By Caleb Taylor Legislators took a big step towards finalizing their tax reform priorities for the 2019 session. Arkansas Tax Reform & Relief Legislative Task Force members voted August 7th to pursue a comprehensive tax reform proposal that would reduce the top personal income tax rate to 6.5 percent and consolidate its three rate schedules. […]
Tax Reform Task Force Takes a Good Look at 3 Ways to Cut the Income Tax
By Caleb Taylor And then there were three. Three tax reform proposals were selected by the Arkansas Tax Reform & Relief Task Force as worthy of further study by outside consultants on June 26th. Income Tax Proposals The three proposals include a plan previously announced by Gov. Asa Hutchinson and two new plans. Hutchinson’s plan […]
QACF Brings “No Increases” In Employment, Bundrick Says
By Caleb Taylor What is the Quick Action Closing Fund (QACF) and what reforms should be considered to protect taxpayers? Jacob Bundrick, a policy analyst at the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics, was on the Conduit News radio program Wednesday morning to answer these questions and more. The QACF allows the state to provide […]
The Supreme Court Just Handed States a New Power to Tax. Should Arkansas Use it?
By Caleb Taylor Will a recent Supreme Court decision on state taxation of remote online sales (like through Amazon or Etsy) help or harm Arkansas’s recent tax reform efforts? ACRE Scholar and UCA Assistant Professor of Economics Jeremy Horpedahl was quoted in two statewide outlets on Thursday, June 21st about the effect of the South […]
Arkansas’s Property Tax is Low, But What Does That Mean For Income and Sales Tax Rates?
By Caleb Taylor Arkansas has the third highest combined state-local sales tax rate in the nation and the highest personal income tax rate of its surrounding states. But there is one area of taxation where Arkansans enjoy a relatively low burden: property taxes. According to the Tax Foundation, Arkansas has the third-lowest state and local […]
Fair Market Value Compensation: Is this the right standard?
By Ashley Wofford In my previous post, I gave an overview of ACRE’s most recent eminent domain policy brief by George Mason Professor of Law, Ilya Somin: “Ripe for Reform: Eminent Domain Law in Arkansas.” The first aspect of Arkansas eminent domain law that Somin points out as having a potential for abuse is fair […]
Learning From Other States On Tax Reform
By Caleb Taylor What can Arkansas learn from other states’ work on tax reform? UCA Assistant Professor of Economics and ACRE Scholar Jeremy Horpedahl and Nicole Kaeding, Director of Special Projects at the Tax Foundation, answer this question and more in a just-released research paper Learning from Other States’ Successes and Failures in Tax Reform. […]
How to Reform Eminent Domain in Arkansas
By Ashley Wofford It’s been thirteen years since the Supreme Court handed down its controversial ruling in Kelo v. City of New London (2005) that unleashed a wave of eminent domain reform in state legislatures across the country. Ilya Somin, Professor of Law at George Mason University teamed up with ACRE to look back at […]
Sales Tax Exemption Gimmicks Mask High State Income Taxes
By Caleb Taylor Arkansas should consider ending its counterproductive tax-exemptions, and instead lower income taxes, according to ACRE Scholar and UCA Assistant Professor of Economics Dr. Jeremy Hopedahl. Horpedahl discussed the latest tax-policy news on Capitol View this Sunday with Jessi Turnure, KARK Political Correspondent. Topics included the grocery tax exemption, back-to-school sales tax holidays, […]
Out of 43 recommended tax reforms, legislators move forward on only 7
By Caleb Taylor Seven. That’s the number of sales tax exemptions members of the Arkansas Tax Reform and Relief Legislative Task Force recommended for further study on April 25th and 26th. Sales Taxes According to a Department of Finance & Administration report, there are currently at least 115 state sales tax exemptions. Some of these […]