The President’s desired taxes on capital will hit more than just the rich, and might even lose revenue.

There are many different tax reform proposals that exhibit the principles of a good tax system.

The United States has one of the highest capital gains tax rates in the world. The ideal rate is zero.

What we can learned from our northern neighbors.

I’ve already shared a bunch of data and evidence on the importance of low tax rates. A review of the academic evidence by the Tax Foundation found overwhelming support for the notion that lower tax rates are good for growth. An economist from Cornell found lower tax rates boost GDP. Other economists found lower tax rates boost job creation, savings, […]

I’m a long-time proponent of the flat tax for three simple reasons. 1. It replaces the discriminatory “progressive” tax with a single tax rate at the lowest possible level, thus reducing the tax penalty on productive behavior. 2. It gets rid of all forms of double taxation, such as the death tax and capital gains tax, meaning economic activity is never taxed more […]

Allister Heath, the superb economic writer from London, recently warned that governments are undermining incentives to save. And not just because of high tax rates and double taxation of savings. Allister says people are worried about outright confiscation resulting from possible wealth taxation. It is clear that individuals, when at all possible, need to accumulate more financial assets. …Tragically, it won’t […]

I generally get very suspicious when rich people start pontificating on tax policy. People like Warren Buffett, for instance, sometimes advocate higher taxes because they’re trying to curry favor with the political elite. Or maybe they feel compelled to say silly things to demonstrate that they feel guilty about their wealth. Regardless, I don’t like their policy proposal (as […]

An underwhelming proposal.

Back in the 1960s, Clint Eastwood starred in a movie entitled The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. I was thinking that might be a good title for today’s post about some new research by Michelle Harding, a tax economist for the OECD. But then I realized that her study on “Taxation of Dividend, Interest, […]