Report

Tax System Evaluation: Adequacy, Neutrality,
and Equity
This major course assignment requires you to use Excel for data analysis, to write-up
your analytical findings, to construct tables and graphs, and to use Powerpoint for
creating a presentation of your findings.
1. Please read the Tax Analysis Special Report entitled, “Ranking State Tax
Systems: Progressivity, Adequacy, Efficiency,” by Fred Thompson,
Kenneth Beatty, and Jon C. Thompson. State Tax Notes, November 18,
2013.
2. Please refer to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) report
entitled, “Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50
States,” Sixth Edition, October 2018.
3. Please refer to the data files provided in support of this project. Your analysis
and report should not be limited to the articles and data sources provided.
4. Choose TWO states to analyze and compare/contrast (two very different
states is better). Students may not duplicate the states analyzed. State
selection will be done on a first come, first served basis by revealing your two
state selections in the discussion board.
5. Following the methodology outlined in the Thompson et al. report,
calculate and analyze the progressivity, adequacy, and efficiency of the tax
structures of each state. Your analysis should focus on the following major
taxes: property, sales and excise, individual income, and corporate income,
and the total of all of these.
6. Write a 5-8 page narrative of your findings (text only; graphs and tables extra
imbedded within the text or included in an Appendix).
7. Your report/paper must be single spaced, 1-inch margins on all sides. Font is
Times New Roman 11 or 12. References should be properly cited.
8. You must show relevant Excel tables or graphs, as well as your estimation
results where appropriate in the text.
9. Your paper should be well organized and read as a single document. A
mosaic of individual components that do not fit well (logically and
organization-wise or writing style-wise) will not be graded positively.
10. Create a 12-15 slide presentation in Powerpoint of your report to be posted to
the relevant discussion board. Your presentation should be professional,
clearly delivered, and effectively communicated.