Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

ITEP's Research Priorities

Capital and Main: Two Years Later: What Has Trump’s Tax Law Delivered?

January 6, 2020

Promise: “We’re also going to eliminate tax breaks and complex loopholes taken advantage [of] by the wealthy.” – President Trump, November 29, 2017. Reality: The law kept tax loopholes in place and added new ones, including for the commercial real estate industry and wealthy heirs. In 2018, a group of the most profitable corporations paid an effective tax rate […]

Public News Service: Report: Many Big Companies Pay Nothing Under New Tax Law

January 3, 2020

HELENA, Mont. – During the first year of the Trump administration’s new tax law, 91 Fortune 500 companies didn’t pay a dime in federal income tax. That’s according to a new study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Report co-author and Policy Analyst at the Institute Lorena Roque says by using legal loopholes, corporations […]

Public News Service: Will WA Lawmakers Tackle Tax Fairness in 2020?

January 3, 2020

How can Washington state create a more just society in 2020? Two experts say the state should tax its way toward that goal. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy ranks Washington last in the nation in terms of tax-system fairness, with low-income residents shouldering the biggest tax burden as a portion of their income. Katie Baird, […]

Common Dreams: Eight Ways the Trump-GOP Tax Cuts Have Made the Rich Richer While Failing Working Families

January 3, 2020

Within the Fortune 500, 91 profitable corporations—such as Amazon, FedEx, Netflix and General Motors—paid no U.S. corporate income taxes in 2018, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. And 379 profitable Fortune 500 corporations paid just an 11.3 percent tax rate last year. That’s about half the rate established under Trump’s tax law, which […]

Mother Jones: Chevron Made $4.5 Billion in 2018. So Why Did the IRS Give Them a Refund?

January 3, 2020

The largest chunk of Chevron’s $1.1 billion in tax breaks came in the form of tax deferral, a longstanding tax instrument that enables businesses to postpone paying taxes until a later fiscal year—sometimes indefinitely. Tax deferral is not new, but by lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent, Trump’s tax law made […]

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Industry Had Highest Federal Income Tax Rates in 2018

January 3, 2020

A big driver of the higher taxes in healthcare is a doomed Affordable Care Act fee on health insurers. The amount each insurer pays is based on premium revenue. President Donald Trump in late December signed a spending bill repealing that tax in 2021 and beyond. “It’s just one weird example that there is an industry-specific tax […]

Salon: Under Trump’s Tax Bill, Employees Pay Higher Rates Than Biggest Corporations in the World: Study

January 3, 2020

Workers at some of the biggest corporations in the world are paying higher tax rates than their employers, according to a new study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The Republican-passed tax cuts signed by President Trump in 2017 permanently lowered the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent but many […]

Workday Minnesota: Dozens of Big Businesses Avoided Corporate Taxes in 2018

January 2, 2020

Roque said corporate tax cuts and loopholes have been enacted by Congresses and presidents of both major parties for the past two decades. Champions of the new tax code argued that lowering corporate rates would lead to increased investments and higher wages, and would increase federal revenues by removing tax shelters. Outside of a few […]

Los Angeles Times: Opinion: The Trump Tax Cut Has Amounted to Nothing but Broken Promises for the Middle Class

January 1, 2020

Thanks to loopholes and the cut itself, tax collections from corporations in the first year of the new law collapsed. ITEP found that the effective corporate tax rate for 379 profitable Fortune 500 corporations was just 11.3% last year. That’s about half the rate Trump’s new law established, which slashed the previous rate by 40%. […]

VTDigger: Report: Vermont Economic Divide Is Growing Larger

December 31, 2019

Vermont taxes are relatively progressive, the report said, noting that the state was one of five singled out by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in 2018 for systems that “do not worsen income inequality.” But federal tax policy — including policy set well before the Trump administration — has been more regressive, disproportionately […]

Counter Point: Trump-GOP Tax Law Ushers in Lowest Corporate Tax Rates in 30 Years

December 30, 2019

Matthew Gardner reveals that “Fortune 500 companies Avoided $73.9 Billion in Tax Under First Year of Trump Tax Law.” Listen

The Hill: Opinion: It’s Time for the Senate to Advance Cannabis Banking Reform

December 27, 2019

According to data compiled by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, tax revenues from adult-use marijuana sales in 2018 topped over $1 billion. Also, 33 states regulate the retail sale of medicinal cannabis products and formulations to qualified patients. Read more

MSNBC: The Last Work: The Trump Tax Cuts & Corporations

December 26, 2019

A new report has data on how the Trump tax cuts helped many profitable big companies pay less in federal income taxes- and some pay none at all. Pulitzer Prize-winning tax reporter David Cay Johnston and John Harwood discuss with Ayman Mohyeldin. Watch

Public News Service: 91 Corporations Paid Zero Tax in First Year of New Code

December 26, 2019

LINCOLN, Neb. — During the first year of the Trump administration’s new tax law, 91 Fortune 500 companies didn’t pay a dime in federal income tax, according to a new study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy… Roque says outside of a few one-time bonuses, wages for most workers have not gone up, and most companies […]

MSNBC: Two Years Later, the Republican Tax Plan Still Looks Like a Failure

December 23, 2019

Indeed, it was just a couple of weeks ago when the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released the results of a detailed study that found of the Fortune 500 companies, about 400 paid an average tax rate of about 11% – roughly half of the current rate of 21% – thanks to a series […]

The Hill: Conservative Commentator Rips Trump’s Signature Tax Overhaul: ‘It Was a Big Mistake’

December 23, 2019

Conservative commentator Johnny Burtka ripped President Trump’s 2017 tax law in light of a new report that found that some of the most profitable companies in the U.S. didn’t pay any taxes last year as a result of the legislation. Upon signing the bill into law, Trump hailed it as a major boon for the economy, adding […]

Bloomberg Law: Small Retailers Face More Marketplace Taxes This Holiday Season

December 23, 2019

Tax responsibilities tied to those sales will be noticeable this year: 28 states have added taxes on out-of-state sellers since last holiday season due to last year’s Wayfair decision, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more

Public News Service: Corporate Tax Avoidance Continues Under New Code

December 23, 2019

“These companies aren’t simply following the law; in many cases, they wrote the law,” Gardner said. “These corporate tax cuts were enacted because of a very aggressive lobbying strategy by the business community.” Read more / Listen here

The Hill: Two years in, Trump Tax Cuts Face Big Test with Reelection Bid

December 22, 2019

Several of the top Democratic presidential candidates this past week highlighted on Twitter and during Thursday’s debate a report from the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that found that 91 profitable Fortune 500 companies didn’t pay federal income taxes on their 2018 U.S. income. Read more

Quartz: Two Years into Trump’s Tax Cut, the Results Are Not Promising

December 22, 2019

Despite what the Democrats claimed, most people did actually pay less tax. But the wealthy got a far bigger cut than the rest of society, according to various studies. Next year, the richest 20% of taxpayers will save more than double the amount of taxes than the remaining 80% of earners combined—and the top 1% […]

POLITICO: SALT as Spicy

December 20, 2019

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) gave what seemed like a truncated stump speech in defense of her tax ideas, which center on the wealth tax, in response to a question about whether those proposals would drag down growth. The billionaire investor Tom Steyer noted his support of a wealth tax, too. The winner of the debate from the […]

report  

Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s Proposed EITC Expansion

December 19, 2019 • By ITEP Staff

Mayor Pete Buttigieg's proposal An Economic Agenda for American Families: Empowering Working and Middle Class Americans to Thrive would expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) as modeled by the Working Families Tax Relief Act.

blog  

Corporate Tax Avoidance Is Mostly Legal—and That’s the Problem

December 19, 2019 • By Steve Wamhoff

Corporate Tax Avoidance Is Mostly Legal—and That’s the Problem

As usual, corporate spokespersons and their allies are trying to push back against ITEP’s latest study showing that many corporations pay little or nothing in federal income taxes. One way they respond is by stating that everything they do is perfectly legal. This is an attempt by the corporate world to change the subject. The entire point of ITEP’s study is that Congress has allowed corporations to avoid paying taxes, and that this must change.

Center for American Progress: The TCJA 2 Years Later: Corporations, Not Workers, Are the Big Winners

December 19, 2019

Researchers at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) surveyed corporate financial reports for the first year that the TCJA was in effect and recently published their findings. Examining 379 profitable Fortune 500 companies, they found that the companies paid an average effective tax rate of just 11.3 percent on their U.S. income in 2018—slightly more than […]

Washington Post: The Finance 202: Conservative Economists Say Trump’s Promises About His Tax Cuts Did Not Come True

December 19, 2019

A new report by the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found 91 corporations in the Fortune 500 paid no federal taxes last year. And about 400 of the largest firms paid an average tax rate of 11 percent, half the burden prescribed by the tax law. Read more