Tax Policy & IRS News
The Daily Signal reports on tax legislation, reform efforts, and tax enforcement by the IRS. Get conservative analysis on how tax policies and cuts affect families, businesses, and America’s fiscal outlook.
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opinion
HOT Tax Would Let Liberals Pay More, Sparing Everyone Else
Former U.S. Sen. Willard Mitt Romney, R-Utah, is neither the first nor the last billionaire to say that he wants to pay higher taxes, ergo, other Americans should suffer tax hikes, too. Romney recently wrote, “It’s time for rich people like me to pay more.” He advocated higher taxes on—among other things—payrolls, real estate, carried… -
opinion
More Tax on Tips: Blue States Undercutting New Federal Tax Cuts
Filthy, vile, and disgusting. And I would add: reprehensible, repulsive, and rebarbative. These words perfectly describe the latest Democrat scheme to shaft industrious, economically embattled Americans, all so that the Left can get President Donald Trump. There are no depths too low for Democrats to dig to hurt this president. They were at Sub-basement Level 14 and have now jackhammered their… -
news
Changes to ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ to Cost Extra $140B Over 10 Years, Tax Panel Estimates
Want some extra SALT with those budgetary fries? It will cost you. The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation has released its latest cost estimates on the latest House budget proposal, which includes a quadrupling of the cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions on federal taxes. The projections suggest late compromises on issues such… -
opinion
Why the House’s New Education Plan is a Win for Students and Taxpayers
In response to a directive to cut $330 billion in mandatory federal education spending over the next decade, the House Education and Workforce Committee has proposed a reconciliation package projected to save taxpayers approximately $350 billion—surpassing the target by $20 billion. This part of the reconciliation bill, passed at the end of April, now moves… -
news
Voters Want Balanced Budget and Low Taxes, Poll Finds
Most Americans want to balance the budget and keep taxes low, a new poll suggests. According to a Napolitan News Service survey—organized by noted pollster Scott Rasmussen—31% of registered voters would “strongly favor” a proposal to balance the federal budget in 10 years, while 39% “somewhat favor” it. Taken together, that's a 70% supermajority. That… -
news
Harvard by the Numbers: How University Will Fare Without Taxpayer Subsidies
Losing federal funding will hit more than two-thirds of Harvard University’s research grants, but the vaunted Ivy League institution won’t be financially strapped in other areas. The university has $70.6 billion in total assets, and most of its more than $6.2 billion in annual expenses goes to salaries and benefits, according to its financial report… -
opinion
The High Cost of Big Government—A Heist on Taxpayers
$521 billion. That’s the estimate the federal government itself put forward of annual fraud levels. That’s enough money to rebuild every crumbling bridge and school in the country—all squandered due to government incompetence. In fiscal year 2024, just 16 agencies reported improper payment estimates that totaled $162 billion—money lost to error, fraud, overpayments, or ineligible… -
opinion
You Don’t Just Pay Taxes on April 15. Here’s a Hidden Tax That Picks Your Pocket All the Time.
The government doesn't just directly charge Americans in taxes—it also imposes a hidden tax that makes everything more expensive, according to a new report. The federal government doesn't just pass laws in Congress. Each year, many of the 438 federal agencies—nominally under the president's control through the executive branch—publish tens of thousands of pages in… -
opinion
Virginia’s ‘DOGE’ Saves Taxpayers Millions
Editor’s note: For additional context for the story below, what would become Virginia’s Office of Regulatory Management began as a pilot program under Gov. Ralph Northam that covered two agencies. Under Gov. Glenn Youngkin, the pilot program was turned into an official agency and expanded to cover all agencies of the executive branch of Virginia… -
news
Americans Support Pulling Funds from Harvard, Taxing Endowments According to Poll
Americans are broadly supportive of the Trump administration’s battle with Harvard University, and majorities even support the federal government taxing the endowments of wealthy universities. This is according to a poll conducted by RMG Research and released by the Napolitan Institute on Wednesday. The major exception to the broad-based support for restricting funds to Harvard and… -
opinion
End US Taxpayer Support for the Higher Education Gravy Train
One of the most important insights of public policy is the understanding that most laws are predicated upon a (stated or unstated) quid pro quo. Take, for example, the roiling monthslong debate about President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda. Prior to the media uproar over the much-ballyhooed MS-13-tied “Maryland man,” the since-deported Salvadoran national Kilmar… -
news
Van Hollen’s Office Mum on Cost to Taxpayers for El Salvador Visit
Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s office is mum about how much the taxpayers had to shell out for his trip to El Salvador — or whether he or someone else paid — in a failed effort to win the release from prison of a former illegal immigrant who resided in his state. Spokespersons for the Maryland… -
opinion
Democrats Mislead Public About Benefits of GOP Tax Cuts
It’s Tax Day in the United States. “Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the Democrats believe every day is April 15,” President Ronald Reagan quipped during his 1984 reelection campaign. But Tax Day will be much worse next year if Republicans don’t extend our signature 2017 legislation—the Tax Cuts and Jobs… -
news
About-Face? Republicans Weigh Raising Taxes on Top Earners
Some Republicans are considering a new way to free up space in the budget—raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans. The idea of raising taxes—which goes against long-held assumptions about the Republican Party’s fiscal policy—appears to be gaining some traction in both the White House and within GOP congressional leadership. Axios first reported on this shift… -
news
Solar Picnic Tables? How the Federal Government Has Treated Your Tax Dollars With Utter Disdain
DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—The House Oversight Committee’s subpanel on government efficiency held a hearing Tuesday exposing billions of taxpayer dollars wasted annually on outdated federal buildings. Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who leads the Subcommittee on Delivering Government Efficiency, opened the hearing by slamming federal agencies for maintaining a bloated real estate footprint. She… -
news
Washington’s Leading Tax Cut Advocates Cheer Trump’s Tariffs Pause
Minutes after President Donald Trump’s announcement of a 90-day pause on most of the tariffs he had imposed, Washington’s most prominent tax-cut advocates cheered the dramatic reversal. President Donald Trump announced on social media that tariffs will fall to a baseline of 10% for 90 days, except for China's, which will be raised even higher,… -
opinion
Tariffs Are a Reason to Cut Taxes and Red Tape
If there’s one thing supporters and opponents of President Donald Trump’s tariffs should agree on, it’s the need to unchain prosperity at home while international trade is in flux. That means renewing the president’s first-term tax cuts, for a start, but it also calls for sweeping regulatory reform—a DOGE-like approach to slice the red tape… -
news
As Tariffs Tank Markets, Economy Craves Tax Cuts
More carrots, please. Feeling flogged by sticks, Wall Street greeted President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” with a bellowing Bronx cheer. On Wednesday, Trump unveiled 10% across-the-board tariffs on all imports, plus reciprocal taxes tailored to foil foreign tariffs on U.S. goods. Financial markets opened Thursday and swiftly wilted. After China slapped a retaliatory 34% tariff… -
opinion
I Worked at Planned Parenthood for 15 Years—Here’s Why It Shouldn’t Get Taxpayer Dollars
Do states have the right to refuse to give taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood and other abortion facilities within their borders? As someone who worked at Planned Parenthood for more than 15 years and who knows what they do with that money, I can say unequivocally that they should have that right. One of the… -
opinion
Supreme Court Justices Seem Inclined to Uphold Religious Charity’s Claim for State Tax Exemption
The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday, on one of its last days of oral arguments for cases from the October 2024 term, in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission. The case concerns the constitutionality of Wisconsin’s state unemployment tax exemption as applied to the work of the Catholic Charities Bureau. At…