Answered By: Bobray Bordelon
Last Updated: Mar 26, 2024     Views: 1092

  • University of Michigan's World Tax Database
    • While the data is no longer being updated, it is a valuable source for historical information. Most recent data tends to be late 1990s to around 2002 depending on the series.
  • State Tax Handbook
    • Current print publication volume in Data and Statistical Services (DSS), call number HJ2385.C65.
  • KPMG allows one to compare corporate, indirect, individual income, employer and employee social security tax rates from 2006 to the present.
    • KPMG's Global Tax Rate Survey (ceased)
      • Copies of reports are stored on the DSS Server; contains information back to at least 2002. 2015 combines the various segments.  Previous reports were separate.
  • OECD.
    • OECD Tax Statistics.
    • Consumption Tax Trends.  1999+. Published every 2 to 3 years, reviews the latest developments in taxing consumption in OECD countries, provides information on tax rates in OECD countries, and reviews current issues in consumption taxes.
    • Tax Policy Reforms is an annual publication (2018+) that provides comparative information on tax reforms across countries and tracks tax policy developments over time.
  • PriceWaterhouseCoopers
    • World tax summaries
      • Free registration is required. Historical information is not retained on the PriceWaterhouseCoopers website.
    • See following print publications that have ceased in print.
  • International Tax Handbook
    • Print publication in Firestone stacks (F), call number K4460 .I5725 2009 and RECAP, call number K4460.I5725 2008.
  • Facts and Figures on Government Finance (1944-2005)
    • Particularly useful for the United States.
    • Many of the tables can be found at the Tax Foundation website.
    • Historical run is available on Hein Online.
    • Print publication ceased with 38th edition. 
  • Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Data Book.
    • Annual data on collecting the revenue, issuing refunds, enforcing the law, assisting the taxpayer, and the budget and workforce. Some tables by state.
  • The Book of the States  
    • Has state tax rates for: individual, corporate, alcohol, gas, sales and severance taxes from about 1935+
  • The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has property tax rates by states and municipalities.  Dates of coverage vary with the oldest back to 1980.
  • Brewers Almanac
    • For beer, wine, and alcohol taxes 
  • For beer also see the Alcohol Policy Information System. Tax and policy changes back to 1993 are provided. It has similar data for distilled spirits and wine.
  • For tax collections from tobacco
  • Some national level summary data can be found in World Development Indicators and EIU Market Indicators and Forecasts. 
  •  Government Finance section of the Basic Sources of International Economic Statistics guide
  • Tax and Government Finance section of the Basic Sources of United States Economic Statistics guide.
  • State Tax Actions Database (National Council of State Legislatures) (2015+) Details the states’ tax changes.
    • For analysis and more years, see State Tax Actions [Print 1995, 1999-2001, 2003-2010; PDF 2011-2020] and State Budget Actions.  [Print 1995, 1999-2001, 2003-2010;  PDF 2013-2014, 2018].
  • Financing the State: Government Tax Revenue from 1800 to 2012, 31 countries. Presents information on historical central government revenues for 31 countries in Europe and the Americas for the period from 1800 (or independence) to 2012. The countries included are: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany (West Germany between 1949 and 1990), Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Contains information on the public finances of central governments. To make such information comparable cross-nationally the researchers chose to normalize nominal revenue figures in 2 ways: (i) as a share of the total budget, and (ii) as a share of total gross domestic product. The total tax revenue of the central state is disaggregated guided by the Government Finance Statistics Manual 2001 of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which provides a classification of types of revenue and describes in detail the contents of each classification category. Given the paucity of detailed historical data and the needs of our project, researchers combined some subcategories. First, they were interested in total tax revenue, as well as the shares of total revenue coming from direct and indirect taxes. Further, they measured two sub-categories of direct taxation, namely taxes on property and income. For indirect taxes, they separated excises, consumption, and customs.
  • Tax History Project presents the history of taxation in the United States through 3 chronological collections:
    • The ‘Tax History Museum’: encyclopedic overview from colonial America in 1660 to the present.
    • The ‘1040 Archive’ provides copies of all IRS 1040 Forms beginning with tax year 1913.
    • The ‘Presidential Tax Returns’ collection includes digitized copies of available individual tax returns for Presidents beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1913 return, most major party nominees since1976, and the last 4 Vice Presidents.
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