor), state capitols are also replaying last year’s big hit: tax cuts. So far this year, 27 states and the District of Columbia have passed significant tax cuts. Last year’s total was 29 states and the District of Columbia. Like