698 posts
State Rundown 2/19: Necktie (NCTI) Offers a Way Out of a Knotty Situation
• By ITEP Staff
State lawmakers are grappling with a range of challenges as their fiscal outlooks deteriorate, federal tax enforcement wanes (after the Trump administration cut the IRS workforce by 25 percent), and a rewritten federal tax code sends states scrambling to decide what changes they might want to make in their own codes.
Michigan Ballot Proposal Would Boost Public Education While Creating a Fairer Tax System
• By Miles Trinidad, Matthew Gardner
A new proposal in Michigan would create a 5-percentage point surcharge on top earners with taxable incomes over $1 million for joint filers and $500,000 for single filers. This would raise about $1.7 billion a year, which would be used for public education priorities.
NCTI is an Important Part of the Federal Corporate Tax. States Should Adopt It Too.
• By Carl Davis
Including NCTI in state corporate tax law is an effective way to neutralize much of the tax avoidance that occurs when multinational companies artificially shift their profits into overseas tax havens.
Video: Four Big Tech Companies Avoided $51 Billion in Taxes.
February 12, 2026
Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Tesla collectively made $315 billion in U.S. profits for 2025 and paid just 4.9% in federal income taxes, avoiding $51 billion in taxes.
State Rundown 2/11: This Valentine’s Day, Conscious Decoupling Is Our Love Language
• By ITEP Staff
While some may be excited for a romantic Valentine’s Day this weekend, many state lawmakers are breaking up and decoupling from recent federal tax changes that are poised to leave states with revenue shortfalls – much like a bad date who forgets their wallet and asks you to pick up the tab.
Policy Matters Ohio: Ohio Should Not Conform to Federal Tax Policies That Reduce State Revenue
• By ITEP Staff
While the General Assembly should pass a conformity bill related to federal changes made in H.R. 1, Ohio should decouple from sections that reduce revenue without benefiting the state — and that primarily advantage the wealthiest Ohioans. Read more.
Yahoo Finance: Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet Report Plunging Tax Bills Thanks to AI Investment and New Rules in Washington
February 11, 2026
The build-out of artificial intelligence data centers along with business-friendly provisions in President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” are combining to make 2025 a banner tax year for Big Tech. Read more.
KOTA Territory News: Assessing SD Gubernatorial Candidates’ Property Tax Proposals
February 11, 2026
As the legislative session continues and the opportunity to pass reform dissipates, lawmakers will need to conduct a delicate balancing act to ensure they do not solve one conundrum by creating a potentially bigger one. Read more.
WFMJ: DeWine: No Property Taxes Could Mean 20% Sales Tax
February 11, 2026
If Ohio’s property taxes are eliminated, Gov. Mike DeWine says sales tax in the state could spike dramatically. Read more.
Newsweek: Florida Property Tax Update as Ron DeSantis’s Threat Looms Over Lawmakers
February 11, 2026
Several competing proposals to offer Florida homeowners property tax relief have been pushed forward over the last few months, to the dismay of Governor Ron DeSantis, who advocated for one, simple solution—abolishing property taxes. Read more.
Trump Undermined the Constitution to Give Corporations a $10 Billion Tax Cut
• By Matthew Gardner
This unilateral corporate tax cut from the Trump administration will cost $10 billion over a decade unless it is reversed.
What Did 2025 State Tax Changes Mean for Racial and Economic Equity?
• By Brakeyshia Samms
The results are a mixed bag, with some states enacting promising policies that will improve tax equity and others going in the opposite direction.
Reason Foundation: A Cigarette Tax Increase Would Undermine Nebraska’s Fiscal Stability and Harm Consumers
• By ITEP Staff
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy confirms that “cigarette tax revenues grow more slowly than the cost of almost any public service that could be funded using these taxes” and that “[s]tates that use these taxes to fund public services may be disappointed in the long run.” Read more.
D.C.’s Fiscal Autonomy is at Stake, District’s Conformity Decisions Should Stand
• By Kamolika Das
Federal lawmakers passed a bill along party lines that would force the District of Columbia to override the decision of local elected officials and implement all of the costly and inequitable federal tax cuts passed under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA).
Four Big Tech Companies Avoid $51 Billion in Taxes in Wake of One Big Beautiful Bill Act
• By Matthew Gardner
Four of the corporations whose CEOs flanked President Trump at his 2025 inauguration ceremony have now disclosed that they collectively received $51 billion in federal tax breaks in 2025, much of that likely from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).
State Rundown 2/5: Icy Roads Do Not Slow Tax Policy Debates
• By ITEP Staff
Despite wintry conditions across much of the country, that hasn’t stopped state lawmakers from debating major tax policy changes.
Newsweek: Major Tax Disruption Faces Over 300,000 Taxpayers—’Sabotage’
February 4, 2026
Workers in Washington, D.C., many of whom have federal roles, could be set to experience major disruption over their tax returns this year, as Congress seems likely to pass a joint resolution that would override the district’s tax law—n the middle of the tax season. Read more.
FACT Coalition: New Transparency Requirements Reveal Low U.S. Taxes, Continued Use of Tax Havens by Major American Corporations
• By ITEP Staff
For the first time ever, U.S. corporate annual reports now include more granular disclosures of cash tax payments and other tax metrics. We can clearly see the fruit of Congress repeatedly showering tax giveaways on large corporations: major American companies often pay more tax in other countries than they do at home. How American is the world’s […]
Meta’s Federal Tax Rate Hits an All-Time Low Due to Breaks Expanded by Trump Tax Law
• By Matthew Gardner
The company paid an effective federal income tax rate of just over 3.5% in 2025, the lowest it has recorded since the company went public as Facebook in 2012.
Economic Progress Institute: Hundreds of Millions in Lost Revenue: The Cost of Rhode Island’s Personal Income Tax Changes
• By ITEP Staff
The findings demonstrate that tax changes over the past two decades—including the introduction and reduction of the flat tax and the shift from a five-bracket system with a top rate of 9.90 percent to today’s three-bracket system with a top rate of 5.99 percent—have disproportionately benefited the highest-income filers while steadily draining state revenue. The […]
Cato Institute: Immigrants’ Recent Effects on Government Budgets: 1994–2023
• By ITEP Staff
Our analysis in this paper shows that immigrants generated a fiscal surplus of about $14.5 trillion from 1994 to 2023, that the average immigrant is much less costly than the average US-born American, and that immigrants impose lower costs per person on old-age benefit, education, and public safety programs. Read more.
Trust Reform is Needed to Protect States, Especially in the Wake of IRS Enforcement Cuts
• By Sarah Austin
Trust use is widespread among the wealthiest households, with reports showing that roughly half of the nation’s wealthiest people rely on trusts for tax avoidance reasons
Associated Press: Trump’s $10 Billion Lawsuit Against the IRS Raises Conflict of Interest Concerns
February 3, 2026
Legal experts say President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax information raises a plethora of legal and ethical questions, including the propriety of the leader of the executive branch pursuing scorched-earth litigation against the very government he is in charge of. Read more.
Testimony: ITEP’s Brakeyshia Samms Explains How Property Tax Circuit Breakers Could Help Evanston, Illinois
• By Brakeyshia Samms
The prepared testimony below was delivered by ITEP Senior Analyst Brakeyshia Samms to the Illinois Committee on Housing and Community on January 20, 2026.
Video: You Are Paying More in Taxes than Tesla
February 2, 2026
Tesla paid $0 federal income tax on $5.7 billion of U.S income in 2025.
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