Daily Deduction Simple Is as Simple Does
Renu Zaretsky
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Congress is in recess. The Daily Deduction will publish Mondays until Congress returns in mid-September. About those simple tax plans proffered in last week’s GOP debate… Bloomberg considers the plans shared by Mike Huckabee and Ben Carson, and finds devils in some details. Among them: Huckabee’s “Fair Tax,” while eliminating the IRS, would introduce new administrative and data collection challenges. Meanwhile, Carson’s 10 percent “tithe,” or flat tax, would increase the deficit. Depending on how they are designed, both could be extremely regressive, cutting taxes for high-income households and raising them for those with low- and moderate-incomes. Film production in New Jersey: No tax credits, no problem. The state ended lucrative tax breaks and incentives for film producers last month. New Jersey scrapped  its 20 percent tax credit on production expenses, capped at $10 million annually. Yet, producers are still making movies in the Garden State. On balance, location — which can include a view of New York City — matters more than tax breaks. North Carolina’s GOP wants to lock in tax cuts through the state constitution.  A state senate bill offers three constitutional amendments, one of which would cap income taxes on corporations and individuals at 5 percent. The current constitutional cap is  10 percent. If the bill passes, voters would decide on the amendments  in March 2016. The amendments could cost the state between $1.7 billion and $2 billion. In Canada, candidates want everybody to know they’re against the “Netflix tax.” The Conservative Party, currently in control, is “100% against the Netflix tax. Always have been. Always will be.” The poll-leading Liberal Party “never supported a Netflix tax and do not support a Netflix tax.” It’s worth noting that at this point, there is no proposal before lawmakers to enact  a Netflix tax, or sales tax on streaming service subscription fees. Interested in subscribing to the Daily Deduction, the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center summary of the day’s tax news? Sign-up here o get the Daily Deduction delivered to your inbox every morning. If you’d like to tell us about a new research paper or have any comments about our feature, write us at dailydeduction “at” taxpolicycenter “dot” org.