Federal Tax

The tax treatment of U.S. businesses is a complicated and onerous process for tax preparers, revenue officials, and business owners alike. The tax system treats businesses differently based on their legal form, produces economic distortions, taxes income multiple times, and creates complexity and uncertainty for taxpayers. Even though business taxation has changed in the last

This week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released data showing that the consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.5 percent in January compared to December 2022, reaching 6.4 percent over the prior 12 months. While inflation has trended down over the past six months, it will likely continue to be above the Federal Reserve’s target

If your state issued tax rebates last year, you might have to pay federal income tax on the rebate you received. Maybe. Who knows? Unfortunately, not the IRS—at least not yet. This uncertainty is unfair to taxpayers. Tax experts have long known that the taxability of state rebate payments would be an issue, but the

A new tax expenditures report by the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) reveals two problematic developments: 1) policymakers have increasingly relied on the tax code to deliver benefits to individuals, and 2) the broad, neutral tax treatment of investment has shifted to targeted subsidies for businesses. Tax expenditures are often akin to “spending through the

New Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data on individual income taxes for tax year 2020 shows the federal income tax system continues to be progressive as high-income taxpayers pay the highest average income tax rates.[1] Average tax rates for all income groups remained lower in 2020, three years after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, than

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As Americans prepare to file their 2022 tax returns, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) remains mired in a backlog of millions of returns from previous tax filing seasons. The National Taxpayer Advocate issued a warning to lawmakers in her annual report to Congress that the backlog creates “challenges for the 2023 tax filing season before

Earlier this week, the House of Representatives approved their rules package for the 118th Congress. One notable change to the rules will require the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) to produce estimates of the “budgetary effects of changes in economic output, employment, capital stock, and other macroeconomic variables” resulting from

Newly published data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) indicates in 2019, before the onset of the pandemic, American incomes continued to rise as part of a broad economic expansion. It also shows that, contrary to common perceptions, the federal tax system is progressive. The data on household incomes and tax burdens also comes two years

It’s Christmas time, and for millions of families around the country, that means revisiting some classic holiday movies. For some, that includes It’s a Wonderful Life and Home Alone. For others, that includes Die Hard. In this analyst’s view, Die Hard is a Christmas movie, though this is not an institutional position of Tax Foundation.

Key Findings Cost recovery refers to how businesses deduct their investments over time. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 reintroduced 100 percent bonus depreciation for short-lived investments, such as machinery and equipment, allowing full cost recovery for qualifying investments. Bonus depreciation will begin phasing down at the beginning of 2023. In 2018, the

This week, Congress forged an agreement to fund the federal government through an omnibus spending package that runs through September 2023. This package will include legislation that improves the tax treatment of saving, building on previous proposals introduced in the Senate and the House that change incentives to save and simplify the tax treatment of

The tax treatment of charitable giving over the past few years has been influenced by two major tax events: the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. These changes provide a case study of how changes in tax policy can influence taxpayer behavior in

Underlying every fiscal policy discussion in Washington is the question of progressivity: how much should tax and spending policy redistribute from high-income households to low-income households? This debate is often more rhetorical than substantive, but a recent study by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) fills this void by presenting data showing that the current fiscal

Research and development (R&D) is a crucial part of technological change, as R&D takes initial scientific discoveries and translates them into useful products that improve lives. Both the public and private sectors play important roles in R&D, but in recent years, private sector investment has become increasingly important. In 2019, businesses performed 75 percent of

The tax treatment of research and development (R&D) expenses is one of the biggest issues facing Congress as the year winds down. Since the beginning of 2022, companies have had to spread deductions for R&D costs out over five years, instead of deducting them immediately. This policy, known as R&D amortization, reduces economic growth by

As part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the United States enacted a new limitation on interest deductions for businesses. While it is common for countries across the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to set limits for interest deductions, starting this year, the U.S. became an outlier by using earnings

Two weeks after the 2022 midterm elections, it’s becoming clearer where tax policy may be headed for the rest of the year and into 2023. In the short term, Congress must deal with tax extenders and expiring business tax provisions that may undermine the economy. Next year, the return of divided government and an increasingly

At the end of each year, policymakers face a series of expiring tax provisions that are typically extended on a temporary basis, setting up a recurring and almost ritualistic tax extenders season. At a time of heightened concerns about the economy, high deficits, and inflation, policymakers should prioritize stability and economic growth by making permanent

As we near this year’s “lame duck” session of Congress, there has been renewed interest in child tax credit reform as part of a broader tax deal. One year after the expanded child tax credit originally enacted as part of the American Rescue Plan expired, policymakers are no closer to a consensus on where the child