The Tax Foundation

For decades, American schoolchildren have purchased books and other educational materials from Scholastic Book Club, Inc., which seeks to foster good reading habits and complement classroom education. However, courts in two states (Connecticut and Tennessee) have ruled this year that Scholastic owes back sales and use taxes, despite the fact that the company has neither property nor employees in those states.

Dozens of local governments have attempted to expand their taxing authority by levying hotel taxes on travel booking websites in recent years. These attempts to shift more of the tax burden to tourists and business travelers have proven unpopular with state courts, which have struck down the vast majority of attempts, according to our new study.

Business owner Pete Vegas explains how a single visit to Washington state ended up saddling him with an assessment for $180,000 in business and occupation taxes.

In 2012, Americans will pay approximately $4.041 trillion in taxes, which is $152 billion, or 3.9 percent, more than they will spend on housing, food, and clothing. Through looking at contemporary data and examining the trend of tax collections and expenditures on housing, food, and clothing, we can compare the costs of government with the necessary costs individuals incur every year. 

National Taxpayers Union Vice President Andrew Moylan discusses the trend of local governments investing millions (and in some cases hundreds of millions) of dollars in municipal broadband projects that compete with private ISPs.