Tax Foundation's Tax Policy Podcast

The United States House of Representatives' Committee on the Judiciary's Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law recently held a hearing titled, "State Taxation: The Role of Congress in Developing Apportionment Standards." In this week's podcast, Arushi Sharma, a clerk with the Tax Foundation's Center for Legal Reform, interviews Professor...

The Missouri General Assembly is considering a resolution that would allow Missourians to vote on a constitutional amendment to eliminate the state's individual income tax (which has a top rate of 6% on income over $9,000) and corporate income tax (6.25%) and replace the revenue with a broad-based sales tax on all consumer goods and services. The state's current general sales tax rate is 4.225%, and...

Joseph Henchman, the Tax Foundation's Tax Counsel and Director of State Projects, recently testified before the United States House of Representatives' Committee on the Judiciary's Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law. The hearing was titled, "State Taxation: The Impact of Congressional Legislation on State and Local Government Revenues." On this week's podcast, Joe...

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) recently released the third edition of Rich States, Poor States, which provides the 2010 ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness rankings of states based on their economic policies. The third edition examines why the economic crisis has been so rough on the states, what states should do to alleviate the fiscal...

State and local governments are looking for ways to fill budget gaps -- through tax increases, spending cuts or some combination of both. Or, in the case of some local governments, through increased fines for traffic violations. In this week's podcast, Tax Foundation Staff Economist Kail Padgitt, Ph.D., interviews...

On this week's podcast, Representative Tom Price (R-GA), Chairman of the Republican Study Committee, discusses the new health care reform law, the RSC-supported alternative (H.R. 3400, the Empowering Patients First Act) and reforms to contain health care costs and lower the tax burden...

In this week's podcast, Tax Foundation Economist Kail Padgitt, Ph.D., discusses Tax Freedom Day ®, which will fall on April 9, 2010. Tax Freedom Day is the day on which Americans have earned enough money to pay all federal, state, and local taxes for the year. This year, Americans will work well over three months of the year -- from January 1 to April 9 -- before...

In this week's podcast, Tax Foundation President Scott Hodge interviews Jim MacDougald, president of the Free Enterprise Nation, an educational and advocacy organization representing individuals and businesses in the private sector -- or as MacDougald puts it, "the NRA for the free enterprise sector of the economy." He discusses the costs of health care reform,...

In this week's podcast, Tax Foundation Tax Counsel and Director of State Projects Joseph Henchman interviews San Diego attorney Edward Teyssier, who spearheaded the charge against the city for collecting a "processing fee" associated with the city's rental tax. In Weisblat v. City of San Diego, in which the Tax Foundation filed a friend-of-the-court brief, a...

In this week's podcast, Tax Foundation President Scott Hodge interviews Idaho Rep. Marv Hagedorn, who has introduced a tax reform plan to cut the state's personal and corporate income tax rates over 10 years. The bill would eliminate state's eight personal income tax brackets, bringing the top rate down from 7.8% to a single rate of 4.9% for...

Our friends at the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions in Ohio recently released a report titled "State of the State: Two Decades of Weak Job Growth and Skyrocketing Government Costs Pose Daunting Challenges for Ohioans." Buckeye President Matt Mayer returns to the podcast this week to discuss...

Returning to the podcast this week is Tax Foundation Senior Fellow Bob Carroll, Ph.D., who recently authored a report on tax deferral and international corporate tax competitiveness. Bob discusses the difference between worldwide and territorial corporate tax systems and the need for the United States to lower its federal corporate tax rate to be...

This week's podcast guest is Joe Henchman, the Tax Foundation's Tax Counsel and Director of State Projects. Joe recently authored Tax Foundation Special Report No. 175, "Cities Pursue Discriminatory Taxation of Online Travel Services," which looks at efforts by local governments in many states to collect discriminatory taxes from online travel companies such as Orbitz,...

On this week's podcast, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson discusses her 2009 Annual Report to Congress, in which she outlines 21 problems focusing on the IRS's taxpayer service and tax collection practices. Olson has been a guest on the Tax Policy Podcast twice...

This week's podcast guest is Kelly Phillips Erb, also known as Tax Girl, a Philadelphia-based tax attorney and blogger. Erb discusses the pending expiration of provisions in the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts and what to expect from President Obama's budget, which is scheduled to be released next week.

The Tax Foundation released a Special Report last week taking an exhaustive look at movie production incentives -- such as film tax credits, cash rebates, grants and select tax exemptions -- which fail to spur economic growth or raise tax revenue. This week's podcast focuses on Iowa's film tax credits program, known as the Film, Television and Video Promotion Program, which a state tax credit review panel recently recommended...

A recent report from House Ways & Means Committee Republicans found that the major tax provisions passed by the Democrat-controlled House in 2009 amount to a net tax increase of more than $1 trillion over the next decade. In this week's podcast, Congressman Dave Camp (R-MI), Ranking Member...

The combined federal and average state corporate income tax rate of nearly 40 percent in the United States is the second-highest among industrialized nations. This week's Tax Policy Podcast features Richard T. Page, who recently authored a note in the Tulane Journal of International and Comparative Law examining international trends in corporate income, personal income and estate taxes. In order for the United...

What were the biggest tax stories of 2009? And what can we expect in 2010? In this week's Tax Policy Podcast, Christopher Bergin, President and Publisher of Tax Analysts, discusses the U.S. Senate's inaction on the estate tax, the IRS's efforts to crack down on tax evaders, health care reform, taxing the rich, a possible value added tax and more. Tax Analysts...

There's been some talk recently of a second stimulus plan, but a recent Tax Foundation analysis shows that several states are taking advantage of one provision of the first stimulus bill -- increased federal matching rates for Medicaid -- at the expense of some health care providers in their own states and taxpayers in others. Twenty-two states have significant health provider or hospital taxes, six of which were enacted or expanded in the last year, and another four enactments or...