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White House Incredibly Still Believes Tax Cuts Are the Answer to America’s Problems
June 2, 2020 • By Steve Wamhoff
White House officials continue to discuss tax cuts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Steve Wamhoff provides a roundup of these terrible ideas that would do little to boost investment or reach those who need it most.
Depreciation Breaks Have Saved 20 Major Corporations $26.5 Billion Over Past Two Years
June 2, 2020 • By ITEP Staff, Matthew Gardner, Steve Wamhoff
The Trump administration and its congressional allies have proposed making permanent the expensing provision in the Trump-GOP tax law. Expensing is the most extreme form of accelerated depreciation, which allows businesses to deduct the cost of purchasing equipment more quickly than it wears out. But expensing and other types of accelerated depreciation already account for a very large share of corporate tax breaks and allows many companies to pay nothing at all.
Trump-GOP Tax Law Encourages Companies to Move Jobs Offshore–and New Tax Cuts Won’t Change That
June 2, 2020 • By ITEP Staff, Matthew Gardner, Steve Wamhoff
New tax cuts to incentivize bringing jobs back to the United States will fail. No new tax provisions can be more generous than the zero percent rate the 2017 law provides for many offshore profits or the loopholes that allow corporations to shift profits to countries with minimal or no corporate income taxes.
Minneapolis Star Tribune: Minnesota Companies Cashing in on CARES Act Business Tax Breaks
June 2, 2020 • By Steve Wamhoff
Other taxation watchdogs call it a windfall, and one that disproportionately benefits large companies with volatile earnings, not the neighborhood auto shop or hair salon whose business vanished in the wake of COVID-19. Plus, unlike the Paycheck Protection Program, which has limits on how the loans can be used in order for the loan to […]
Salon.com: About 75% of Trump’s Proposed Coronavirus Capital Gains Tax Cut Would Go to the Top 1% of Earners
May 30, 2020 • By Steve Wamhoff
Steve Wamhoff, the director of federal tax policy at the liberal-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), argued that “proponents of capital gains tax breaks have always offered a weak argument that they encourage investment” but Trump’s proposal is more dubious given that it is only a temporary cut. A temporary cut “is supported […]
Trump Administration Stops Pretending to Care About the Economy with Its Capital Gains Tax Proposal
May 28, 2020 • By Steve Wamhoff
Proponents of capital gains tax breaks have always offered a weak argument that they encourage investment and thereby grow the economy. But the Trump administration is now floating a temporary capital gains tax break, which is supported by no argument at all. It would only reward investments made in the past while doing nothing to encourage new investment.
Yahoo Finance: Biden Hits Amazon on Taxes, Which May Benefit From the Coronavirus Outbreak
May 22, 2020 • By Matthew Gardner
While the numbers prove its savviness for capitalizing on advantages under the U.S. Tax Code, newly available deductions under the CARES Act make tax savings even more accessible. And with the windfalls, tax experts believe Amazon appears positioned to reduce its federal tax liability to at or near zero, again, in 2020. “I’d say their […]
Washington State Budget and Policy Center: It’s time to include undocumented immigrants in state response to COVID-19
May 21, 2020 • By ITEP Staff
In addition to state and local taxes, new estimates show that the labor of undocumented workers in Washington state has resulted in nearly $400 million of contributions to the state and federal unemployment trust fund over the past ten years. Yet these workers are systematically denied protection when they become unemployed. Read more
The HEROES Act Would Correct CARES Act Business Tax Mistakes
May 20, 2020 • By Steve Wamhoff
The Health Economic Recovery and Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act includes important changes to business tax provisions in the CARES Act, the most recent COVID-19 legislation enacted by Congress and the president. The House-passed plan would undo CARES Act changes that make it easy for businesses to claim losses to reduce or avoid all taxes. […]
A Dimon Memo Will Buy You a Dime’s Worth of Social Change
May 20, 2020 • By Matthew Gardner
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, in a May 19 memo to employees, outlines steps the company is taking to help its customers, small businesses and communities stay afloat. The part of the public relations memo that has received the most attention, however, is Dimon’s call for “rebuilding a more inclusive economy.” “It is my fervent […]
Major Cash Payment and Tax Provisions in the HEROES Act
May 15, 2020 • By ITEP Staff, Meg Wiehe, Steve Wamhoff
The major provisions for cash payments and tax changes in the House Democrats’ Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act would provide nearly $600 billion to individuals and households and average benefits of more than $3,000 to families in all but the highest income levels.
Analysis: How the HEROES Act Would Reach ITIN Filers
May 14, 2020 • By Meg Wiehe
The HEROES Act, filed by the House Democrats this week, includes a new one-time payment of $1,200 per adult and child and extends the payment to ITIN filers and their families. The bill also includes a retroactive change to the CARES Act ensuring ITIN filers will also receive the initial payment under the CARES Act. ITEP estimates more than 4.3 million adults and 3.5 million children would benefit from this change.
Fiscal Policy Institute: Unemployment Insurance Taxes Paid for Undocumented Workers in NYS
May 14, 2020 • By ITEP Staff
In the midst of a pandemic, there has been a growing call for undocumented immigrants, who make up five percent of the New York State labor force, to be covered by some form of unemployment insurance. What is often overlooked in discussions of unemployment insurance is the extent to which undocumented immigrants are already part […]
HEROES Act is an Appropriate Recession Response
May 12, 2020 • By Amy Hanauer
House Democrats today introduced a proposal that responds to our staggering economic crisis with the right policies at the necessary scale. It’s a refreshing change from some of the misdirected ideas that have passed or been floated in these alarming economic times.
Which Workers Wouldn’t Be Helped by a Payroll Tax Cut?
May 8, 2020 • By Jessica Schieder, Lorena Roque
New data released today estimates 20.5 million jobs were lost in the month of April alone. Workers not currently receiving paychecks would be left out of any benefits provided by a payroll tax cut.
Harris-Sanders-Markey Cash Payment Proposal Would Dwarf Checks Sent Under the CARES Act
May 8, 2020 • By Steve Wamhoff
Sens. Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Edward Markey released a proposal to provide a monthly payment of $2,000 for each member of a household (including up to three dependents), with benefits phased out at income levels starting at $200,000 for married couples. The proposal is partly a response to concerns that one-time cash payments under the CARES Act, which amount to $1,200 ($2,400 for married couples) and $500 for each child under age 17, are not sufficient to help families make ends meet or boost the economy.
ITEP: White House Seeks to Exploit COVID-19 Crisis to Enact Unpopular Tax Cuts
May 6, 2020 • By Amy Hanauer
Following is a statement by Amy Hanauer, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding the Trump administration’s musings to respond to the COVID-19 health and economic crisis with tax cuts.
Trump’s Latest Tax Break Proposals Include Everything—Except Helping Regular People
May 6, 2020 • By Steve Wamhoff
None of the tax proposals considered by the administration would provide help to those who need it or do much, if anything, to boost investment.
Trump’s Payroll Tax Cut Makes Even Less Sense as Job Losses Mount
May 5, 2020 • By Steve Wamhoff
Last August, long before COVID-19 ravaged the U.S. economy, the Trump Administration began touting a payroll tax cut as a stimulus. Now, with more than 30 million official unemployment claims and projections that the jobless rate could grow to Depression-era levels, the White House is claiming that a payroll tax cut is the best way […]
The Price We Pay for Amazon in Its Prime
May 5, 2020 • By Matthew Gardner
There is every reason to believe that Amazon will continue its tax-avoidance ways in 2020. The entirely-legal tax avoidance tools the company used to zero out its federal income tax bills over the last three years remain entirely legal today. From accelerated depreciation to the research and development tax credit to the deduction for executive stock options, Amazon’s tax avoidance tools have been blessed by lawmakers, and presidents, of all stripes.
Intended Consequences: Deliberate Disinvestment Caused Florida’s Unemployment Disaster
May 4, 2020 • By Stephanie Clegg
Florida politicians deliberately rigged the unemployment system after the Great Recession to avoid raising taxes on businesses. Now, in a pandemic, some out-of-work residents are left waiting more than six weeks for unemployment benefits while more than 280,000 others have been inexplicably denied. What’s happening in Florida underscores deeper challenges with systems that should help those in need, but instead are designed to fail them.
Two Pandemics, Separate and Unequal
May 1, 2020 • By Jenice Robinson
COVID-19 has revealed a policy apparatus that reflexively prioritizes those who need it least, a wholly inadequate safety net, an underfunded public health infrastructure, and an inefficient national health stockpile. If the nation stays this course, it will make only cosmetic restorations to a shoddily built house.
New Mexico Voices for Children: Essential But Excluded
April 30, 2020 • By ITEP Staff
Immigrants pay taxes and are important contributors to New Mexico’s economy. Nationwide, immigrants pay hundreds of billions of dollars in federal, state, and local income and other taxes. New Mexico immigrants – both legal residents and those who are undocumented – contribute more than $996 million in federal, state, and local taxes that help support […]
Community Change: End the Tax Penalty Against Immigrant Workers
April 30, 2020 • By ITEP Staff
The Earned Income Tax Credit is a powerful path out of poverty in America, but millions of immigrant households are barred from receiving it, even though they would otherwise qualify based on their work and earnings. Allowing all working families who qualify to receive the credits they earn would strengthen all communities and boost the […]
Economic Catastrophe in States Looms as Federal Relief Lags
April 29, 2020 • By Amy Hanauer
A bipartisan group of governors and senators from Louisiana to Maryland to Ohio have called for at least $500 billion in state and local fiscal relief. They also need specific help with testing, protective equipment, unemployment costs, Medicaid costs, social services, education and infrastructure. States can’t be on their own as they address the double whammy of plunging revenue and skyrocketing needs.
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