Tax Reform

The Arizona Republic
Friday, May 10, 2013
Jeremy Duda
Gov. Jan Brewer signed her sales tax reform bill, bringing closure to an issue that has lingered since the governor’s days in the Legislature nearly two decades ago.
The Arizona Repubic
Friday, May 10, 2013
Mary Jo Pitzl
Business owners are celebrating a bill Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law Tuesday that streamlines the sales-tax reporting system in Arizona. “Thank you for fulfilling my dream of 28 years,” Linda Stanfield, owner of Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, said at a bill-signing ceremony packed with business interests and key lawmakers. But Stanfield will have to wait another 18 months for that dream to come true: The sales-tax-simplification bill won’t take effect until January 2015.
Capitol Times
Monday, March 25, 2013
Ben Giles
Kevin McCarthy, president of the Arizona Tax Research Association, said reforming the state’s tax code isn’t going to be a win-win for everyone, but it remains a necessity.
News Channel 3
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Jay Crandall
Kevin McCarthy of the Arizona Tax Research Assn. and Lake Havasu Mayor Mark Nexsen join us to talk about the implications.
TPT Task Force
Friday, June 1, 2012
Ann Dockendorff
PHOENIX – Governor Jan Brewer today appointed members to the Transaction Privilege Tax (TPT) Simplification Task Force. The panel, consisting of tax experts, business owners, municipal representatives and others, has been asked to issue recommendations on how the Arizona sales tax code can be made simpler and easier for taxpayers to comply with and the State to administer. Arizona’s sales tax system is generally considered among the nation’s most complex.
The Arizona Republic
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Mary Jo Pitzl and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez
Currently, the state and counties follow one tax code. Many cities have their own tax codes and often tax items the state does not tax, or vice versa. This confuses businesses, Hunter said. The League of Arizona Cities and Towns is working with the Arizona Tax Research Association on a unified tax code.
The Arizona Republic
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Kevin McCarthy
For the better part of the past decade, the Arizona state budget has been on a historic roller coaster. Significant budget increases between 2003 and 2008 were followed by a recession that stripped 35 percent of the revenue from the state general fund. The good news is that the fiscal 2012 state budget is the first structurally balanced budget in four years. The bad news is that it contains roughly $950 million in temporary sales-tax revenue that will be gone after fiscal 2013.
Arizona Horizona
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Ted Simons
Arizona Tax Research Association Director Kevin McCarthy offers his perspective on revenue options available to lawmakers as they look for ways to balance the current year state budget. View Video
The Arizona Republic
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Robert Robb
So, what would a better tax system look like? To answer that question, you first have to ask: what do you want a tax system to do? And the right answer to that question should be: raise necessary government revenues while doing the least to impede private sector growth.
The Arizona Republic
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Robert Robb
Arizona leaders are doing a lot of looking for unicorns these days. The one they are in particularly hot pursuit of is a state tax structure that isn't so subject to cyclical fluctuations.