One of the nation’s most trusted think tanks, the Tax Foundation has since 1937 provided Americans with basic information and policy analysis to promote simple, sensible tax policy at the federal and state levels. Best known for our annual calculation of “Tax Freedom Day,” we work to raise economic awareness among taxpayers, lawmakers, and media.
The mission of the Tax Foundation is to educate taxpayers about smarter tax policy and the size of the tax burden borne by Americans at all levels of government. From its founding in 1937, the Tax Foundation has been grounded in the belief that the dissemination of basic information about government finance is the foundation of sound policy in a free society.
The Tax Foundation is a non-partisan tax research group based in Washington, D.C.
The Tax Foundation Story: The year was 1937, the heart of the Great Depression. During the previous decade, first under Herbert Hoover, then under Franklin Roosevelt, federal spending had climbed 170 percent; over the previous five years internal revenue collections had risen 198 percent.
Concerned about the effect such expansion might have on private sector growth, a small group of business executives gathered in New York City to discuss how they could monitor fiscal activities at all levels of government and convey the information to the general public. They decided to launch an organization which, through research and analysis, could inform and educate Americans using objective, reliable data on government finance.
In the subsequent seven decades, the Tax Foundation has been a national leader in promoting a sense of "tax consciousness" in the public. Its distribution of information has helped provide policy makers with the lay of the land in the ongoing debate over tax and budget policies, as well as with a greater understanding of the policies proposed.
The Tax Foundation's ambitious tax research and program agenda has had a large impact on state and federal tax debates. At the federal level, we have built the tools and intellectual arguments for initiating a multi-year debate over fundamental tax reform and restoring America’s global tax competitiveness. At the state level, we advise policymakers how to make their tax systems more pro-growth and use our various state rankings to foster tax competition between the states.