America Speaks - Our Budget, Our Economy

I had the opportunity to participate in the Silicon Valley session of the America Speaks "town hall" meeting . This was one of 19 ...

States Examining Business Tax Incentives

Budget challenges in almost all states can lead to changes to postpone or suspend the use of tax credits and carryovers. Budget challenges a...

Need to Examine Self-Employment Tax Policy

I think that recent changes to impose Medicare and surtax on high income individuals and the "loophole" closer proposal to tax som...

Balancing Compliance and Collection - The Expanded 1099 Filing Requirement

One of my favorite statements about reducing the tax gap is from a 1995 GAO report. The statement is a good reminder regarding ideal tax sys...

Film Production Credits Go Too Far

There has been a fair amount of attention in the press on the variety of film production credits and grants that the majority of states offe...

Highway Trust Fund Problems Continue

I was quoted in a MinnPost article today about a long-standing problem that I've blogged on before (see 9/5/08 post ). With people driv...

Oklahoma follows Colorado Approach to Increase Use Tax Compliance

On June 9, 2010, Oklahoma, following the lead of Colorado, enacted HB 2359 to require vendors that sell tangible personal property to Oklaho...

Creative Pennsylvania Tax Amnesty Ad

I accidentally came across this website today and it caught my attention: http://www.pataxpayup.com/portal/server.pt/community/tax_amnesty_...

Rhode Island Tax Reform

On June 9, 2010, Governor Carcieri signed a tax reform bill - H8196 Sub A & S2921 . The governor described this as "legislation t...

Bernanke Reminds Us of Need for Fiscal Responsibility

In testimony before the House Committee on the Budget on June 9. 2010, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke about the state of the e...

Georgia Tax Reform Committee - HB 1405 enacted

Georgia lawmakers have created the 2010 Special Council on Tax Reform and Fairness. HB 1405 calls upon this special committee to study the...

Plastic or Canvas? Tax Or Ban? California AB 1998

AB 1998 would, with some exceptions, prohibit certain stores from providing single-use bags to customers, after 2011. The goal is to reduce...

Call for Papers on Pennsylvania Tax Reform

The Fall 2010 issue of the Pittsburgh Tax Review will be a special symposium issue on Pennsylvania tax reform. The Review is currently sol...

Maine voters reject tax change enacted by legislators

The June 8 ballot in Maine included this question: "Do you want to reject the new law that lowers Maine's income tax and replaces t...

Increasing attention on tax exenditures (and interesting, but good, irony in HR 4213)

I've seen a few articles and reports lately on the need to examine, reduce, and bring greater attention to a form of government spending...

Exemptions that are too broad

An article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on June 2 - " Tax breaks for seniors: Can counties afford them ?" caught my attent...

California Reconsidering Optional Single Sales Factor

On May 26, 2010, the Legislative Analyst's Office released, Reconsidering the Optional Single Sales Factor . It describes the February ...