Retirement plans are generally classified either as defined benefit or defined contribution. A cash balance plan is, technically, a defined benefit plan, because it pays...
Tax incentives reduce the after-tax cost of owner-occupied housing at any given level of housing prices. The most well-known example of a housing tax incentive...
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) dramatically changed tax subsidies for homeownership by raising the standard deduction, placing a cap on the...
In the United States, as in many countries, wealth inequality has grown over several decades. According to the Federal Reserve Board, the share of net...
Economic Depreciation Economic depreciation represents the decline in an asset’s market value over time. Economic depreciation of tangible assets occurs from wear and tear, lower...
The tax is calculated as 15 percent of adjusted financial statement income, which is different than taxable income. A taxpayer is only liable for the...
Base erosion and profit-shifting refers to strategies developed by large multinationals to shift profits from high-tax to low-tax countries or tax havens. Companies use deductible...
Currently, many low- and middle-income taxpayers can prepare and electronically file their tax return through the Free File program, which is operated by private companies...
Countries that give some taxpayers the option to file tax returns through exact withholding typically have simpler tax codes than the United States. Implementing a...
An exact-withholding system has the potential to reduce tax compliance burden for taxpayers. Filing tax returns can be a drain on taxpayers’ time and resources,...
In the late 1980s, Denmark became the first country to prepopulate taxpayers’ returns with available information from independent third parties, such as employers. The return...
Many countries have made it simpler for taxpayers to pay income taxes by either sending them partially or fully prepopulated tax returns. That approach depends...
Different tobacco products are taxed in different ways: cigarettes are taxed per pack, other tobacco products are typically taxed as a percentage of price, and...
For lotteries, the state government collects a share of revenue from all purchased tickets. The remaining money goes to prizes, retailer commissions, and administrative expenses...
Fines and fees include parking tickets and speeding tickets (including those from traffic cameras), court-imposed fees used to cover administrative costs and other criminal justice-related...
Although individual charges can be as little as a few dollars, in aggregate, charges are cumulatively a substantial revenue source for state and local governments...