ITEP's Research Priorities
Trump Administration Might Propose a Long-Overdue Gas Tax Increase
October 31, 2017 • By Carl Davis
The Trump Administration is reportedly considering backing a 7-cent increase in the federal gas tax next year to pay for improvements in the nation's infrastructure. While most of the tax policy ideas coming from the administration in recent weeks would undermine the nation's ability to fund core public services, this one is a notable exception.
NPR’s On Point: Who Benefits from GOP Tax Plan
October 30, 2017 • By Steve Wamhoff
We go to the biggest legislative push yet by the president and Republican Congress: to overhaul American taxes. Details slated to be released this week, with a lightning-fast push through Congress as the GOP dream. Who wins, who loses. This hour, On Point: We ask what to look for in the coming GOP tax plan. —Tom […]
The Manufacturing Deduction Is a Case Study in Tax Policy Gone Wrong
October 30, 2017 • By Richard Phillips
When you think of manufacturing, what comes to mind? According to the U.S. Congress, manufacturing may include things like the production of wrestling-rated films, assembling bouquets of flowers and even slicing cheesecake. These unusual definitions of manufacturing come from the domestic production activities deduction (better known as the manufacturing deduction), a tax break Congress created to encourage manufacturing in the United States.
Fortune: You’re Better off in a State with High Income Tax
October 27, 2017 • By Carl Davis
Following is an excerpt written by Carl Davis, ITEP’s research director, and published in Fortune. Many lawmakers in Congress and in statehouses around the country peddle the same supply-side theory about income taxes: the lower the tax, the more the economy will grow. But new research from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reveals […]
MarketWatch: Trump-Ryan Tax Plan Will Encourage More Corporate Offshore Tax Avoidance
October 27, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The figures are staggering. At least 366 of the Fortune 500 companies have established subsidiaries in tax-haven countries. The companies pay an average tax rate of 6.1% on their “foreign” earnings, evading a cumulative $750 billion in federal taxes, according to a study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Some of these foreign […]
The Week: The GOP’s Head Fake on Taxes
October 27, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
But this little adjustment would barely shift the overall effects of the tax plan at all. “Taxpayers with total income exceeding $1 million would receive an average tax cut of $138,000 in 2018” under the original GOP framework, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy explained in an analysis. “If this modification is made to […]
Mother Jones: Republicans Fast Track Tax Cut for the Wealthy
October 27, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Most of the Republican opposition came from the GOP’s plan to eliminate deductions for state and local taxes, with 11 Republicans from New York and New Jersey voting against the bill. Eliminating the deduction, which disproportionately affects well-off families in high-tax states, is the main reason why Trump’s plan would raise taxes on one in six Americans, […]
Fusion: Income Tax Is Great
October 27, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
A report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy examines the results of a natural experiment on taxation that has emerged within our country: The economic performance of the states that have no income tax versus the economic performance of the states that have the highest income taxes. So just how badly have these […]
The Street: Proposed Gas Tax Increase Could Harm Consumers
October 27, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Since 2013, 26 states have raised their gas taxes with eight alone in 2017, according to a report conducted by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a non-profit and non-partisan research organization in Washington. Read more
Washington Post: Happy Hour Roundup
October 27, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy releases a report showing that states with higher personal income taxes have higher economic growth, higher wage growth, and lower unemployment than states with lower taxes. Read more
NY Daily News: D.C.’s Budget Takes Dead Aim at NYC
October 27, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy finds that 84% of the tax cuts received by New York State residents would go to the richest 1% of households here — those with income of at least $872,000. The one-percenters would get an average tax break of nearly $104,000, or 314 times the $330 that a […]
City Pages: Emmer, Paulsen, and Lewis Decide the Deficit Isn’t So Important After All
October 27, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The 1 percent gets served first, of course. The wealthiest Minnesotans will receive 62 percent of the state’s tax cuts next year for an average of $66,000, according to the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Middle-class Minnesotans get 7 percent of cuts, or an average of $370. Unfortunately, this presents a new problem. […]
The Domestic Production Activities Deduction: Costly, Complex and Ineffective
October 26, 2017 • By Richard Phillips
When the Domestic Production Activities Deduction (DPAD) became law in 2004, proponents described it as a way to help American companies manufacture in the United States and export products abroad. In recent years, the DPAD has grown into one of the largest corporate tax expenditures, with an estimated cost of more than $15 billion in 2016 and $174 billion over the next 10 years.
American Prospect: Republicans Want to Make Corporate Tax Avoidance Easier
October 26, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
According to a recent report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and the U.S. PIRG Education Fund, 73 percent of Fortune 500 companies have subsidiaries in a low-tax country. All told, American corporations have steered more than $2.6 trillion in earnings into offshore tax havens. The specter of corporate profit-shifting has become more […]
Star-Ledger: You’re Now More at Risk of Losing Your Property Tax Break
October 26, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The loss of the state and local tax deduction would mean higher taxes for 26.4 percent of New Jersey taxpayers, according to a study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a progressive research group in Washington. That was second to Maryland, at 30.5 percent, the group said. Read more
International Business Times: Do Lower Taxes Spur Economic Growth? What Happened In No-Tax States
October 26, 2017 • By Carl Davis
Researchers at the non-partisan and non-profit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy compared the nine states without personal income taxes, which include Florida, Texas and Washington, to the nine states with the highest top marginal tax rates over the last decade, which include California, New York and Oregon. They found the states with the highest […]
States with Highest Income Tax Rates Economically Outperform States with No Income Tax
October 26, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
A comparative analysis of economic trends in the nine states that do not levy an income tax and the nine states that levy the highest top income tax rates found that the latter group performed significantly better on more than half a dozen measures of economic well-being, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said […]
Trickle-Down Dries Up: States without personal income taxes lag behind states with the highest top tax rates
October 26, 2017 • By Carl Davis, Nick Buffie
Lawmakers who support reducing or eliminating state personal income taxes typically claim that doing so will spur economic growth. Often, this claim is accompanied by the assertion that states without income taxes are booming, and that their success could be replicated by any state that abandons its income tax. To help evaluate these arguments, this study compares the economic performance of the nine states without broad-based personal income taxes to their mirror opposites—the nine states levying the highest top marginal personal income tax rates throughout the last decade.
State Rundown 10/25: Marijuana Taxes a Bright Spot amid Underperforming State Revenues
October 25, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
This week in state tax news saw Alaska begin yet another special session, Louisiana lawmakers holding meetings to begin preparing for the state’s looming (self-imposed) fiscal cliff, and Alabama policymakers beginning a study of school finance (in)adequacy and (in)equity. Meanwhile, state revenue performance is poor well into 2017 in many states, though Montana, Nevada, and Oregon are all enjoying modest but welcome revenue bumps from legalized marijuana.
The Framework’s Tax Increases and Tax Cuts by State
October 25, 2017 • By Steve Wamhoff
As our report on the Trump-GOP tax framework explained, in nine states plus the District of Columbia, more than a fifth of households would pay higher taxes under the framework.
CNN: How Trump’s Policies Could Hurt the Rust Belt
October 25, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Rust Belt states Ohio, Michigan and Indiana are not home to large populations of $1 million household income earners. Rather, they’re in the middle or bottom of the pack, according a summary from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. States with a higher percentage of millionaire earners voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 […]
Forbes: Which U.S. Companies Have the Most Tax Havens
October 24, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Every year, U.S.-based multinational corporations use tax havens to avoid paying an estimated $100 billion in federal income tax. According to a report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, 366 of the country’s 500 largest companies maintain at least 9,755 tax haven subsidiaries where they hold over $2.6 trillion in accumulated profits. Apple is […]
GOP Tax Plan Will Mainly Benefit Millionaires Even If Top Rate Remains 39.6 Percent
October 24, 2017 • By Steve Wamhoff
The Trump-GOP taxframework would reduce the top personal income tax rate from 39.6 percent to 35 percent, but now lawmakers are discussing keeping the top personal income tax rate at 39.6 percent for those with taxable income of more than $1 million. This modification would barely change the proposal’s overall impact.
Wall Street Cheat Sheet: 15 People Who Will Cash in Big from the Trump Plan
October 23, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
According to the the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, it would be a tale of two classes. The top 1% (those earning over $600,000) would see an average tax cut of $145,000. Americans earning less than $66,200 would get an extra $1,250. Financial analysts from the country’s top banks predict the plan would add over […]
The Jig Is Up: Republican Budget Resolution Finally Admits That Deficit Will Soar Under GOP Tax Plan
October 20, 2017 • By Alan Essig
For some lawmakers, annual deficits matter a lot—unless the nation is paying for tax cuts for the wealthy via deficit spending. Last night, Republican lawmakers demonstrated that previous grandstanding about the nation’s debt is much ado about nothing. The Senate approved a budget resolution on a party-line vote that would 1. fast-track legislation adding $1.5 trillion to the deficit over 10 years by cutting taxes, and 2. make it easy to enact this measure without a single Democratic vote.
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