ITEP's Research Priorities
New York Times: Assessing Elon Musk’s Misleading Claims About Fraud in Government Spending
March 29, 2025
The world’s richest man made inaccurate claims about entitlement fraud, how a government payment system works and government survey costs. Read more.
Celebrating 50 Years of the Earned Income Tax Credit
March 28, 2025 • By Neva Butkus
This week, we celebrate 50 years of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the impact it's had on millions of workers and families. In 2023 alone, the latest year of available data, the federal EITC alongside the refundable portion of the Child Tax Credit lifted 6.4 million people and 3.4 million children out of poverty.
Advantaging Affluence: A Distributional Analysis of Missouri HB 798’s Uneven Tax Cuts for Wealth and Work
March 28, 2025 • By Aidan Davis, Carl Davis, Dylan Grundman O'Neill, Eli Byerly-Duke, Matthew Gardner
Missouri House Bill 798 would reduce personal and corporate income tax rates, fully eliminate taxes on capital gains income from sale of assets, and eliminates the state’s modest Earned Income Tax Credit that assists many working people in lower-paid jobs. HB 798 would radically transform Missouri’s income tax code into a system that privileges income from wealth over income from work, leaving many middle-income families to pay a higher income tax rate than wealthy people living off their investments.
Clarion Ledger: Mississippi Governor Signs Income Tax Elimination Bill. How Are You Affected?
March 28, 2025
With a stroke of a pen, and a few light-hearted jokes, the Build Up Mississippi Act, the largest total tax cut in state history was signed into law on March 27.
Ben Coll
March 28, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
Ben joined ITEP as a developer in 2025 and builds internal and external tools to advance ITEP’s mission. Prior to joining ITEP, Ben spent over 10 years working as the web and IT project manager for a national non-profit in the health and beauty industry.
Policy Matters Ohio: Flat Income Tax Would Gut Ohio’s Budget
March 27, 2025
Ohio’s House Ways and Means Committee today holds its first hearing on HB 30, a bill that would tax the income of everyday Ohioans at the same rate as the state’s wealthiest households. The bill would eliminate the state’s top income-tax bracket of 3.5% on income above $100,000. By tax year 2026, Ohio would be left with a single rate of 2.75% on income above $27,350.
America’s Voice: In Seeking To Turn the IRS Into ICE, Trump Finally Admits that Undocumented Workers Actually Do Pay Taxes
March 27, 2025
The Trump administration is seeking to turn the IRS into another immigrant-hunting apparatus of the federal government, by seeking the confidential information of taxpayers who are even just suspected of being undocumented.
State Rundown 3/26: Lawmakers Navigate Shortfalls, Potholes, and Pitfalls
March 26, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
State lawmakers around the country are navigating a range of potential hazards this week. Leaders in Maryland and Washington are facing budget holes but are smartly working to get out of them through progressive taxes on those with the most ability to pay. Both North Dakota and Washington state are looking to fill literal potholes […]
Why Americans Are Right to Be Unhappy About Corporate Tax Avoidance
March 26, 2025 • By Matthew Gardner
If lawmakers wanted to reduce income inequality and racial inequality, shutting down or at least limiting corporate tax breaks would be one option to achieve that goal. Unfortunately, President Trump and the current Congress show little interest in this and may even move in the opposite direction by introducing new corporate tax breaks.
Two Ways a 2025 Federal Tax Bill Could Worsen Income and Racial Inequality
March 26, 2025 • By Joe Hughes
Two parts of Trump’s 2017 tax law that are particularly expensive and beneficial to the richest individuals are the changes in income tax rates and brackets and the special deduction for “pass-through” business owners. Lawmakers should not extend these provisions for high-income households past the end of this year, when they are scheduled to expire.
Federal Tax Policy: What Should It Accomplish?
March 26, 2025 • By Steve Wamhoff
The U.S. needs a tax code that is more adequate, meaning any major tax legislation should increase revenue, not reduce it. The U.S. also needs a tax code that is more progressive, meaning any significant tax legislation should require more, not less, from those most able to pay.
The American Independent: Trump’s IRS Cuts Will Make It Easier for Rich Americans to Avoid Paying What They Owe
March 25, 2025
Experts say staffing cuts at the Internal Revenue Service will make it easier for wealthy tax evaders to avoid paying what they owe to the U.S. Treasury each year. In addition to costing the government billions of dollars in owed revenue, they say cuts by President Donald Trump’s administration will likely mean more audits for […]
Oklahoma Policy Institute: Lawmakers Should Choose Targeted Relief Amidst Budget Uncertainty
March 25, 2025
State-level budget and tax policy matters deeply for Oklahomans because it directly affects how the state can meet its obligations to our fellow residents. This includes shared services like public safety, education, transportation construction, workforce development, and other programs that help all Oklahomans thrive.
Newsweek: ICE Could Use IRS Data to Track Undocumented Immigrants
March 25, 2025
Federal immigration authorities may soon gain access to Internal Revenue Service data under a pending agreement that would allow them to verify the names and addresses of individuals suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, according to multiple reports.
Tip Exemptions Have No Place in State Income Tax
March 25, 2025 • By Eli Byerly-Duke, Nick Johnson
Creating a special tax break for tipped income – as at least 20 states are considering this spring – would harm state budgets, encourage tax avoidance, and fail to reach the vast majority of low- and middle-income workers.
Oregon Center for Public Policy: Worldwide Combined Reporting: How Oregon Can Make It Hard for Corporations to Profit from Offshore Tax Avoidance
March 25, 2025
Worldwide combined reporting is a smart, effective way Oregon can make corporations pay their fair share to support schools and essential services.
American Society of Civil Engineers: America’s Infrastructure Scores a C
March 25, 2025
The 2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure demonstrates that recent federal investments have positively affected many of the infrastructure sectors Americans rely on every day.
Axios: The Fiscal Hit from the IRS Sharing Immigration Information
March 25, 2025
The more afraid immigrants are that the IRS will report them to immigration authorities, the less they may pay in taxes, experts warn.
Vanity Fair: IRS Prepares to Provide Addresses of Some Undocumented Taxpayers to Immigration Enforcement
March 24, 2025
“It is a complete betrayal of 30 years of the government telling immigrants to file their taxes,” one former IRS official told The Washington Post, who chose anonymity out of fear of retribution. The partnership between the IRS and ICE is one of the latest moves from President Donald Trump’s administration in their unprecedented onslaught against immigrants, especially ones without documentation.
ITEP’s Who Pays? Cited in Washington Bill Creating Financial Intangibles Tax
March 24, 2025
Senate Democratic leaders in Washington state have introduced a series of bills aimed at making the state’s tax code more balanced. In the bill text for a new financial intangibles tax, ITEP’s Who Pays? report is cited: “Washington’s tax system remains the second most regressive in the nation as it asks those with the least […]
Jessica Vela
March 24, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
Jessica is a Federal Policy Analyst who supports ITEP with research and analysis of progressive tax priorities. Prior to joining ITEP in 2025, Jessica worked for the Center for American Progress, where she researched federal tax and budget policies. She graduated from Middlebury College with a degree in International Politics and Economics.
Missouri Independent: Proposed Tax Credit Boost May Be Lucrative for Missouri Anti-Abortion Centers, Donors
March 21, 2025
When the Missouri House signed off on a $1.3 billion tax cut package last week, it included a provision creating a 100% tax credit for donations to pregnancy resource centers, maternity homes and diaper banks.
State Rundown 3/20: It’s March, Welcome to Tax Policy Madness
March 20, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
March Madness kicks off today and the pressure is on as many states’ legislative sessions are nearing the final buzzer. Some state lawmakers are seemingly competing for the title of most regressive state tax policies while others are looking to lift up best practices for more equitable outcomes. The Mississippi legislature landed on a […]
Newsweek: DOGE Stimulus Check Update: Millions Will Not Qualify
March 20, 2025
The mastermind behind the proposal to issue "DOGE dividend" checks to Americans has confirmed to Newsweek that millions of taxpaying immigrants without legal status will not be eligible for the payments.
Hawai’i Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice: Hawai’i Should Close Tax Loopholes for Multinational Corporations
March 20, 2025
Multinational corporations make huge profits from the business activity they conduct in Hawaiʻi, while dodging the taxes they should be paying to support our state. These huge corporations do this by moving the profits earned within Hawaiʻi to their tax havens in foreign countries that levy almost no corporate taxes.
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