Accounting News

The tax treatment of U.S. businesses is a complicated and onerous process for tax preparers, revenue officials, and business owners alike. The tax system treats businesses differently based on their legal form, produces economic distortions, taxes income multiple times, and creates complexity and uncertainty for taxpayers. Even though business taxation has changed in the last

Policy and economic differences among OECD countries have created variances in how they raise tax revenue, with the United States deviating substantially from the OECD average on some sources of revenue. Different taxes have different economic effects, so policymakers should always consider how tax revenue is raised and not just how much is raised. This

Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. It’s tax season, a time of year very few entrepreneurs look forward to. Considering your tax situation is

Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. One of the most common reasons a business can fail is when an entrepreneur doesn’t have a complete

One month following California’s implementation of a state-wide flavored cigarette ban, tax-paid cigarette sales dropped 17.3 percent. More than 5.6 million fewer packs were sold in January 2023 than in January 2022. On an annual basis, California will likely see revenues fall by more than $300 million. We previously estimated that a menthol ban in

Developed countries raise tax revenue through individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, social insurance taxes, taxes on goods and services, and property taxes—the combination of which determines how distortionary or neutral a tax system is. For example, taxes on income can do more economic harm than taxes on consumption and property. Countries across the Organisation

Key Findings Although most states forgo local income taxes, they are a significant source of local tax revenue in six states and at least a modest source of revenue in 10 others. Some use state definitions of income, while others define income separately or make modifications to the state base. Localities that “piggyback” on the

(a) Local income taxes are excluded. Eleven states have county- or city-level income taxes; the average rates expressed as a percentage of AGI within each jurisdiction are: AL–0.10%; DE–0.16%; IN–0.61%; IA–0.11%; KY–1.31%; MD–2.38%; MI–0.17%; MO–0.21%; NY–1.59%; OH–1.56%; PA–1.22%. In CA, CO, KS, NJ, OR, and WV some jurisdictions have payroll taxes, flat-rate wage taxes, or

The federal government is on track to run a $1.4 trillion deficit in fiscal year 2023, according to new projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Across the next decade (2024 through 2033), deficits will total more than $20 trillion, reaching an annual budget deficit of nearly $2.9 trillion in 2033. Completely balancing the budget

Following international agreement on Pillar Two, the European Union unanimously adopted a directive implementing the global minimum tax in December 2022. The following month, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released revenue estimates to assess the real impact of the tax on public finances. The global rules are designed to raise revenue, but

Governors and legislators have initiated income tax rate-cutting conversations in at least 18 states—and in about a dozen of those states, there may be some real traction behind the efforts. That makes for a stark contrast with another set of states in which policymakers are keen on hiking taxes on high earners and increasing the

Key Findings The federal tax code remains a major source of frustration and controversy for Americans, and a hindrance to economic growth and opportunity. Other countries, such as Estonia, have proven that sufficient tax revenue can be collected in a less frustrating and more efficient way. This report provides an analysis of the key features

European countries—like almost all countries around the world—require businesses to pay corporate income taxes on their profits. The amount of taxes a business ultimately pays on its profits depends on both the corporate tax base and the corporate tax rate. Today’s map shows how statutory corporate income tax rates compare across European OECD countries. Taking

Each year, the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) releases a report on the tax expenditures in the U.S. tax code. The report can be useful, particularly for looking at trends over time, but defining which tax provisions count as tax expenditures is a fraught process. As such, simply eliminating all tax expenditures would be misguided,

Rich Mintzer’s new book, Start Your Own Pet Business, outlines everything you need to know about launching and growing an animal-based business from your home. In this excerpt, he dives into the specifics of managing your finances to keep your business as healthy and happy as your tail-wagging clients. Sign up for an accounting workshop

If your state issued tax rebates last year, you might have to pay federal income tax on the rebate you received. Maybe. Who knows? Unfortunately, not the IRS—at least not yet. This uncertainty is unfair to taxpayers. Tax experts have long known that the taxability of state rebate payments would be an issue, but the

Tax policy will reportedly be featured in President Biden’s State of the Union Address tonight, but rather than offer a vision of how the tax code could be simplified or reformed to address today’s economic challenges, the President will outline three proposals that will add to the ever-growing maze of complex, narrowly-targeted tax rules. Raising

More than 170 countries worldwide—including all European countries—levy a Value-Added Tax (VAT) on goods and services. As today’s tax map shows, EU Member States’ VAT rates vary across countries, though they’re somewhat harmonized by the European Union (EU). The VAT is a consumption tax assessed on the value added in each production stage of a

Last week, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released new revenue estimates for the global minimum tax and other significant changes to the international tax system. The headline number for Pillar Two’s global minimum tax: $220 billion. This is comparable to the total U.S. corporate tax receipts from 2019 and 2020 ($230 billion

Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. Every business must keep good accounting to ensure they aren’t spending money where they don’t have to. That