The Tax Foundation

Jonathan Williams, Director of the Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force at the American Legislative Exchange Council, discusses the fifth edition of ALEC's annual study of state-level government policy and ecnonomic growth, Rich States, Poor States.

Tax Foundation economist Scott Drenkard comments on the income tax increases being proposed by the Maryland State Assembly.

Legislators in Maryland, currently meeting in a special session of the General Assembly, are poised to approve a slate of tax increases, including increased income tax rates on those earning more than $100,000 a year. Lawmakers are also considering an increase in the sales tax, according to our new study released today.

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.