COVID-19 and US Tax Policy: What Needs to Change?

The COVID-19 pandemic already feels like a historical turning point akin to Word Wars I and II and the Great Depression. It may signal the end of the second period of globalization (1980–2020) and a change in the relative positions of the US and China. It could also lead in the US to significant changes in tax policy designed to bolster its social safety net, which was revealed as very porous during the pandemic. This article will first discuss some short-term effects of the pandemic on US tax policy, and then some potential longer-term effects. In the short term, the article advocates an excess profits tax on companies that benefited from the pandemic. In the longer term the article calls for a progressive corporate tax and a VAT.