ITEP's Research Priorities
July 30, 2021 • By Aidan Davis
Child Tax Credit Expansion Acknowledges There Is More We Can Do for Children “Decades of public policies have built inequities into our economic system, yet some political leaders and public figures continue to perpetuate the myth of a level playing field in which anyone who works hard enough can have it all.”
North Carolina Policy Watch: NC’s Tax Code Reinforces Racial Exclusion; Senate’s Proposed Budget Would Make Matters Worse
July 30, 2021
When one applies a unique tool developed by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy to assess the racial and ethnic impact of the budget proposal approved by the state Senate in June (SB 105), it becomes clear that the proposed income tax reductions will worsen the state’s exclusionary tax code. This analysis should serve […]
Motley Fool: Stimulus Check Update: Most Americans Will Get an Average of $3,450 in Stimulus Money in 2021
July 29, 2021
In fact, an analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy recently revealed that the value of federal stimulus dollars averages $3,450 for the bottom 60% of earners in the U.S. That encompasses everyone making less than $65,000 per year. And this $3,450 number doesn’t even take into account the fact that the child […]
Fortune: Newsletters, Bull Sheet
July 29, 2021
39. That’s the number of profitable S&P 500 and/or Fortune 500 companies who paid no federal income tax from 2018 through 2020—the first three years that the Trump administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was in effect—per a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) think tank. Read more
Common Dreams: 73 Major Corporations Paid Just 5.3% Federal Tax Rate Between 2018 and 2020: Report
July 29, 2021
Thirty-nine U.S. corporations reaping over $120 billion in profits between 2018 and 2020—the first three years of the so-called “GOP tax scam”—paid no net federal income tax, or claimed refunds during that period, a report published Thursday by the Institution on Taxation and Economic Policy revealed. Read more
Zero-tax Corporations Are a Problem and So Are Corporations that Pay Less Than Half
July 29, 2021 • By ITEP Staff
Media Contact Corporate tax avoidance is a perennial problem that is annually depriving the U.S. Treasury of tens of billions in needed revenue, a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) reveals. The report, Corporate Tax Avoidance Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), finds that 39 corporations paid no federal taxes over the first three years of […]
Corporate Tax Avoidance Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
July 29, 2021 • By ITEP Staff, Matthew Gardner, Steve Wamhoff
Thirty-nine profitable corporations in the S&P 500 or Fortune 500 paid no federal income tax from 2018 through 2020, the first three years that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was in effect. Besides the 39 companies that paid nothing over three years, an additional 73 profitable corporations paid less than half the statutory corporate income tax rate of 21 percent established under TCJA. As a group, these 73 corporations paid an effective federal income tax rate of just 5.3 percent during these three years.
Salon: Elizabeth Warren cornered by billionaire: “I shouldn’t get Social Security”
July 28, 2021
According to the senator’s website, the law would require that corporations making over $100 million in yearly profits would pay a 7% tax on any money made after the $100 million cutoff. These corporations, she told Langone, “should have to pay a tax on what they report. Not on what happens after they’ve done a […]
CNBC: Stimulus checks and child tax credit payments help prompt calls to expand another credit benefitting workers
July 27, 2021
The stimulus checks and monthly child tax credit payments have helped increase the understanding of how money can serve as a tool to help people who are struggling, he said. “When you give people cash, you give people the tools to solve their own problems,” Ruben said. Without any further changes, the enhanced EITC will […]
Fox: Here’s how much taxpayers can get in added federal benefits
July 26, 2021
The average American in the lowest 20% of income earners has the potential to collect a total of $3,590 from a combination of direct payments, the expanded Child Tax Credit and the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit, according to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The analysis is based on policies […]
CNBC: Between stimulus checks and expanded tax credits, here’s how much federal money you could get
July 23, 2021
Between cash hitting bank accounts — in the form of stimulus payments and advance child tax credits — and the expanded earned income tax credit, the value is an average of $3,450 for the bottom 60% of earners (making $65,000 or less per year), according to research from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. […]
DC Exemplifies Trend of Tax Justice Victories on the Ground Despite Distractions in the Sky
July 23, 2021 • By Dylan Grundman O'Neill
This month, we watched billionaire space-racers with skyrocketing fortunes literally rocket themselves into the sky to look down on us from the largest gap they could put between themselves and the people, communities, and institutions that made their fortunes possible. These events have put an exclamation point on one of the clearest lessons to come […]
The Case for Biden’s Tax Agenda
July 23, 2021 • By ITEP Staff
President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan is the most ambitious economic and social agenda since Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society. It would redirect policy priorities to create educational and economic opportunities for low- and middle-income people and require corporations and wealthy people to pay a fairer share of taxes.
CNBC: Between stimulus checks and expanded tax credits, here’s how much federal money you could get
July 22, 2021
t looks like the combination of stimulus checks and at least two expanded tax credits will be a boon to most U.S. households. Between cash hitting bank accounts — in the form of stimulus payments and advance child tax credits — and the expanded earned income tax credit, the value is an average of $3,450 […]
State Rundown 7/21: States Go for Tax Policy Gold This Olympics Season
July 21, 2021 • By ITEP Staff
It’s Olympics season! As countries around the globe battle for first place in a plethora of sports and contests it’s as good a time as any to look around America to see which states deserve a gold medal in the ‘Equitable Tax Policy’ event...
Bloomberg: Intercompany Accounting—A Target For Tax Scrutiny
July 21, 2021
The IRS also feels significantly short-changed by dozens of big, profitable companies. Just as the Biden administration is pushing to raise corporate tax, a new study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that at least 55 American giants paid zero corporate income tax last year, despite raking in billions in profits. However, […]
The Washington Post: Despite paying little or no income tax, some companies have big plans to profit from infrastructure deal
July 21, 2021
Jacobs was among 55 large companies included on an annual list of firms that don’t pay U.S. income taxes put together by the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more
Child Tax Credit Expansion Acknowledges There Is More We Can Do for Children
July 20, 2021 • By Aidan Davis
For the next six months, low-, middle- and upper-middle-income families with children are eligible to receive part of their 2021 Child Tax Credit (CTC) in advanced monthly payments. More than putting money in people’s pockets, this policy recognizes “the dignity of working-class families and middle-class families,” as President Biden said last week.
Bloomberg: TurboTax Maker Intuit Opts Out of IRS Free File Program
July 16, 2021
Carl Davis, director of research at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said he supports such an idea. The shift would mean the IRS could work directly with taxpayers, rather than “putting our faith” in corporations, he said. Read more
Opposition to Biden’s Tax Plan Has Nothing to Do with Small Businesses or Family Farms
July 16, 2021 • By Steve Wamhoff
Special interests lobbying against President Joe Biden’s tax agenda claim that his proposed corporate income tax rate hike will harm small businesses and that his proposed capital gains tax reforms will hurt family farms. Both claims are absurd attempts by powerful interests to pretend they are defending the little guy.
Washington Post Confirms that Corporations Are Bolder than Ever in Claiming Dubious Tax Breaks
July 16, 2021 • By Steve Wamhoff
IRS budget cuts starting in 2010 have forced the agency to reduce its audit rate for corporations with $20 billion or more in assets from 98 percent to 50 percent. The Washington Post found that during the decade, the amount of “uncertain tax benefits” claimed by corporations increased 43 percent, from $164 billion in 2010 to $235 billion in 2020.
The Last Dance for Billionaire Sports Owners?
July 16, 2021 • By Reggie Rucker
Comparing athletes to inanimate objects, of course, is incredibly degrading. It’s also standard fare in the sports talk world to compare athletes to stocks in which you want to buy low and trade high to maximize your returns—the greatest return usually being championship trophies. It wasn’t until ProPublica released its latest report, The Billionaire Playbook: How Sports Owners Use Their Teams to Avoid Millions in Taxes, that we were able to see so clearly how the athlete as a stock is not just a dehumanizing concept in team sports at the individual level, but also how owners of sports teams…
Yahoo! Money: Millions of American families plan for ‘life-changing’ Child Tax Credit payments
July 15, 2021
“This is super targeted to lower income families,” Aidan Davis, senior policy analyst at the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), told Yahoo Money. “The families that are being targeted through this enhancement are families that are struggling to pay for rent, keep up with necessities, or they’re having trouble paying for things like […]
Newsweek: Joe Biden’s Stimulus Is Financing GOP’s Billionaire Tax Cuts
July 15, 2021
“We saw that many states are using better-than-expected revenue outlooks as an excuse to cut personal and corporate income taxes,” Marco Guzman, state policy analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy told The Daily Poster. “Unfortunately, the people that will be benefiting most from these cuts are not the people who were most […]
Experts Weigh in on the Payoffs of Advanced Child Tax Credit Payments
July 15, 2021 • By Jenice Robinson
During a Tuesday webinar (The Child Tax Credit in Practice: What We Know about the Payoffs of Payments) hosted by ITEP and the Economic Security Project, panelists explained why the expanded Child Tax Credit is a transformative policy that should be extended beyond 2021. They highlighted tax policy and anti-poverty research and discussed lessons learned from demonstration projects that have provided a guaranteed income to low-income families.
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