Cigarette Taxes Are Costing States Billions in Lost Revenue
“Cigarette Taxes Are Costing States Billions in Lost Revenue”
https://reason.com/2025/11/14/cigarette-taxes-are-costing-states-billions-in-lost-revenue/
Tag: revenue
Laffer’s curve: the tax myth that promoted inequality
The Laffer curve confuses economic incentives with social reality. Most people can’t just stop working or even work much less, because tax rates go up. Even those who can stop working, often keep working in the face of higher tax rates. Some countries with high tax rates have high growth. The marginal tax rate whereby most people will work less is very high, like 70%.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrO9VpQCXZU
How Gen Z Protests Overturned a Government, a Crackdown on TV Drug Ads, 7-Eleven’s New Master Plan
Trump administration making it easier for wealthy people to cheat on taxes. One of the simplest ways to bring in more revenue and help the deficit is to take in the taxes people actually owe. This requires enforcement and effort, but the Trump administration isn’t willing to keep doing that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA6AKpyQ_ns
Scott Bessent Takes Premature Victory Lap on Tariff Revenues
“The revenue undoubtedly came from a surge in imports to the U.S., which led to payments that filled federal coffers. It would seem to be a win for an administration that has staked an awful lot on waging a trade war with the entire planet to (take your pick) redress wrongs done to America, raise revenue for the government, and encourage domestic manufacturing and employment. But that victory lap comes too soon; the tariff windfall more likely represents efforts by U.S. firms to accumulate inventory before tariff rates rise even higher.”
https://reason.com/2025/07/18/scott-bessent-takes-premature-victory-lap-on-tariff-revenues/
Are Trump’s tariffs making money? Watch this chart.
“The United States has generated $46.6 billion this year from tariffs as of May 8, the latest data available — 46.3% more than the same time last year. Federal income taxes, meanwhile, brought in $2.4 trillion in 2024.
And the $14.7 billion difference in tariff revenue year-on-year is just part of the story. High levies can cause huge surges in revenue that later level off as trade patterns shift and businesses seek to lower costs along their supply chains.”
https://www.politico.com/interactives/2025/trump-tariff-income-tracker/
A New IRS-ICE Agreement Could Reduce Tax Revenue by $300 Billion Over the Next Decade
“Earlier this month, the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) forged an agreement to share taxpayer data with federal immigration officials. According to a partially redacted memorandum of understanding, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “will come to the IRS with the names and address[es] of taxpayers that they believe have violated federal immigration laws,” reported CNN.
The government has long encouraged undocumented immigrants who work in the United States to file their taxes. But the new agreement means that someone who pays his taxes in good faith could attract unwanted scrutiny and be at greater risk of deportation.
Between 50 percent and 75 percent of undocumented immigrants pay taxes via federal income and/or payroll taxes, the Congressional Budget Office found in 2007. Undocumented immigrants are required to pay taxes, and doing so can help in their immigration cases down the line. The IRS has long “sought to keep information submitted by undocumented immigrants confidential,” so the IRS-ICE agreement marks “a fundamental departure from decades of practice at the tax collector,” reported The New York Times.
If the agreement between ICE and the IRS discourages undocumented immigrants from paying their taxes, the U.S. could lose billions in tax revenue. In 2022, undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a left-leaning economic think tank. Over one-third of those tax dollars “go toward payroll taxes dedicated to funding programs that these workers are barred from accessing,” including Social Security and Medicare, reported ITEP.
The Budget Lab, a nonpartisan policy research center at Yale University, estimates that the IRS-ICE agreement could cause federal revenues to “come in roughly $300 billion lower” over the next decade. In addition to becoming more hesitant to file their individual income taxes, undocumented immigrants might increasingly take under-the-table jobs.”
https://reason.com/2025/04/15/a-new-irs-ice-agreement-could-reduce-tax-revenue-by-300-billion-over-the-next-decade/