It's tempting to call the shameful taxpayer subsidy for electric cars - vehicles that are unaffordable for all but a small number of wealthy Americans - this nation's costly little secret.

The exemption of groceries serves the essential purpose of easing the fiscal burden on those with limited economic means. Economic analysis suggests, however, that this policy is not a desirable way to advance that purpose.

The typical sales tax applies primarily to sales of goods and exempts many types of consumer services. The disparate treatment of goods and services has been uniformly condemned by tax policy scholars because it creates economic inefficiency and complexity.

Widespread state sales taxation of business purchases results in significant economic inefficiency, so reduction in the taxation of business purchases should be a high priority in efforts to improve state and local tax systems.

If ever we need evidence of ideology run rampant, the House vote to eliminate the annual American Community Survey and the Economic Census to provide basic information on the state of businesses and industries in the country and data used for generating quarterly gross domestic product estimates is exhibit A.

This article is the first part of a two-part examination of the contentious issue of how state governments' provision of goods and services to the public should be taxed under a VAT.

This report examines the taxation of corporate gains on depreciable business property, an important topic that has received little attention in the economic literature.

What's on the horizon for taxes? AEI's Aparna Mathur weighs in with the House Small Business Committee.