Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

ITEP's Research Priorities

CNN: Trump’s Big Bill Includes an ‘Unprecedented’ Tax Credit for a National School Voucher Program. Here’s How It Would Work.

June 6, 2025

Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, says the program is generous – to say the least. “A dollar-for-dollar charitable donation tax credit is unprecedented at the federal level,” he told CNN in an email.

Injustice Watch: Property-Tax Foreclosure Reform Gets Put Off by Illinois Legislators

June 6, 2025

“It boggles the mind that the state legislature would just keep kicking the can down the road, and you have a crisis on your hands,” said Rita Jefferson, an analyst with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit that advocates for more equitable tax policies.

Congressional Budget Office: Effects of the Surge in Immigration on State and Local Budgets in 2023

June 6, 2025

In this report, the Congressional Budget Office estimates how the surge in immigration that began in 2021 affected state and local budgets in 2023.

The American Prospect: Trump’s Beautiful Bill Will Kick 11 Million People Off Their Health Insurance

June 5, 2025

The Congressional Budget Office published its latest estimate of the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act on Wednesday. The results are gruesome.

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State Rundown 6/5: States Wrap Sessions, Some Prepare for Fiscal Uncertainty

June 5, 2025 • By ITEP Staff

State Rundown 6/5: States Wrap Sessions, Some Prepare for Fiscal Uncertainty

States use the final hours of their legislative sessions to address deficits and preserve revenue in preparation for the times ahead.

U.S. News & World Report: Ignore the Populist Rhetoric. The GOP Tax Bill Exposes their True Colors

June 5, 2025

The tax code is about more than depreciation, deductions, expenses and the things we focus on when we report our income to the IRS every April. It's about who gets the breaks in this country – and what that says about the priorities and values of those who write our tax laws.

Fox News: Educational Choice for Children Act: A Tax Break for the Rich, Not a Lifeline for Students

June 5, 2025

A proposal quietly tucked into the House GOP’s reconciliation package, part of what’s being marketed as President Donald Trump’s "Big, Beautiful Bill," would give wealthy individuals and corporations a 100% federal tax credit for donations to private school scholarship funds.

Roosevelt Institute: It’s Time to End Joint Tax Filing

June 5, 2025

A move to individual filing, making the tax code marriage neutral and reducing tax rates on married women who work, would not only simplify the tax code but make it fairer and increase the ability of married women to participate fully in the economy.

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Trump’s Last Tax Cuts Failed Americans Like Me. Let’s Not Repeat the Mistake.

June 5, 2025 • By Brakeyshia Samms

Trump’s Last Tax Cuts Failed Americans Like Me. Let’s Not Repeat the Mistake.

Now as more GOP tax cuts for the rich move through Congress, history is poised to repeat itself. The bill would disproportionately benefit the well-off — and harm the financial well-being of millions of working Americans, including Black women like me.

Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Program Cuts and Tariff Costs Will Leave Many Kentucky Families Worse Off, Even with Modest Tax Cuts

June 4, 2025

On Thursday, May 22nd, the House of Representatives passed its major tax and spending legislation, which included last-minute revisions that made it even more favorable for the wealthy.

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Sweeping Federal Tax and Spending Changes Threaten Local Governments

June 3, 2025 • By Kamolika Das

Sweeping Federal Tax and Spending Changes Threaten Local Governments

Given this environment, local leaders must do what they can to preserve and strengthen progressive revenue tools, advocate for expanded local taxing authorities and flexibility, and push their state leaders to decouple from harmful federal tax changes.

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Five Issues for States to Watch in the Federal Tax Debate

June 3, 2025 • By Dylan Grundman O'Neill, Kamolika Das, Marco Guzman, Miles Trinidad, Neva Butkus

Five Issues for States to Watch in the Federal Tax Debate

This post covers five particularly notable provisions for states: increasing deductions for state and local taxes (SALT) paid, allowing more generous tax write-offs for businesses, offering new avenues for capital gains tax avoidance to people contributing to private school voucher funds, carving tips and overtime out of the tax base, and re-upping Opportunity Zone tax breaks for wealthy investors.

Missouri Independent: Proposed Federal Tax Changes could Mean $170M or More Cut to Missouri State Revenues

June 2, 2025

Along with hundreds of millions in potential new costs for Missouri taxpayers, an analysis of the budget bill backed by Congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump shows it would also cut state revenue as tax changes at the federal level are reflected in state returns.

Kansas City Star: Tell Kansas’ Senators Not to Give Ultra-Wealthy a ‘Big Beautiful’ Tax Loophole | Opinion

June 2, 2025

How’s that for a fun new federal tax scam to help the super-wealthy? “Donate” $10 million in stock to charity, purchased for $6 million — then get all $10 million back in tax credits and avoid more than $1 million in capital gains taxes. Massive benefits for already rich individuals — you gotta love it.

Migration Policy Institute: Seeking to Ramp Up Deportations, the Trump Administration Quietly Expands a Vast Web of Data

May 29, 2025

For example, the U.S. tax system mostly functions on voluntary compliance. Unauthorized immigrants contributed nearly $100 billion in local, state, and federal taxes in 2022, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates. Concerns that taxpayers’ information could be shared with ICE could lead to a decline in compliance, resulting in reduced tax revenue.

Vanity Fair: The GOP’s Big, Beautiful Bind

May 29, 2025

While Republicans made inroads with Black and Latino voters in 2024, they could also surrender such gains. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, in extending and expanding upon Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, rate and bracket changes would “create more racial inequality in our tax system by disproportionately favoring white taxpayers at the expense of others.”

Brookings: The Educational Choice for Children Act Opens the Door to Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

May 29, 2025

(For a detailed illustration of how this works—and some nice figures—I’d recommend this piece from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.)

Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies: Centering Black Households in the 2025 Tax Debate

May 29, 2025

The policy brief, “Centering Black Households in the 2025 Tax Debate,” analyzes how the proposed extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) would affect Black communities.

Washington Post: GOP Rejects ‘Millionaire Tax’ Pitch, Advancing Breaks for Rich Americans

May 28, 2025

House Republicans rejected a push by some allies of President Donald Trump to include tax hikes on the rich in sweeping legislation they passed last week — a decision that could carry repercussions into next year’s elections.

Audio: ITEP’s Matt Gardner Discusses SALT Cap on ‘Here & Now'”

May 27, 2025

Lawmakers are divided over how to deal with the state and local tax deduction or SALT, after the House passed its version of the Republican spending bill last week. The cap tends to impact Americans who live in higher-tax states particularly hard.

Florida Policy Institute: 4 Things That Floridians Should Know About the US House Reconciliation Bill

May 27, 2025

As the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy notes, the top 1 percent of Floridians (those with income of more than $1.1 million annually) would receive an average tax cut of $86,320 in 2026. As a share of the tax cuts, in 2026, the top 1 percent would receive 25 percent of the total tax cuts.

Colorado Fiscal Institute: One Big Beautiful Betrayal

May 27, 2025

An analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) highlights just how lopsided the bill’s tax provisions are.

DC Fiscal Policy Institute: House Tax Bill Would Be a Massive Giveaway for the Wealthiest Washingtonians

May 27, 2025

Analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows that the richest 1 percent of taxpayers in the District will get the biggest tax cut—one being paid for by slashing federal basic needs programs for tens of millions of Americans.

Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio Homeowners Want Property Tax Relief. Other States May Offer a Solution

May 26, 2025

"Families are overloaded with their property taxes," said Brakeyshia Samms, a senior analyst for the institute. "The circuit breaker kicks in like an electrical circuit breaker and helps alleviate the pressure that these taxes put on family budgets."

NPR: 9 Things to Know about the Big, Private-School Voucher Plan in Republicans’ Tax Bill

May 23, 2025

"It's about three times as generous as what you're gonna get from donating to a children's hospital or a veteran's group or any other cause," says Carl Davis at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. "It really preferences voucher groups over every other kind of charity."