Daily Policy Digest
Tax and Spending Issues
| State and Local Sales Taxes at Midyear 2012 Avoidance of sales tax is most likely to occur in areas where there is a significant difference between two jurisdictions' sales tax rates... |
| Old Age Entitlements vs. the Safety Net In 1940 there were 159 workers to each Medicare and Social Security beneficiary; today there are fewer than three... |
| Corporate Welfare in the Federal Budget Corporate welfare in the federal budget costs taxpayers almost $100 billion a year... |
| Internet Taxes The only statewide Internet sales tax that has been fully implemented -- in Rhode Island -- has not gained revenue and has actually resulted in a net loss... |
| Future Marketplace: Free and Fair The Census Bureau estimated that in the third quarter of 2011, retail e-commerce sales were 4.6 percent of all retail sales... |
| Taxing the Uninsured: The Latest Estimates The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as a legitimate exercise of Congress' power to tax; the tax it imposes, however, is complicated... |
| IRS Data Shows that Businesses Will Bear Brunt of Obama's Tax Hike Hiking the top individual income tax rates would amount to one of the largest single tax increases on individually owned businesses in modern history... |
| Report of the State Budget Crisis Task Force States' sources of revenue are increasingly volatile because of their growing reliance on sales taxes, which are vulnerable to fluctuations in the business cycle... |
| Overpaid Unemployment Benefits Top $14 Billion The federal government and states overpaid an estimated $14 billion in unemployment benefits in fiscal 2011, or roughly 11 percent of all the jobless benefits paid out... |
| UCLA Study of Japan's Bullet Train Raises Questions about California Project A recent economic analysis found no evidence that the introduction of bullet train service in Japan improved tax revenues, which was used as a proxy for local gross domestic product... |
