Taxes and Budget

Canada should drop its Digital Services Tax, which will harm Canadian businesses, startups, and consumers and surely lead to a retaliatory response by the U.S. government.

The next administration needs to place innovation, productivity, and competitiveness at the core of its economic policy. To that end, this report offers a comprehensive techno-economic agenda with 82 actionable policy recommendations.

With the gradual shift from internal combustion to electric vehicles, it is only a matter of time before the nation will have to replace gas taxes with a vehicle miles traveled system to pay for road maintenance. The most sensible way to start would be with heavy trucks.

Instead of enacting counterproductive tax grabs from U.S. digital firms, Canada and others should wait for the OECD to complete its Base Erosion Profits Shifting (BEPS) plan.

The president’s budget proposal for the coming fiscal year serves as a blueprint for how the government plans to deliver on the promise to bolster U.S. investments in science and technology in a bid to outcompete China in key industries.

Congress should make good on its promise to appropriate authorizations in the Chips and Science Act to further energize innovation in clean energy and other critical technologies.

A robot tax is a misguided policy that would inhibit productivity growth that could otherwise make U.S. companies more competitive, create higher-paying jobs, and improve quality of life for all Americans.

The FY 2024 budget request, if met, could maintain bipartisan momentum for clean energy innovation. Congress should support that innovation to foster domestic clean energy industries that can compete globally, minimize foreign dependencies, and address climate change.

Tax incentives for research and development (R&D) in America are less generous than in comparable countries—and now prevent firms from expensing the full value of R&D investments in the first year. Enhancing R&D tax incentives would create high-paying jobs across the country.

Economists agree that because most of the benefits of R&D and its technological breakthroughs accrue to entities other than the investing firm (e.g., customers, competitors, etc.), the current level of R&D investment is well below what would be socially optimal.