What's New
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report
August 28, 2019
TCJA by the Numbers, 2020
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), signed into law by President Trump at the end of 2017, includes provisions that dramatically cut taxes and provisions that offset a fraction of the revenue loss by eliminating or limiting certain tax breaks. This page includes estimates of TCJA’s impacts in 2020.
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brief
July 26, 2019
Election 2020: Tax Policy Essentials
The nation’s tax policies and their role in economic inequality are front and center during this election cycle. For those interested in how the nation can move toward a fairer tax system and or more detailed information about progressive tax policy ideas, ITEP created this quick guide.
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blog
October 18, 2019
Depreciation Tax Breaks Are a Problem that Deserves More Attention
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ recently released corporate tax plan would shut down the major breaks and loopholes that allow corporations to dodge taxes. The reforms in his plan that are most likely to get attention are proposals to shut down offshore tax dodging, as ITEP has long called for.
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blog
October 15, 2019
Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman’s New Book Reminds Us that Tax Injustice Is a Choice
Cue Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman. In their new book, The Triumph of Injustice, the economists, who already jolted the world with their shocking data on exploding income inequality and wealth inequality, tell us to stop acting like we are paralyzed when it comes to tax policy. There are answers and solutions. And in about 200 surprisingly readable pages, they provide them.
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blog
October 10, 2019
State Rundown 10/10: Always Something Old, Something New in State Tax Debates
Creative thinking from Pennsylvania lawmakers has helped them discover that the Wayfair ruling allowing states to collect sales tax from online retailers can also help them identify and tax corporate profits earned in their borders. Similarly, New York leaders had the vision to put bold environmental goals in place and identify a carbon price as a potential pay-for. Gubernatorial candidates in Mississippi and Kentucky showed less ingenuity, proposing tax cuts even though Mississippi is still phasing in a massive tax cut from a few years ago and Kentucky’s next election isn’t until 2020. Meanwhile, the old idea of eliminating income taxes is so strong in Texas that anti-tax interests have gotten a constitutional ban on income taxes onto the state ballot even though the state doesn’t have one. And “What We’re Reading” is stocked this week with good reading about the role tax policy can play in addressing inequities related to income, wealth, and race.
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blog
October 2, 2019
How a Federal Wealth Tax Can Help the Economy
A New York Times article explained that proponents of a federal wealth tax hope to address exploding inequality but then went on to list the fears of billionaires and economic policymakers, finding that “the idea of redistributing wealth by targeting billionaires is stirring fierce debates at the highest ranks of academia and business, with opponents arguing it would cripple economic growth, sap the motivation of entrepreneurs who aspire to be multimillionaires and set off a search for loopholes.” A wealth tax will not damage our economy and instead would likely improve it. Here’s why.
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ITEP Work in Action
October 1, 2019
Urban Institute: Are States Betting on Sin? The Murky Future of State Taxation
“Sin taxes” are often viewed as budget saviors, though they play a rather small role in state budgets. Although states raise revenue from sin taxes,…
Who Pays? Sixth Edition
Poorest 20 percent pay a 50 percent higher effective state and local tax rate than the top 1 percent
ITEP’s sixth edition of Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax System in All 50 States finds that most state and local tax systems continue to tax low- and middle-income households at higher rates than the wealthy.
60 Profitable Fortune 500 Companies Avoided All Federal Income Taxes in 2018
For decades, profitable Fortune 500 companies have been able to manipulate the tax system to avoid paying even a dime in tax on billions of dollars in U.S. profits. This ITEP report provides the first comprehensive look at how the new corporate tax laws that took effect after the passage of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act affects the scale of corporate tax avoidance.
Understanding Major Federal Tax Credit Proposals
Federal lawmakers have announced at least five proposals to significantly expand existing tax credits or create new ones to benefit low- and moderate-income people. While these proposals vary a great deal and take different approaches, all would primarily benefit taxpayers in income groups who received only a small share of benefits from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
The Case for Extending State-Level Child Tax Credits to Those Left Out: A 50-State Analysis
11.5 million children live in poverty across the country. Lawmakers can tackle poverty in their home states with refundable state-level Child Tax Credits and reach families the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act left behind. Joint report with the Columbia Center on Poverty and Social Policy.
The Illusion of Race-Neutral Tax Policy
While ITEP has produced quantitative and qualitative research on class-based tax inequities, we, until recently, have ignored how tax policies affect communities based on race. Solely examining the tax law in the context of class misses a bigger-picture story about how the nation’s public policies not only perpetuate widening income and wealth inequality, they also preserve historic and current injustices that continue to allow white communities to build wealth while denying the same level of opportunity (and often suppressing it) to communities of color.
Impact
Whether it’s at the state or federal level, ITEP produces careful research and in-depth analyses of tax policies, and provides a voice for working people in tax policy debates. State advocates, policymakers and media often use our work to inform public discourse on current and proposed tax policies.
Expertise
Federal Policy
ITEP’s federal policy resources provide quantitative and qualitative research and analysis on current tax policies, proposals, and reform options. Its distributional analyses highlight how tax proposals will affect low-income, middle-class and wealthy Americans nationally and in all 50 states.
Learn more about our Federal Policy work
State Policy
State taxes pay for essential public services, from education to health care. But the ideal design of a tax system is complicated. ITEP’s state policy resources offer insights into central issues, including the impact of state tax systems on individuals, families, and businesses. Its work also analyzes the sustainability of revenue sources over time.
Learn more about our State Policy work
Corporate Tax Research
ITEP’s corporate tax research examines the tax practices of Fortune 500 companies. Besides its corporate study on average effective tax rates paid by the nation’s largest, most profitable corporations, ITEP produces research on subjects such as offshore cash holdings, tax haven abuse, executive stock options and other tax loopholes.
Expert's View
We shouldn't wait for Washington to tax the rich. We can begin at the state level. Examining the federal policy landscape is a logical place to start, but state policymakers are missing a key opportunity if they don't join this national conversation and take a hard look at how their tax codes are affecting individuals and families across the income spectrum.
