Daily Policy Digest
Tax and Spending Issues
| Overpaid Public Workers: The Evidence Mounts Salary and current benefits of state and local government employees nationwide are 10 percent and 21 percent higher, respectively, than private-sector employees doing similar work... |
| Tax Freedom Day Arrives on April 17 Tax Freedom Day for the 2012 tax year arrives on April 17, four days later than last year due to higher federal income and corporate tax collections... |
| Important Questions to Ask in Evaluating a Film Tax Incentive Program A Michigan study of its film tax credit found that it was essentially paying $100,000 for each full-time equivalent job created... |
| Canada Ups Retirement Age in Bid to Balance Budget In Canada, starting in 2023, old age security and guaranteed income supplement benefits worth up to a total of C$15,000 and now paid out at age 65 will be offered only at age 67... |
| Lottery Tax Rates Vary Greatly By State While lottery winnings are subject to state income tax in most states, withholding tax varies from zero to over 12 percent... |
| "Buffett Rule" Would Raise Less than $5 billion in Taxes a Year The "Paying a Fair Share Act," which would require those who make more than $1 million a year to pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes, would generate just an average of just $4.7 billion per year... |
| U.S. Corporate Tax Rate Poised to Become Highest On Sunday, the United States gets a distinction no nation wants -- the world's highest corporate tax rate... |
| Why the Higher Rate of Income Tax Yielded so Little The combined incomes of the taxpayers liable to pay Britain's 50 percent rate (those with earnings above £150,000, or $238,000) fell by a quarter, from £116 billion ($185 billion) to £87 billion ($139 billion), in 2010-2011... |
| States Keep Axes Sharpened State governments face a combined $47 billion gap between projected revenue and costs for the fiscal year that starts in July... |
| Unfunded Retiree Benefits Grow for States States have unfunded liabilities amounting to almost 96 percent of the $627.4 billion they were projected to owe for future retiree benefits in 2010... |
