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
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…Richard Stern -
- 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…Tyler O’Neil -
- 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…Joe Thomas -
- 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…Jarrett Stepman -
- 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…Josh Hammer -
- 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…Fred Lucas -
- 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…Rep. Ron Estes -
- 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…George Caldwell -
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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…Thomas English -
- 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,…George Caldwell -
- 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…Daniel McCarthy -
- 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…Deroy Murdock -
- 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…Mayra Rodriguez -
- 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…Sarah Parshall Perry -
- News
Lawmakers Call for Defunding as Report Reveals Millions of Taxpayer Dollars Spent on Gender Ideology
The federal government spent more than $174 million promoting gender ideology in the past three years, according to a new report. In one example of many, the State Department issued a taxpayer-funded grant to premiere “The Vagina Monologues” in India. Two lawmakers say the waste must end. Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, and Sen. Jim Banks,…Moira Gleason -
- Opinion
Supreme Court Should Uphold State’s Rights to No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Businesses
Next month, the Supreme Court of the United States will hear Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, a case challenging South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster’s 2018 executive order disqualifying abortion businesses from receiving taxpayer dollars. As a homegrown South Carolinian, there is nothing more pervasive to my state’s values, nor diametrically opposed to our health…Macy Petty -
- Opinion
Tax the Past?
Climate activists have found a new way to force us to pay more for energy. New York and Vermont passed laws that will raise the price of oil, gas, and electricity by taxing the past. New York’s new law demands fossil fuel companies pay $75 billion for carbon emissions dating back to the year 2000….John Stossel -
- News
Inspector General Could Probe $6B in Tax Dollars Fueling Immigration Crisis
The government should investigate how $6 billion in tax dollars funded the nongovernmental organizations to move illegal immigrants across the country, Mike Howell, executive director of The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, told a House panel. Congress has a role, and so does the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, Howell told the House…Fred Lucas -
- Opinion
Forgive Me If I’m Not Sad to See Gender Clinics in India Close Because They’re Finally Losing My Tax Dollars
Did you know that the very first gender clinic—established to pump people full of experimental drugs to make their bodies resemble those of the opposite sex—in India opened thanks to your tax dollars? Meanwhile, “independent media outlets” in Ukraine have been forced to shut down because President Donald Trump froze U.S. foreign aid. Don’t buy…Tyler O’Neil -
- News
EXCLUSIVE: Conservative Watchdog Debunks Argument Defunding Planned Parenthood Hurts Taxpayers
Pro-lifers continue to urge the Department of Government Efficiency to defund Planned Parenthood, but they aren't putting all their eggs in Elon Musk's basket. As pro-life groups fight for a provision in the budget reconciliation package to remove federal funding from Planned Parenthood, conservatives warn against allowing pro-abortion misinformation to derail efforts to defund the…Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell