1,134 posts
Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA): A Critical Anti-Tax Evasion Tool
• By Richard Phillips
For years, a subset of the well-to-do and well-connected have been able to exploit the intricacies of our global financial system to shelter their income and investments from taxation. The U.S. government took a stand against this type of willful tax evasion with the passage of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act – or FATCA – enacted as part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act of 2010.
Why States That Offer the Deduction for Federal Income Taxes Paid Get It Wrong
• By Dylan Grundman O'Neill
With many states currently facing budget shortfalls—whether due to weak economic recovery after the Great Recession, struggling commodity prices, or self-inflicted tax cuts—and all states bracing for possible federal budget cuts in areas from education to health care to infrastructure, states are unlikely to be able to continue providing high-quality services to their residents without raising new revenue. In this context, states must find ways to generate additional revenue without increasing taxes on individuals and…
Expert Quote
• By Alan Essig
“For the better part of the 20th century, the nation’s economic pie grew as did incomes for all Americans. But for the past 40 years, wages for ordinary Americans have stagnated while income growth and wealth have concentrated at the top. Our nation’s tax and other public policies play a big part in this damaging […]
What Real Tax Reform Should Look Like
• By ITEP Staff
If lawmakers truly want to create an environment in which economic mobility is possible for more working people, budget-busting tax cuts are the wrong way to achieve this goal. Dramatic tax giveaways would force cuts to programs that provide early education, health care, job training, affordable housing, nutrition assistance, and other vital services that promote economic mobility. Further, current tax proposals from Congress and the Trump Administration defy what most Americans would consider true reform…
3 Percent and Dropping: State Corporate Tax Avoidance in the Fortune 500, 2008 to 2015
• By Aidan Davis, Matthew Gardner, Richard Phillips
The trend is clear: states are experiencing a rapid decline in state corporate income tax revenue. Despite rebounding and even booming bottom lines for many corporations, this downward trend has become increasingly apparent in recent years. Since our last analysis of these data, in 2014, the state effective corporate tax rate paid by profitable Fortune 500 corporations has declined, dropping from 3.1 percent to 2.9 percent of their U.S. profits. A number of factors are…
Undocumented Immigrants’ Tax Contributions in California: County-by-County Analysis
• By ITEP Staff
Guest Blogger; Josue Chavarin, Program Associate at the California Endowment California’s counties gain hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues from undocumented residents— collectively over $1.53 billion according to a new analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Public debates in California over immigrants, specifically around undocumented immigrants, often suffer from insufficient […]
Tax Justice Digest: Trickle-down revived, corps aren’t paying state taxes, young immigrants and taxes, etc.
• By ITEP Staff
In the Tax Justice Digest we recap the latest reports, blog posts, and analyses from Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Here’s a rundown of what we’ve been working on lately. Here we go again The Trump Administration on Wednesday released a tax sketch that is a roadmap for […]
State & Local Tax Contributions of Young Undocumented Immigrants (2017)
• By Meg Wiehe, Misha Hill
This report specifically examines the state and local tax contributions of undocumented immigrants who are currently enrolled or immediately eligible for DACA and the fiscal implications of various policy changes. The report includes information on the national impact (Table 1) and provides a state-by-state breakdown (Appendix 1).
Comparing the Distributional Impact of Revenue Options in Alaska
• By Aidan Davis, Carl Davis
Alaska is facing a significant budget gap because of a sharp decline in the oil tax and royalty revenue that has traditionally been relied upon to fund government. This report examines five approaches for replacing some of the oil revenue that is no longer available: enacting a broad personal income tax, state sales tax, payroll tax, investment income tax, or cutting the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD). Any of the options examined in this report could…
State and Local Tax Contributions of Undocumented Californians: County-by- County Data
• By ITEP Staff
Public debates in California over immigrants, specifically around undocumented immigrants, often suffer from insufficient and inaccurate information about the contributions of undocumented immigrants, particularly their tax contributions at the local and state level. The fact of the matter is undocumented immigrants living in the California pay millions of dollars each year in local taxes to the counties where they live (estimated to be more than $1.5 billion) and collectively an estimated $3 billion combined in…
The Trump Administration Should Not Reopen Offshore Loopholes Closed by Recent Regulations
• By Richard Phillips
A new executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Friday asks that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin review significant tax regulations issued in 2016. The broader context of the order is that President Trump is seeking to roll back regulations across the government – many of which he claims are overly burdensome – and could […]
Dylan Grundman O’Neill
• By ITEP Staff
Dylan is the “coach on the floor” of the ITEP state policy team. He provides hands-on analysis and support on tax policy issues to advocates and lawmakers in several states. He also supports and vets the work of ITEP's other state policy analysts as they do the same in their states, and he liaises between the state team and the data and model team to ensure quality and consistency in how ITEP models policies and…
Matthew Gardner
• By ITEP Staff
Matt is a senior fellow at ITEP where he has worked since 1998. He previously served as ITEP’s executive director from 2006 to 2016. Mr. Gardner’s work focuses on federal, state and local tax systems, with a particular emphasis on the impact of tax policies on low- and moderate-income tax payers. He uses ITEP’s microsimulation model to produce economic projections and analyses on the effects of current and proposed federal and state tax and budget…
Carl Davis
• By ITEP Staff
Carl is the research director at ITEP, where he has worked since 2008. As ITEP’s research director, Carl is responsible for exploring new and emerging trends in tax policy. In this role, he has authored reports on proposals to legalize and tax cannabis sales, to implement vehicle-miles-traveled taxes, to update the tax treatment of the “gig economy,” and to improve the enforcement of sales taxes as they relate to online shopping. Carl has also conducted…
Aidan Davis
• By ITEP Staff
Aidan is ITEP’s acting state policy director. She coordinates ITEP’s state tax policy research and advocacy agenda and works closely with policymakers, legislative staff, national and state organizations across the country to advance policy solutions that aim to achieve equitable and sustainable state and local tax systems.
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: What Good Tax Reform Looks Like
• By ITEP Staff
In contrast, HB 263 would ask more of those at the top and less of low- and middle-income people who currently pay a larger share of their income in taxes. To further help with inequities, the bill would create a state level Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) – an effective poverty-fighting tool that supports work […]
Oregon Center for Public Policy: Undocumented Workers Pay Millions in Oregon Taxes and Would Pay Millions More Under Immigration Reform
• By ITEP Staff
Undocumented Oregonians pay taxes. The millions in taxes they pay to help fund schools and other public services that strengthen Oregon’s economy. Oregon would collect even more tax revenue under comprehensive immigration reform that would open a path to citizenship for undocumented workers. Under such a scenario, these immigrant Oregonians and aspiring citizens would contribute […]
Public Assets Institute: Meeting Vermonters’ needs in Fiscal 2018 and beyond
• By ITEP Staff
Elected leaders acknowledge investments are needed to clean up Lake Champlain, provide families with child care financial assistance, and make higher education more affordable. But progress has been slow in making these investments. And to balance the budget they make cuts—to Reach Up benefits for the poorest families, to affordable housing programs, to key policy […]
Open Sky Policy Institute: Amid budget woes, plan calls for tax cuts for the wealthy
• By ITEP Staff
LB 461, the tax-cut package put forth by the Revenue Committee, is first and foremost an income tax cut for wealthy Nebraskans and the proposal does little to truly address property tax relief. In fact, LB 461 is fundamentally flawed in a way that makes it more likely to exacerbate, not help, Nebraska’s reliance on […]
Tax Justice Digest: Resources for Tax Day 2017
• By ITEP Staff
In the Tax Justice Digest we recap the latest reports, blog posts, and analyses from Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Here’s a rundown of what we’ve been working on lately. Every year around Tax Day, ITEP updates some of its key reports to help put the nation’s tax […]
10 Things You Should Know on Tax Day
• By ITEP Staff
Every year around Tax Day, ITEP updates some of its key reports to help put the nation's tax system in proper context. This year, as people around the country march to demand President Trump release his tax returns and as policymakers consider overhauling our federal tax system, these reports are especially critical. Read 10 Things You Should Know on Tax Day.
Who Pays Taxes in America in 2017?
• By Matthew Gardner
All Americans pay taxes. Most of us pay federal and state income taxes. Everyone who works pays federal payroll taxes. Everyone who buys gasoline pays federal and state gas taxes. Everyone who owns or rents a home directly or indirectly pays property taxes. Anyone who shops pays sales taxes in most states.
Fifteen (of Many) Reasons We Need Corporate Tax Reform
• By Matthew Gardner
Profitable Fortune 500 companies in a range of economic sectors have been remarkably successful in manipulating the tax system to avoid paying even a dime in tax on billions of dollars in U.S. profits. This ITEP report examines a select, diverse group of 15 corporations' tax situations to shed light on the widespread nature of corporate tax avoidance. As a group, these companies paid no federal income tax on $21 billion in profits in 2016,…
The U.S. Is One of the Least Taxed Developed Countries
• By Richard Phillips
The most recent data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) show that the United States is one of the least taxed developed nations.
U.S. Collects Smaller Share of Corporate Taxes Than Developed Country Average
• By Richard Phillips
Corporate income taxes in the United States as a share of the economy are well below the average among developed nations, according to an analysis of the most recent data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Data from the OECD show that U.S. corporate taxes as a percentage of GDP are 2.2 percent, which is 24 percent less than the 2.9 percent weighted average among the 34 other OECD countries for which…
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