The Heartland Institute

The scandal involving the Internal Revenue Service that exploded into the headlines in mid-May is still being investigated, but the implications already appear wide, perhaps even to the point of delaying implementation of Obamacare. With allegations swirling that the IRS was used as a political weapon against groups that are ...

This year North Carolina joined the growing number of states considering major changes to its tax system. The North Carolina Tax Fairness Act, introduced in May by Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger , lowers both personal and corporate income taxes, cuts the franchise business tax, abolishes the death tax, and lowers the ...

As technology advances, more products are becoming available online in digital formats. As digital goods such as applications, music, videos, and e-books have become more prevalent, state and local governments are looking for ways to raise new revenue by taxing these purchases. Most states impose sales tax only on transactions ...

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) says the state should use additional revenue it might receive from Internet sales taxes to cut the state’s income tax. “I want to make clear, should federal Marketplace legislation become law, my intention would be for any resulting additional revenue be used to provide individual income tax ...

Lawmakers in Maine have proposed a comprehensive tax reform plan that would cut the state’s personal and corporate income tax rates, increase sales taxes, change how property taxes are determined, increase “sin” taxes, and eliminate the estate tax. The bipartisan group of legislators sponsoring the bill , known collectively as ...

The U.S. Senate recently passed the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would force online retailers to collect sales taxes for states in which purchasers reside. Most have heard how this will hit us when we purchase goods over the Internet. But a lesser-known problem is the legislation also would enable states to levy new taxes ...

Now that the U.S. Senate has voted 69-27 to allow states to compel online retailers to collect sales tax even when they have no physical presence in a state where a shopper is located, will we see a stronger pushback? Politicos expect a tougher fight in the House of Representatives. Lobbyists including former lawmakers and ...

Revenue shortfalls associated with the Great Recession and the corresponding slow recovery have hindered the ability of US state governments to balance their budgets. With lingering economic doldrums eroding governmental tax bases and strong resistance to proposals for cutting public spending or raising broad-based taxes, many states ...

The California Supreme Court has given a victory to taxpayers in its unanimous ruling that the City of Long Beach must recognize class claims to refund illegally collected telephone taxes. McWilliams v. City of Long Beach revolved around the city’s refusal to refund the tax except to individual taxpayers who demanded their ...

The Internal Revenue Service has overpaid the Earned Income Tax Credit by at least $110.8 billion since 2000, according to a recent Treasury Department inspector general report. That is more than double the $53 billion of sequester cuts expected in 2013, totaling less than 2 percent of outlays, and puts the lie to those who ...

To achieve faster economic growth and greater job creation, Congress must look closely at rules governing expensing and depreciation for business investments, according to a new study by the Tax Foundation. The tax treatment of these accounting procedures could mean the difference between a larger, growing economy and an unproductive ...

Brew masters in Washington State are raising a cup to Olympia as House Democrats have decided to drop a proposed special tax on beer. The House Finance committee did not include the beer tax proposal—which was 50 cents per gallon—in legislation it passed in May. The proposed taxes were part of a larger budget plan that ...

Overall state tax revenues increased by 5.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government's latest quarterly report on taxes. Yet these data should not be seen as cause for celebration, said Lucy Dadayan and Donald J. Boyd, researchers at the institute and the report ...

Congress is debating major reforms of the corporate and individual income taxes. One expressed goal of the exercise is to promote economic growth while lowering the deficit. Growth is key. Without it, employment and incomes will suffer, and the hoped-for tax revenue will not appear. Proper tax treatment of the cost of plant ...

Early this week U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid began the process of pushing to the Senate floor an online tax bill originally titled the Marketplace Fairness Act, bypassing the committee process. The proposal would expand states’ ability to force out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes for online and mail-order ...

When the 2013 Legislative Session began this past January, tax increases in Washington State were a long shot. First there was the voters’ most recent confirmation (for the fifth time) of the state’s two-decade-old law requiring a supermajority vote in the legislature to raise taxes. That proposal, Initiative 1185, received 64 ...

Early this week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid began the process of pushing to the Senate floor a major online tax bill originally titled the Marketplace Fairness Act , bypassing the committee process. The proposal would expand states’ ability to force out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes for online and mail-order ...

The federal medical device tax, which went into force on January 1 of this year, will have an adverse effect on the medical device industry, consumers, and the economy, according to a new analysis by the Tax Foundation. The 2.3 percent excise tax on the manufacturers of medical devices is part of the Patient Protection and ...

In Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov,” a priest recalls the words of a man who confessed, “The more I love mankind in general, the less I love people in particular.” We can all think of people like that—folks of varied political persuasions who rally to “save” humanity but become so consumed by their cause that they lose ...

According to Governing magazine, there were 28 public bankruptcies in 2011 and 2012. Although that number fell short of many experts’ predictions, it still represents a significant increase in defaults. Of the dozens of cities considering bankruptcy, Stockton, California is the largest and has received the most attention. A recent ...