ITEP's Research Priorities
Oregon Center for Public Policy: Renew and Expand the Oregon Earned Income Tax Credit
March 20, 2025
The EITC is one of the most effective ways to address rising costs for hard-working families in Oregon.
Massachusetts Budget & Policy Center: By Taxing GILTI Profits, Massachusetts Can Reclaim Millions in Revenue Lost to Corporate Offshore Tax Dodging
March 20, 2025
Massachusetts loses out on hundreds of millions of tax dollars each year due to “profit-shifting”, a practice common among large, multinational corporations. International profit-shifting involves complex accounting maneuvers that make a corporation’s U.S. profits appear instead on the books of related companies located in offshore tax havens. It is an abusive form of tax avoidance that many multinational corporations use to lower their federal and state tax payments.
Housing Affordability and Property Taxes: How to Actually Move the Needle
March 19, 2025 • By Kamolika Das, Rita Jefferson
Tax policy alone cannot solve the housing crisis but lawmakers who are focused on tax policy solutions have better options available than sweeping property tax cuts and caps: property tax circuit breakers, renter credits, vacancy taxes, land value taxes, and changes to existing property tax assessments can move the needle on the affordable housing crisis.
NBC News: Musk Uses Immigration and Claims of Voter Fraud to Sell Social Security Administration Cuts
March 19, 2025
Musk has cast the idea as one that’s primarily about immigration, falsely claiming that undocumented immigrants are fraudulently accessing hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of entitlements, including Social Security, Medicaid and disability programs, as part of a Democratic scheme for votes.
The Free Press: The Illegal Immigrants Who Love Trump
March 19, 2025
Many Americans don’t realize how much cash illegal immigrants contribute to the economy. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, “undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022,” using Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs). Though they aren’t eligible for tax benefits, like Social Security, many hope that making these payments will one day help their case for legalization.
New Analysis: Congress Considering Creating an Unprecedented Tax Shelter to Steer Billions to Private K-12 School Vouchers and Wealthy Individuals
March 18, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
Contact: Jon Whiten ([email protected]) A bill introduced in Congress would create an unprecedented 100% tax credit for donations to nonprofits that give out private K-12 school vouchers and create a lucrative tax shelter that would further enrich some of America’s wealthiest individuals. If passed, the Educational Choice for Children Act of 2025 (ECCA) would cost […]
Every Texan: Texas Taxes Are Upside-Down. Big Tax Cuts Don’t Help.
March 18, 2025
Texas’ tax system is upside-down. When it comes to funding our public services, schools, and state and local governments, Texans with lower incomes are expected to pay more than their fair share. Read more.
Shelter Skelter: How the Educational Choice for Children Act Would Use Tax Avoidance to Fuel School Privatization
March 18, 2025 • By Carl Davis
The Educational Choice for Children Act of 2025 would ostensibly provide a tax break on charitable donations to organizations that give out private K-12 school vouchers. Most of the so-called “contributions,” however, would be made by wealthy people solely for the tax savings, as those savings would typically be larger than their contributions.
A Revenue Impact Analysis of the Educational Choice for Children Act of 2025
March 18, 2025 • By Carl Davis
The Educational Choice for Children Act of 2025 would provide donors to nonprofit groups that distribute private K-12 school vouchers with a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit in exchange for their contributions. In total, the ECCA would reduce federal and state tax revenues by $10.6 billion in 2026 and by $136.3 billion over the next 10 years. Federal tax revenues would decline by $134 billion over 10 years while state revenues would decline by $2.3 billion.
CNN Video: ITEP’s Amy Hanauer on How DOGE’s Attack on the IRS Will Hurt Ordinary Taxpayers
March 17, 2025
ITEP Executive Director Amy Hanauer appeared on CNN on March 17, 2025 to discuss the ongoing attack by DOGE and Congress on the IRS.
Audio: ITEP’s Matt Gardner Discusses Maryland’s Tax and Budget Debate on WYPR
March 17, 2025
As the 2025 General Assembly reaches its midway point, the most pressing issue facing lawmakers is the state’s budget deficit. ITEP Senior Fellow Matt Gardner joined Midday to share the details of Gov. Wes Moore’s budget proposal. Listen to the full audio here.
Stateline: Child Tax Credits, Long a Liberal Priority, Find Favor In Republican States
March 17, 2025
Cash would flow directly into the hands of Ohio parents under a proposal from Republican Gov. Mike DeWine. As part of multibillion-dollar budget negotiations this session, Ohio lawmakers will consider the new refundable tax credit worth up to $1,000 per young child, to be paid for by an increase in tobacco taxes.
South Florida Sun Sentinel: Editorial: If Property Taxes are Doomed, an Income Tax is Fairer
March 15, 2025
Florida has a new and dubious distinction: The nation’s most unfair tax code. Gov. Ron DeSantis and some legislators aim to make it even worse. After years of ranking second or third, Florida is now considered the absolute worst in terms of how much less a percentage of their incomes Donald Trump and other wealthy […]
The Boston Globe: If the IRS Betrays Immigrants, We All Pay the Price
March 14, 2025
Millions of immigrants living in the country illegally still pay income taxes every year, contributing billions to federal, state, and local governments, often through the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number program (ITIN), which allows those without Social Security numbers to file returns. (Of course, immigrants — like everyone else — also pay sales taxes, gas taxes, etc.)
Washington State Budget & Policy Center: The Truth About Washington’s Revenue Shortfall
March 14, 2025
During the 2025 legislative session, Washington state lawmakers face a budget shortfall that threatens funding for the public programs we all rely on. Read more.
Circuit Breakers Are a Better Option for Property Tax Relief
March 13, 2025 • By Brakeyshia Samms
To curb the impact of property taxes on working families, lawmakers should improve or implement a property tax circuit breaker program. The program works like this: when families are overloaded with their property taxes, the circuit breaker kicks in and helps alleviate the pressure these taxes put on family budgets.
State Rundown 3/12: Last-Minute Tax Cut Mayhem and New Progressive Revenue Raisers
March 12, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
A bevy of tax cut proposals sprung to life this week while others were signed into law. In Kentucky, lawmakers are working to make it easier for the legislature to enact income and business tax cuts. The governor in Idaho signed into law a personal and corporate income tax cut.
Minnesota Budget Project: Trump’s 2025 Tax Plans Would Hurt Everyday Americans
March 12, 2025
Trump tax plans – like extending most provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) that are set to expire, special tax breaks for people who earn some kinds of income, or new corporate tax cuts – would provide the largest tax cuts to higher-income households and profitable corporations. Because the Trump tax plans are also very costly, they could add hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit every year and put health care, food support, and other public services that low- and middle-income people benefit from on the chopping block to pay for those tax cuts.1
New York Times: Musk Suggests His Team Will Scrutinize Social Security and Entitlement Spending
March 11, 2025
Elon Musk, the world’s richest individual, suggested on Monday that his government cost-cutting team would scrutinize Social Security and other entitlement spending, describing the expenditures as rife with fraudulent transactions and repeating a conspiracy theory that Democrats were using the programs as a “gigantic magnet to attract illegal immigrants and have them stay in the […]
State Approaches to Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (GILTI)
March 11, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
Many states with corporate income taxes include some amount of federally defined Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (GILTI) in their tax bases. Twenty-one states plus D.C. include some amount of GILTI in their tax calculations in 2025.
Business Insider: Starbucks Likely Avoided Taxes on $1.3 billion in Profit Using a Swiss Subsidiary, a New Report Finds
March 10, 2025
A little-known Starbucks subsidiary in Switzerland appears to have played a big role in how much the coffee chain paid over the last decade in taxes, according to a new report. On paper, Starbucks Coffee Trading Company, or SCTC, based in the Swiss Canton of Vaud, is responsible for sourcing unroasted coffee from countries like Colombia and Rwanda before it's used in beverages at Starbucks' cafés. It also oversees Starbucks' Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices program for ethical coffee sourcing.
Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research: Starbucks’ Swiss Scheme: ‘Fair’ Trading or Global Tax Dodge?
March 10, 2025
A new report from CICTAR alleges that hidden behind its ‘ethical’ sourcing of coffee beans, Starbucks engages in major global tax avoidance. The report estimates that at least $1.3 billion has been diverted via Starbucks’ Swiss subsidiary over the last decade. On paper only, all of Starbucks’ coffee – at least 3% of the global coffee bean trade – is purchased via a Swiss subsidiary. This entity, Starbucks Coffee Trading Company Sarl, has marked up the price by a stunning 15-18% before re-selling to other Starbucks subsidiaries for roasting and retailing.
Economic Policy Institute: What You Need to Know About Immigrant Workers
March 10, 2025
New fact sheets from the Economic Policy Institute illustrate the positive economic impact of immigrant workers in every state–and cite recent research on how much President Trump’s mass deportation agenda could cost states in tax revenue. Read more.
Washington Post: GOP Voucher Plan Would Divert Billions in Taxes to Private Schools
March 7, 2025
Congressional Republicans, backed by the White House, are pushing for a new tax credit that would direct billions of dollars a year to school voucher programs — and not just in conservative states. The program would be fueled by a powerful, never-before-tried incentive: Taxpayers who donate to voucher programs would get 100 percent of their money back when they file their taxes. That means the tax break for giving to voucher programs would dwarf tax incentives for giving to churches, hospitals, food banks and every other charity.
The Bulwark: Trump Wants to Use the IRS to Track Down Immigrants. They May Stop Paying Taxes.
March 7, 2025
Immigrants in the country illegally paid nearly $100 billion in taxes in 2022, according to a report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic policy. But that source of government revenue may soon taper off as the Trump administration pushes the Internal Revenue Service to help it accelerate its program of mass deportations. The Washington Post reported Friday that the IRS rejected a request from Homeland Security to reveal the addresses of 700,000 people the agency suspects of being undocumented, an action that could violate taxpayer privacy laws. But the Post went on to report the new acting IRS commissioner…
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