Arkansas
Recent Tax Cuts Have Expanded Inequality in the States
March 11, 2024 • By Jon Whiten
Some states have improved tax equity by raising new revenue from the well-off and creating or expanding refundable tax credits for low- and moderate-income families in recent years. Others, however, have gone the opposite direction, pushing through deep and damaging tax cuts that disproportionately help the rich. Many of these negative developments are quantified in […]
Video: ITEP’s Carl Davis Discusses Arkansas’ Upside-Down Tax Code
January 11, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
The “Who Pays?” report, a nationwide report that highlights the tax systems of each of the 50 states, shows Arkansas is one of the many states that “exacerbate inequality” for low-income and middle-class Arkansans. “The Arkansas tax system right now is not very balanced,” said Carl Davis, research director for the Institute on Taxation and […]
Arkansas: Who Pays? 7th Edition
January 8, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
Arkansas Download PDF All figures and charts show 2024 tax law in Arkansas, presented at 2023 income levels. Senior taxpayers are excluded for reasons detailed in the methodology. Our analysis includes nearly all (99.5 percent) state and local tax revenue collected in Arkansas. As seen in Appendix D, recent legislative changes have significantly increased the […]
Arkansas Democrat Gazette: State’s Tax Relief Not Created Equal
October 10, 2023 • By ITEP Staff
For the second consecutive special session in about 13 months, the Arkansas General Assembly last month approved a temporary nonrefundable income tax credit for low-income and middle-income taxpayers as part of a tax cut package that permanently trimmed the state’s top individual and corporate income tax rates. Read more.
Testimony of ITEP’s Neva Butkus Before the Arkansas Senate Revenue and Tax Committee
September 12, 2023 • By Neva Butkus
The corporate and personal income tax changes under Senate Bill 8 would cost the state more than $200 million, with 70 percent of the overall cuts benefiting Arkansans in the top 20 percent of households.
Arkansas Advocates for Children: Lawmakers Returning To Work This Week Should Reject Costly Tax Cuts For The Wealthy
September 12, 2023 • By ITEP Staff
In a dramatic development, Arkansas lawmakers are returning to work at the state Capitol this week, after Gov. Huckabee Sanders called for a special session of the Legislature last Friday. Top of the agenda? Whether Arkansas should adopt another round of costly income tax cuts that primarily benefit wealthy households and corporations, on top of cuts already […]
Arkansas Advocates for Children: Vital Services At Risk With Income Tax Elimination
March 31, 2023 • By ITEP Staff
We all want to live in a state with great schools, well-maintained infrastructure, thriving communities, and strong families. But Arkansas’s Governor and many legislative leaders have expressed their support for sharply cutting – or even eliminating – our personal income tax, which would undermine our ability to ever achieve this goal. Read more.
Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families: Tax Cut Plan Even More Expensive, Skewed Toward The Wealthy
February 7, 2022 • By ITEP Staff
The likely proposal for the long-discussed special session seems to have settled, and its main feature would be to cut the top personal and corporate income tax rates. This disproportionately benefits the wealthy, and the corporate income tax cut will largely be captured by out-of-state shareholders, meaning the revenue will leave the state economy entirely. […]
Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families: Proposed Cuts to the Top Tax Rate Are Costly and Heavily Favor the Rich
October 8, 2021 • By ITEP Staff
As the Arkansas Legislature concludes the 2021 general session, our attention must turn to the special session they are preparing to begin to discuss personal income tax cuts. Although income tax cuts may sound like something everyday Arkansans would welcome, when we examine the details, it turns out most Arkansans will be getting a bad […]
Voters Have the Chance in 2020 to Increase Tax Equity in Arizona, Illinois, and California, And They Should
October 22, 2020 • By Marco Guzman
There’s a lot at stake in this election cycle: the nation and our economy are reeling from the effects brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and states remain in limbo as they weigh deep budget cuts and rush to address projected revenue shortfalls.
Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families: Tax Cut Bill Filed: Plan Revised But Not Fixed
January 31, 2019 • By ITEP Staff
An analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows that the benefits of this proposal are even more heavily skewed towards the richest taxpayers than the previous version. That’s because there are no changes to the standard deduction, and all the significant changes in marginal tax rates only affect taxpayers with more […]
The Governor’s Proposed Personal Income Tax Cut: Who Wins and Who Loses?
November 15, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
Governor Asa Hutchinson proposed a personal income tax cut as part of his balanced budget plan for the 2019 legislative session, released on November 14.
Tax Proposals Target Benefits to Those at the Top, Corporations
November 12, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
The Arkansas Legislative Tax Reform and Relief Task Force’s recommendations would make the state’s tax system even more regressive than it already is. According to a new analysis by Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and the Institute on Tax and Economic Policy, the net overall impact of the combined recommendations would actually raise taxes on the neediest Arkansans. At the same time, it would target a bigger share of the decrease to those with the highest incomes.
Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families: Arkansas Tax System Worsens Economic Inequality
October 17, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
Another key driver of inequality in Arkansas’s tax system is the preferential treatment given to capital gains income. Currently, half of all capital gains income is exempted, or ignored, from income taxes even though nearly no one makes a significant share of their income through capital gains (except for the top 1 percent). According to a report from the Congressional Budget Office, capital gains make up 38 percent of the income of the richest 1 percent of households in this country, compared to just 5 percent of the income for the poorest households.
Arkansas Times: Report: Arkansas Taxes Unfair ….. To the Poor
October 17, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families is highlighting a new report relevant to ongoing legislative discussions of "tax reform." It does not suggest the problem is taxation on the rich.
Arkansas: Who Pays? 6th Edition
October 17, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
ARKANSAS Read as PDF ARKANSAS STATE AND LOCAL TAXES Taxes as Share of Family Income Top 20% Income Group Lowest 20% Second 20% Middle 20% Fourth 20% Next 15% Next 4% Top 1% Income Range Less than $18,600 $18,600 to $30,600 $30,600 to $48,800 $48,800 to $83,000 $83,000 to $173,800 $173,800 to $422,400 over $422,400 […]
Tax Cuts 2.0 – Arkansas
September 26, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
The $2 trillion 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) includes several provisions set to expire at the end of 2025. Now, GOP leaders have introduced a bill informally called “Tax Cuts 2.0” or “Tax Reform 2.0,” which would make the temporary provisions permanent. And they falsely claim that making these provisions permanent will benefit […]
ITEP Testimony “Regarding the Final Report of the Arkansas Tax Reform and Relief Legislative Task Force”
August 23, 2018 • By Lisa Christensen Gee
Read the testimony in PDF WRITTEN TESTIMONY SUBMITTED TO: THE ARKANSAS TAX REFORM AND RELIEF TASK FORCE Lisa Christensen Gree, Senior State Tax Policy Analyst Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Regarding the Final Report of the Arkansas Tax Reform and Relief Legislative Task Force August 22, 2018 Thank you for the opportunity to submit these […]
Itchy Tax Trigger Finger: Tax Foundation Says Aim Toward Foot
August 6, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
Accounting for all the possible curveballs the future economy might throw at our state is impossible. That’s why legislators bother coming together every year to assess our budget and make choices based on the best available, most current information. One dubious new style of tax change, “tax triggers”, attempts to base major future tax and revenue changes only on the information we have today. Tax triggers are dangerous and generally work by automatically kicking in a tax cut when revenue or some other metric reaches a certain level.
On Tax Day, a Look at How Federal Tax Changes Impact Arkansans
April 17, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
Taxes allow us to invest in public programs that help everyone, but recent federal tax cuts are shifting those dollars to the Arkansans who need it least. Those tax cuts are expensive–to the tune of $1.5 trillion dollars over 10 years. Nearly a third of Arkansas’s total operating budget is made up of federal revenue. This means that on top of federal budget changes, our state budget will also be forced to make cuts to things that Arkansas kids and families rely on today, like parks, community colleges, and firefighters.
E.I.T.C. Spells LOVE for Kids and Families in Arkansas
March 16, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
Many people in our state work at low-paying jobs. Arkansans who work hard for little money pay a much higher share of their income to state and local taxes compared to the wealthiest. That’s not the way it should be. Fortunately, there is a great option for Arkansas (just ask the 29 other states that are already using it!) that can help turn things around for working families. That option is a state-level Earned Income Tax Credit (or EITC). At Arkansas Advocates for Children and families, we are so in love with the Earned Income Tax Credit that we decided to sing about it.
Here’s Why Arkansas Needs a State EITC
January 31, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
Arkansas is part of a shrinking group of states that haven’t started using tax credits, like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), to build their middle class and help people move permanently out of poverty. Arkansas remains among the worst states for overtaxing the poor.
It’s All About the Context: A Closer Look at Arkansas’s Income Tax
January 10, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
The tax task force is rounding out its extensive review of the Arkansas tax code this week by looking at one of the most contentious tax topics these days: income taxes. So, are we a high-income-tax state or a low-income-tax state? In Arkansas, it depends a lot on how much money you make, and how you make it. For example, retirement income is exempt for the first $6,000; military retirement income is completely exempt; there are border-city exemptions if you work in Texarkana; and capital gains income from things like stocks or real estate sales is taxed much more leniently…
How the Final GOP-Trump Tax Bill Would Affect Arkansas Residents’ Federal Taxes
December 16, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The final tax bill that Republicans in Congress are poised to approve would provide most of its benefits to high-income households and foreign investors while raising taxes on many low- and middle-income Americans. The bill would go into effect in 2018 but the provisions directly affecting families and individuals would all expire after 2025, with […]
How the House and Senate Tax Bills Would Affect Arkansas Residents’ Federal Taxes
December 6, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The House passed its “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” November 16th and the Senate passed its version December 2nd. Both bills would raise taxes on many low- and middle-income families in every state and provide the wealthiest Americans and foreign investors substantial tax cuts, while adding more than $1.4 trillion to the deficit over ten years. The graph below shows that both bills are skewed to the richest 1 percent of Arkansas residents.
