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media mention November 12, 2020 Stateline: Budget Holes Loom After Voters Reject Some Tax Hikes
But Meg Wiehe, deputy executive director of the progressive Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said that is an oversimplification. She said wild speculation in opposition ads about what Illinois… -
media mention November 10, 2020 CNBC: Here’s What’s Ahead for President-elect Biden’s Tax Plan
Another idea that might stand a chance in a split Congress could be to properly fund the IRS so it can pursue larger targets, rather than going through the contentious… -
media mention November 7, 2020 Business Insider: Here’s how President-elect Joe Biden’s Corporate Tax Plan Will Impact Big Businesses
But even with an increased tax rate, big companies could still manage to pay $0 in federal taxes due to tax code loopholes and tax breaks. Under President Donald Trump, an… -
media mention November 6, 2020 New York Times: Arizona Passes a Ballot Measure to Raise Teacher Pay by Taxing the Wealthy
Prop. 208 passed with 52 percent of voters supporting the measure, The Associated Press reported late Thursday. Under Arizona’s rules for ballot measures, the tax increase needed a simple majority… -
media mention November 2, 2020 Axios: The Wealthy Rush to Shield Their Assets From Biden
Driving the news: Biden says he wants to raise taxes on people who earn more than $400,000 a year — which excludes most Americans — and lower the amounts people can… -
media mention November 2, 2020 Jacobin: Donald Trump Lied About Passing Pro-Worker Industrial Policy
The Trump tax plan also literally gives corporations more incentives to move production to other countries. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Trump’s plan “taxes the offshore… -
media mention October 31, 2020 BBC: US Election 2020: Fact-checking Trump and Biden’s Final Week
In 2018, 91 of the top 500 companies in the US effectively paid no tax, according to a report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Despite making almost… -
ITEP Work in Action October 30, 2020 Florida Policy Institute: Florida Would See an Extra $577 Million in Sales Tax Revenue Under Amendment 2
As Florida Policy Institute and many others have demonstrated, gradually increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2026 would help lift households out of poverty and reduce pay inequities long… -
media mention October 30, 2020 Chicago Tribune: Commentary: How Illinois’ Small Businesses Will Benefit from a Graduated-rate Income Tax
Recent studies have shown that for decades, the current flat tax structure has only worsened income inequality throughout the state, stunting much-needed revenue and consumer spending. The Institute on Taxation… -
media mention October 30, 2020 Deadline: Joe Biden Slams Netflix & Amazon On Taxes, Again
The tax debate flared after President Donald Trump and the Republicans reworked the corporate tax code in 2016, slashing the corporate tax rate to 21%, from 35%. A widely cited analysis by… -
blog October 28, 2020 An Underfunded IRS Allows Corporations to Get Away with Probably Illegal Tax Dodges
A new look at S&P 500 annual financial reports for 2019 shows that five companies—Chevron, Dell, Eli Lilly, ExxonMobil and General Electric—kept $1 billion in tax breaks they admitted were probably illegal because tax authorities failed to come to a final determination before the statute of limitations ran out.
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blog October 22, 2020 Trump Says Taxes Will Be Too High on the 2% Who Pay More Under Biden’s Plan
The Trump campaign has failed to convince the public that large numbers of Americans would face tax hikes under Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s tax plan. The claim has been widely discredited. For example, ITEP found that the federal taxes that people pay directly would rise for just 1.9 percent of taxpayers in the U.S., and that number does not vary much by state. So, Fox News and other conservative voices are trying out a new argument: Biden’s tax plan would be too burdensome for that 1.9 percent.
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blog October 22, 2020 Voters Have the Chance in 2020 to Increase Tax Equity in Arizona, Illinois, and California, And They Should
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.
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blog October 7, 2020 New ITEP Report Shows Few Taxpayers in Each State Paying More Under Biden’s Tax Plan
An ITEP report finds that taxes that people pay directly would stay the same or go down in 2022 for 98.1 percent of Americans under President-elect Joe Biden’s tax plan.
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news release October 7, 2020 New 50-State Analysis of Biden Revenue-Raising Tax Proposals
A state-by-state analysis of President-elect Joe Biden’s proposal to raise taxes for filers with income of more than $400,000 finds that in 2022, just 1.9 percent of all taxpayers would face a direct tax increase. This would vary only slightly by state. For example, in West Virginia, 0.6 percent of taxpayers would see an increase, and in Connecticut, 3.7 percent of taxpayers’ taxes would increase.
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news release September 30, 2020 People Need Relief. House Compromise COVID-19 Bill Addresses Urgent Needs
Media contact Following is a statement by Amy Hanauer, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding the COVID-19 relief bill that the U.S. House is expected… -
blog September 30, 2020 Donald Trump and Taxes: Fast and Loose with Loopholes or Fraud?
The president’s apparent abuse of everything from hair-care deductions to consulting fees for family members raises questions about whether Trump was fast and loose with tax loopholes or whether the IRS simply wasn’t enforcing the law. Either way, Trump successfully flouting or pushing the limits of the law shouldn’t come as a surprise: Congress has cut IRS funding, in real terms in each of the last 10 years.
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blog September 29, 2020 A 2017 Tax Provision Could Have Restrained Trump’s Tax Dodging, But Congress Just Weakened It
President Trump and Republicans in Congress passed up almost every opportunity to shut down special tax breaks and loopholes for real estate investors when they enacted their 2017 tax law. They did, however, include some welcome provisions to limit how business owners use losses to avoid taxes, and these provisions could potentially limit the sort of tax dodging perfected by Trump. Unfortunately, Congress temporarily reversed these limits with some provisions tucked into the CARES Act that was enacted in March, and this may help Trump and others like him to continue avoiding taxes.
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blog September 29, 2020 Real Tax Reform Never Had a Chance Under Trump
Congress is certainly to blame both for providing a ridiculously lenient tax code for the super-wealthy and for preventing the IRS from enforcing even the existing weak limits in the law on tax avoidance. But make no mistake, one person is primarily responsible for the farce that is Donald Trump’s tax dodging, and that is Donald Trump. For years, he has actively and loudly supported special tax breaks and tax shelters, making him anything but a passive bystander to their creation.
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blog September 29, 2020 It’s Time to Change the Tax Laws to Make Donald Trump and Corporate Giants Pay Up
It’s time for a new approach. Trump’s egregious tax avoidance further exposes a system that preserves an enormous and growing economic divide. Congress has gutted IRS funding so that we don’t have the resources to audit wealthy tax avoiders. And lobbyists continue to secure giveaways for corporate clients that do nothing for our communities.
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news release September 27, 2020 ITEP: New York Times’ Trump Tax Revelation Confirms What We Already Know
“The New York Times revelation of Trump’s years of dodging taxes confirms something we already know. There are two tax systems: one that most of us follow, and another far more generous one for the very rich.”
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blog September 25, 2020 It’s No Secret—To Save State Budgets End Preferential Treatment of Capital Gains
In an updated policy brief, ITEP explores the flaws in state capital gains tax breaks and highlights how ending special tax breaks provides one of the simplest ways to raise additional revenue and increase equity in the tax system.
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brief September 25, 2020 State Taxation of Capital Gains: The Folly of Tax Cuts & Case for Proactive Reforms
The federal tax system and every state treat income from capital gains more favorably than income from work. Preferential capital gains tax treatment includes exclusions and seldom-discussed provisions like deferral and stepped-up basis, as well as more direct tax subsidies for profits realized from local investments and, in some instances, from investments around the world. This policy brief explains state capital gains taxation, examines the flaws in state capital gains tax breaks, and proposes reform options that will help make state tax systems more progressive and more equitable.
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blog September 24, 2020 Of Shiny Objects and Scapegoats
While the moneyed elite were dangling shiny objects, scapegoating Black and brown people, denigrating immigrants, and financing studies to convince us that poor people are the problem, they were concurrently securing policies that cut taxes primarily for the rich and profitable corporations, deregulated industry, weakened unions and attacked voting rights. This and more allowed the rich to amass even more wealth and power.
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blog September 23, 2020 Another Reason to Tax the Rich? States with High Top Tax Rates Doing as Well, if Not Better, than States Without Income Taxes
ITEP updated a 2017 study that examined the economic performance of the nine states with the highest top marginal tax rates compared to the nine states with no state income tax. Economies in states with the highest top marginal rates grew faster. States facing budget shortfalls should first look at raising taxes on those most able to pay (incomes at the top have grown during this economic crisis) before considering harmful budget cuts.