We explain how this type of program could work, and we explore some of its implications, especially for rural communities. In doing so, we focus our analysis on the bill currently before Congress: the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) of 2025.
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ITEP Work in Action May 7, 2025 Brookings: How a Federal Tax-Credit Scholarship Plan would Benefit the Wealthy and Underserve Rural America
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blog May 5, 2025 America Has Left the Building: U.S. Loses from Our Global Tax Policy Choices, Others Could Gain
Countries that once looked to the U.S. for direction on tax policy have concluded they need to form alliances without us. If so, it will often be to the benefit of other people around the globe and to the deficit of U.S. communities.
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blog May 1, 2025 State Rundown 5/1: State Tax Debates Wrapping Up, and Just Beginning
The rampant uncertainty this year extends far beyond the national economy and federal policy, as many state legislatures are declaring their tax and budget debates finished, and just getting started, sometimes in the same breath.
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media mention May 1, 2025 CNN: Undocumented Immigrations Contribute More to Social Security than They Receive in Benefits
President Donald Trump’s drive to deport immigrants and block new arrivals could chip away at Social Security’s finances at a time when the program is already on shaky financial footing, experts say.
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ITEP Work in Action April 30, 2025 Media Matters for America: Fox News’ Many Justifications for Extending Trump’s Tax Cut for the Wealthy
Fox News personalities have gone all in supporting President Donald Trump’s plan to extend his unpopular 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, offering a hodgepodge of justifications for why it’s necessary to keep taxes low for rich people and businesses as Congress moves to slash billions in social safety net programs.
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media mention April 29, 2025 Stateline: New Tax Cuts Mostly Favor the Rich Across States this Year
Missouri Republicans may take their tax-cutting efforts to new heights this year as lawmakers consider exempting profits from the sale of stocks, bonds and real estate from state income taxes.
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media mention April 25, 2025 CNBC: Trump Tariffs Will Hurt Lower Income Americans More than the Rich, Study Says
Tariffs levied by President Donald Trump during his second term would hurt the poorest U.S. households more than the richest over the short term, according to a new analysis.
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ITEP Work in Action April 25, 2025 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Immigrants Contribute Greatly to the Social Security Trust Fund’s Solvency
Immigrants are a critical part of the U.S. workforce and play a key role in strengthening Social Security’s finances. Like all other workers, immigrants contribute to the trust fund through payroll taxes. Even if they themselves will not become eligible to receive benefits in their lifetimes, immigrants improve the solvency of a program that provides almost all workers with a foundation of income for their retirement.
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ITEP Work in Action April 25, 2025 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Mississippi Moves to Eliminate Income Tax, Deepening Inequality and Threatening Public Services
Mississippi policymakers have taken one of the most extreme steps in state tax policy in recent years: enacting a law that will gradually phase out the state’s personal income tax. Signed by Gov. Tate Reeves in March, the move begins the final stage of a years-long push to dismantle a key pillar of the state’s tax system, which has long helped fund education, health care, infrastructure, and other core services.
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ITEP Work in Action April 23, 2025 George W. Bush Presidential Center: The Policy Implications of the IRS-ICE Data Sharing Agreement
There may be substantial policy implications, too. While ICE maintains that it will only be used in narrow circumstances to aid criminal investigations, a policy like this could still discourage people with an ITIN from filing their taxes out of fear that a tax return might make them a target for deportation.
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media mention April 23, 2025 WUSF: Lawmakers Want a Nationwide Private School Voucher Program like Florida’s
Lawmakers and school choice advocates gathered in Tampa on Tuesday to promote a federal bill that would create the first nationwide school voucher program.
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ITEP Work in Action April 23, 2025 North Carolina Budget & Tax Center: Faced with pausing tax cuts for the rich or lowering state spending, NC Senate budget sides with the wealthy few
They will risk recurring budget deficits. They will risk an inability to protect North Carolinians from federal Medicaid and food assistance cuts. To deliver these tax cuts, they will cut funding for the state’s public K-12 students and community college students.
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blog April 22, 2025 Missouri is Sleepwalking into a Half-Billion Dollar Tax Cut for the Rich
Missouri lawmakers are debating a tax cut that will mostly benefit the wealthiest in the state, while relying on an unrealistic estimate of what it will cost.
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media mention April 18, 2025 Vox: There’s No “Right Way” to Immigrate Anymore
The federal government’s assault on immigrants is pushing them to live in the shadows.
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media mention April 18, 2025 The Atlantic: We’re About to Find Out What Mass Deportation Really Looks Like
The Trump administration’s campaign to remove millions of people from the United States could soon be supercharged by Congress.
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media mention April 18, 2025 MSNBC: Trump is Using His Election Denial Playbook on Social Security
Donald Trump’s administration has taken a sledgehammer to the Social Security system, and it’s using the president’s election denial playbook to do so along the way.
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media mention April 18, 2025 KJZZ Phoenix: As Tax Day Comes and Goes, Advocates Look at Impacts of IRS-DHS Data Share Agreement
This year’s Tax Day came just after the Trump administration finalized a deal with the IRS to hand over data about undocumented immigrant taxpayers.
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blog April 16, 2025 State Rundown 4/16: No Vacation from Spring Tax Breaks as Bills Advance
While students and families are enjoying spring break vacations, legislative sessions are still in full swing. And some are poised for a spring tax break season as proposals advance with major implications for the sustainability of state budgets.
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media mention April 15, 2025 NBC News: IRS Agreement with ICE to Share Immigrants’ Info Could Lead to Billions Less in Tax Revenue
Like millions of American citizens and immigrants, Ivan filed his taxes last year. But Ivan, 54, a Massachusetts resident who hails from Colombia, is worried a recent agreement between the IRS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement means he is in danger of being deported for doing what he believed was the right thing.
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media mention April 15, 2025 CNN: “People Are Feeling Betrayed”: They Paid Taxes in Good Faith and Now Fear It Could Lead to Their Deportation
A recent data-sharing deal between the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Homeland Security is sparking widespread concern in immigrant communities – though some details about how the deal could work haven’t been disclosed.
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ITEP Work in Action April 15, 2025 America’s Voice: On Tax Day, A Reminder That Immigration is Good for America
Tax Day 2025 is almost here, meaning millions of workers across the country have either already filed their state and federal returns or are sitting down to finish them up. This includes millions of immigrants, whose immense annual contributions help sustain vital federal programs like Medicare and Social Security, fund our public schools, libraries, and fire departments, and boost our overall economy.
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media mention April 15, 2025 Marketplace: IRS’ Direct File is Free for Millions of Taxpayers, but Not Everyone Wants to Keep It Around.
April 15 is Tax Day. If you haven’t filed yet, one option could be the IRS’ Direct File program, which lets some taxpayers electronically file their returns directly with the agency for free, as opposed to through third-party providers.
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media mention April 14, 2025 Los Angeles Times: IRS Plan to Give Data to ICE Could Wallop California, Where Many Immigrants Pay Taxes
Also like many of her clients, she has routinely paid U.S. taxes in the past using what’s known as an individual taxpayer identification number, or ITIN, in lieu of a Social Security number. The process seemed pretty straightforward, she said, until recently, when Trump administration officials announced that IRS data would be shared with ICE agents and used to target undocumented taxpayers for the first time.
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media mention April 14, 2025 MSNBC: Trumps Social Security Team has Reportedly Marked More than 6,000 Immigrants as Dead
The New York Times was first to report on the administration’s cancellation of immigrants’ lawfully obtained Social Security numbers — essentially listing individuals as dead — as a means to impede their ability to make money or access government services and to pressure them to leave the country.
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media mention April 14, 2025 Times Union: Editorial: Honesty Ought to Pay
The administration of President Donald J. Trump has decided to have the Internal Revenue Service share information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on undocumented immigrants who have been diligently paying taxes on the promise that their files would be confidential.