How states can improve sales and use tax collection

Line 95 is the use tax line on the California personal income tax form. Line 22 is from the Michigan form. Which do you think better explain...

NYT questions value of mortgage interest deduction

The New York Times ran an article on 10/25/12 - " Who Really Benefits From Interest Deductions " by Lisa Prevost. It points out a...

Some CEOs call for tax reform that includes raising revenues

Federal Debt information from OMB (dollars in millions) The Wall Street Journal reports today (10/25/12) that over 80 CEOs are calling for...

Vermont Study on its Sales Tax

In July, I blogged about the formation of a Study Committee in Vermont on the Sales and Use Tax ( 7/3/12 post ). Well, I had the opportunity...

"Ditch the Tax Code" - problems and possible solutions

I had the opportunity to participate in a HuffPost Live discussion on Friday (Oct 19) - it was a lively conversation. I think host Josh Zepp...

US Supreme Court Denies Cert in a Nexus Case

As I predicted, the U.S. Supreme Court has denied cert in the request from Scholastic Books to hear its appeal of a finding of sales tax ne...

Tax Questions for Presidential (and VP) Candidates

http://www.debates.org/ We are hearing a lot about tax reforms from candidates, but not much on specifics that are really needed.  For examp...

What if North Dakota Had Won at the US Supreme Court 20 Years Ago?

If Justice White had been able to convince four of his fellow justices to rule for North Dakota in the Quill case, I think we'd have a d...

Sales Tax Oddities - Food

A recent ruling in Florida is a reminder of the lack of logic and transparency in some of the special rules and exemptions common in sales t...

Romney's "Bucket" Idea

In a Fox News interview before the first presidential debate, Governor Romney referred to a "$17,000 bucket" as part of his tax re...

Should IRS help allieviate the "fiscal cliff"?

The first two items are the key parts of the "fiscal cliff" and others are also budget problems. A 10/1/12 Wall Street Journal bl...