Skip to content

{ Category Archives } Uncategorized

Don’t cherry-pick: Weigh the costs and benefits of higher taxes

St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN) – Sunday, May 19, 2013 Gov. Mark Dayton wisely urged Minnesotans to use facts in the budget debate in a speech to the Chamber of Commerce. Despite this sage advice, he continued to rely on a flawed analysis as an important rationale for his budget’s higher taxes. “If the lowest […]

Tax Incidence Analysis of 2013 Minnesota Omnibus Tax Bills

The Tax Research Division of the Minnesota Department of Revenue has release Tax Incidence Analyses for the House omnibus tax bill (HF 677), the Senate omnibus tax bill and the Governor’s Supplemental Budget Proposal.  There are available here: House_Incidence_Analysis_2013 (5-11-12) Senate_Incidence_Analysis_2013 (5-11-13) Gov_Supplemental_Incidence_Analysis (5-11-13)

Updated Marginal Income Tax Rates over 60% on Secondary Earners

Did you know Minnesota is considering a 12.49% state income tax rate?  Or that some Minnesotans would face marginal income tax rates over sixty percent? Let’s look at the numbers of how layers of taxes add up to effective marginal income tax rates over 60%: Federal income tax rate             39.6%            (top tax bracket) Federal FICA                            […]

Proposed Marginal Income Tax Rates over 60% on Secondary Earners

Did you know Minnesota is considering a 12.65% state income tax rate?  Or that some Minnesotans would face marginal income tax rates over sixty percent? Let’s look at the numbers of how layers of taxes add up to effective marginal income tax rates over 60%: Federal income tax rate             39.6%            (top tax bracket) Federal FICA                            15.3%             (combined FICA […]

Written Testimony about Gambling Control Board Revenue Estimates

On April 27, 2012, I provided the following written testimony about the Gambling Control Board estimates to the Minnesota Senate Tax Committee hearing on SF 2391: Providing for a New National Football League Stadium. Dear Chairwoman Ortman and Members of the Committee, I have been asked to provide some information about the economics of revenue estimates […]

Minnesota’s Tax Expenditure Review Report Rejects Tax Pyramiding

The Minnesota Tax Expenditure Review Report (which I co-authored with Marsha Blumenthal, Laura Kalambokidis, P. Jay Kiedrowski, Judy Temple, and Jenny Wahl) agrees with economist Alan Viard’s call for treating state sales taxes as consumption taxes on final consumer purchases of goods and services.  The Tax Expenditure Review Report rejects tax pyramiding: Economists and public […]

Sales Taxation of Business Purchases: Economist Alan Viard Explains A Tax Policy Distortion

Economist Alan Viard is one of the leading scholars of tax policy in the United States.  In this article, first published in State Tax Notes in 2010, Viard explains the logic behind the broad consensus of economists that state sales taxes should generally exclude business to business purchases to avoid tax pyramiding. Viard’s article, Sales Taxation of […]

The 2013 Progressivity of the Federal Tax Code

Source: Tax Policy Center http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/numbers/displayatab.cfm?Docid=3756&DocTypeID=2 Hat tip: http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2013/01/tax-progressivity-update.html

A Reward for Job Creators: Higher Taxes?

By John Spry St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN) – Sunday, October 21, 2012 Jobs are the leading concern of voters as the election nears. People want to get the economy moving again. So why are some of Minnesota’s leading lawmakers sponsoring bills to create a “jobs tax” on Minnesota payrolls? “Jobs tax” is the term Rep. […]

The Regressive Tax Incidence of H.F. 2480

The non-partisan Research Division of the Minnesota Department of Revenue has analyzed the tax incidence of part of H.F. 2480 that would directly tax Minnesota jobs by penalizing firms that increase their payrolls in Minnesota. Some of the highlights from the Minnesota Department of Revenue’s analysis: The share of a multistate corporation’s total income that […]