By Steve Pociask, American Consumer Institute Last October, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released its Pillar One and Pillar Two Blueprint, a plan that would fundamentally change tax rules between nations. The OECD also gave, until December 14th, an opportunity for public comments. In the comments we submitted, we concluded that […]
Tag: taxes
Washington Beyond the Headlines: States Are Taxing Other States (Yes, It’s a Thing)
By Andy Blom, TES Washington Editor What an interesting election. Both sides won. The D’s won the Presidency (assuming the legal challenges fail). The R’s held the Senate and gained in the House (assuming an R win in Georgia’s runoff). Sanity, in some form, maybe won, giving us a gridlocked Washington. If President-maybe-elect Biden’s […]
With tax revenues rising, states do NOT need more federal aid
“State and Local Tax Revenues Are Rising” By Chris Edwards, courtesy of the Cato Institute A Wall Street Journal news piece this week was titled “U.S. States Face Biggest Cash Crisis Since the Great Depression.” But new data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis suggest that the Journal headline and story were needless scaremongering. The BEA data […]
Washington Beyond the Headlines: Wages Were Up, Taxes Down in 2019
By Andy Blom, TES Washington Editor TRUMP HAS COVID-19! And a predictable outpouring of mainstream media bile ensues. If you’re tired of media hysteria and want to know what’s actually being done in Washington, read on… Free Market advocates and organizations are steadfastly ignoring the sensational and doing actual work. Here’s this week’s news […]
When taxes keep couples from marrying
“Why Marry when Living in Sin Is Cheaper?” By Haig Simonian, courtesy of Avenir Suisse My wife and I pay tax in two countries, but file three returns. That is because Switzerland, like much of continental Europe, taxes husbands and wives as one, whereas the UK, like Sweden and Austria, treats the two […]
Washington Beyond the Headlines: Raising Taxes During a Disaster Is A Very Bad Idea
By Andy Blom, TES Washington Editor Here’s some great public mental health advice: stay home, wear a mask, and definitely wear earplugs and blinders when you watch TV news. Or you can just read about free market policy people who are working through the storm, offering perspective and policy options to lead us to […]
Dump anti-business taxes to unleash French potential
“Let’s dismantle our anti-economic taxation before it finishes our economy” By Nicolas Marques, courtesy of Institut économique Molinari The future is particularly worrying for French society. Companies, suffocated by extraordinary taxation and finicky regulations, have structural competitiveness problems. The previous crises have left their mark, with abnormally high unemployment. The coronavirus strikes a weak economy. In the first […]
Washington Beyond the Headlines: A Tariff Is A Tax!
By Andy Blom, TES Washington Editor While the impeachment circus goes on America’s economy surges ahead, unemployment is low and conservative and center-right organizations and individuals are doing lots of work on issues and ideas that affect America, and the world. Read on, it’s a busy week (except in Congress)… Tariff Wars, […]
“Large-scale” VAT fraud costs Europe 30B-60B euros per year
“The EU Runs a Large Trade Surplus with Itself – One Reason Is Apparently Large-Scale VAT Fraud” Courtesy of IfW Kiel The EU runs a trade surplus with itself of EUR 307 billion—a figure that should be zero if all transactions were properly reported and recorded. Measurement errors alone cannot account for this […]
France shows the results of 50 years of short-term politics, statism
“Why did France choose unemployment and debt?” By Patrick Aulnas, courtesy of Contrepoints For half a century, France has made an implicit choice: mass unemployment and public debt . The two elements are linked because the size of the state weighs heavily on the economy and harms its dynamism. Hyper-regulation and massive taxes hamper the functioning […]