by Dan Mitchell | May 22, 2020 | Blogs, Taxation
In the world of tax policy, big-picture issues such as tax reform can capture the public’s attention (should we junk the IRS, instance, and adopt a flat tax?). People also get very interested if politicians are threatening to grab more of their money. But many tax...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 30, 2020 | Blogs, States, Taxation
I’ve written dozens of columns explaining why it would be a terrible idea for the United States to enact a value-added tax. But that’s not because I think consumption taxes are worse than income taxes. Indeed, sales taxes and VATs are less destructive because tax...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 23, 2019 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
The Trump tax plan, which was signed into law right before Christmas in 2017, had two very good features. Restricting the deduction for state and local taxes. A reduction of the corporate tax rate to 21 percent. The former was important because the federal tax code...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 2, 2019 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
Whenever I review a tax proposal, I automatically check whether it is consistent with the “Holy Trinity” of good policy. Low marginal tax rates on productive activity such as work and entrepreneurship. No tax bias (i.e., extra layers of tax) penalizing saving and...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 5, 2019 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
In my libertarian fantasies, we dramatically shrink the size of the federal government and return to pre-1913 policy by getting rid of the income tax. But if I’m forced to be at least vaguely realistic, the second-best option is scrapping the current tax code and...
