Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

ITEP's Research Priorities

SegmentNext: Activision Taxes Were $0 In 2018, Gamers Paid $228 Million Instead

December 19, 2019

According to ITEP, some of the other companies that are avoiding income tax include Amazon, the energy company Chevron, Delta Airlines, General Motors, and many others. Activision is just one out of a list of 60 overall companies that are doing it. Read more

WTSP: Impeachment 101: Answering Your Questions on the Impeachment Process

December 19, 2019

QUESTION: How much money is the impeachment process costing taxpayers? ANSWER: We don’t know. There have been a handful of efforts to try and calculate the cost to taxpayers, but it’s complicated when looking at staff hours spent on impeachment because staff would have been paid their salaries regardless. “I don’t know of anyone who […]

Roll Call: House Passes Restored ‘SALT’ Deduction Bill

December 19, 2019

It’s not just the White House and Republicans who were critical of the bill. Left-leaning groups including the Center for American Progress, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy have all panned the measure as tilted to the rich and a waste of an offset that could be used to […]

Forbes: The Incredible Shrinking Corporate Tax Rate Continues to Hit New Lows for These Business Giants

December 19, 2019

Remember how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 lowered the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% but was going to eliminate loopholes and workarounds to avoid being one giant giveaway to large companies? Well, about that—a funny thing happened on the way to the U.S. Treasury. The biggest corporations enjoyed an average effective tax rate […]

Washington Post: House Narrowly Passes Bill That Would Restore SALT Tax Benefits to Higher-income Americans

December 19, 2019

“This mostly benefits rich people,” Steve Wamhoff, a tax analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a left-leaning think tank, said of repealing the SALT cap. “There’s a disconnect here: Many Democrats understand we have to raise more money to make the tax code more progressive,” Wamhoff said. “But this proposal, taken […]

Denton Daily: Amazon Will Pay $0 in Federal Taxes This Year — and It’s Partially Thanks to Trump

December 18, 2019

One reason for Amazon‘s nonexistent federal tax bill is the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that Congress enacted in 2017, which lowered the statutory corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. In addition to the lower tax rates for corporations, the new tax law also “failed to … close a slew of tax […]

Environmental Working Group: Duke Energy Paid Less Than Zero in Federal Taxes

December 18, 2019

In a new report on the impact of President Trump’s tax cuts, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, or ITEP, said Duke Energy’s effective federal tax rate in 2018 was minus 21.4 percent on more than $3 billion in revenue. In effect, U.S. taxpayers paid $647 million to the North Carolina-based utility, which serves 7.7 million customers in […]

NJ Biz: Four NJ Companies Paid $0 in 2018 Corporate Taxes, ITEP Report Finds

December 18, 2019

This week, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released a report examining 2018 financial filings for 379 profitable Fortune 500 companies that year – the first full year since President Donald Trump’s signing of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017. The “Corporate Tax Avoidance in the First Year of the Trump Tax Law” […]

CBS News: Hundreds of Companies Saw Tax Rate Plunge to 11.3% under Trump Tax Reform

December 18, 2019

The study, from the progressive Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, reviewed financial filings for Fortune 500 companies, finding 379 corporations that reported profits in 2018 and that also provided enough data to calculate their “effective” tax rates, meaning after deductions are factored in. Last year was the first full year that the new tax […]

Common Dreams: New Report Details How Trump Tax Scam ‘Delivered Big Benefits to the Rich and Corporations But Nearly None for Working Families’

December 18, 2019

Still Terrible at Two was published just a day after the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released a new report which found that more than 90 U.S. corporations on the Fortune 500 list effectively did not pay any federal income taxes last year. As Common Dreams reported Monday, Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at ITEP and the report’s […]

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For the Holiday Wishlist: Child Tax Credit Improvements That Would Lift Millions Out of Poverty

December 18, 2019 • By Aidan Davis

For the Holiday Wishlist: Child Tax Credit Improvements That Would Lift Millions Out of Poverty

A recent New York Times article serves as a stark reminder that child poverty remains a persistent problem in this country and that the policies we have in place to help this vulnerable population need immediate attention and improvement.

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Why Corporate Tax Avoidance Matters

December 18, 2019 • By Lorena Roque

Why Corporate Tax Avoidance Matters

Corporate tax avoidance boosts companies’ bottom lines, and this benefits the owners of corporate stocks, which are mostly concentrated in the hands of the well-off. The cost of corporate tax dodging is borne by everyone, in several different ways.

Bloomberg Tax: HILL TAX BRIEFING: Extenders, Tax Law Fixes Make Year-End Deal

December 17, 2019

Corporate Tax Bills: Profitable U.S. companies in 2018 paid an average effective tax rate of 11.3%, far lower than the statutory 21% rate, according to a report released yesterday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Nearly 100 companies, including Amazon.com Inc., didn’t pay federal income taxes on their 2018 U.S. income, according to the report. Read […]

Democracy Now!: Report: 91 Fortune 500 Companies Effectively Paid No Federal Taxes in 2018

December 17, 2019

A new study reveals how 91 of the Fortune 500 companies effectively paid no federal taxes in 2018. The study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows how Amazon, Starbucks, Chevron, Duke Energy, Halliburton and others paid an effective federal tax rate of zero percent or less. Link

Bloomberg Tax: Tax Perk to Boost Investment May Work—For Small Businesses

December 17, 2019

The 2017 tax law allowed businesses to use full expensing, or 100% bonus depreciation, for both new and used assets, a benefit that begins phasing out in 2023. Republicans heralded it as a provision that would lead to a flood of new business investment that would buoy economic growth. But some say it incentivizes investment […]

Washington Examiner: Amazon, Netflix, and Starbucks Paid $0 in 2018 Federal Income Taxes

December 16, 2019

A new study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that many of America’s largest corporations paid $0 in federal income taxes under the first year of President Trump’s tax law in 2018. Notable corporations in the study included Amazon, Netflix, Starbucks, Delta, Halliburton, and General Motors. Read more

Yahoo Finance: 91 Profitable Fortune 500 Companies Paid $0 in Taxes in 2018 under Trump’s Tax Law

December 16, 2019

Matthew Gardner, senior fellow at ITEP and lead author of the report says that what companies doing is “entirely legal”, but that they can avoid paying taxes thanks to tax breaks. “A whole host of tax breaks in the code collectively have this pernicious effect,” Gardner said. But he added, though legal, “this doesn’t exonerate […]

Des Moines Register: Richest Iowans Saw Most of the Benefit from 2017 Tax Cuts, Study Finds

December 16, 2019

No group in Iowa benefits more from the 2017 federal tax cuts than the wealthiest 1%, according to a new research paper from the left-leaning Iowa Policy Project. With an average annual income of $1 million, each member of that group receives tax cuts worth about $35,000 a year. In all, they receive a quarter of the total […]

The American Independent: 91 Major US Companies Paid Zero Federal Taxes Last Year Thanks to the GOP Tax Law

December 16, 2019

A total of 91 of the largest companies in the United States paid zero dollars in federal income taxes in 2018 under the tax law passed by Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress. A new analysis released by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) on Monday found that Fortune 500 companies were able […]

Tulsa World: 91 Big Companies Paid No Federal Taxes Last Year. And Others Paid Less Than New, Lower Rates for Firms

December 16, 2019

“Profitable American corporations in 2018 collectively paid an average effective federal income tax rate of 11.3 percent on their 2018 income, barely more than half the 21 percent statutory tax rate,” said the report from Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more

Common Dreams: Amazon, Chevron, and Starbucks Among 91 Fortune 500 Corporations That Paid $0 in Federal Income Taxes in 2018: Report

December 16, 2019

More than 90 large, profitable corporations on the Fortune 500 list effectively did not pay a penny in federal income taxes in 2018, according to a new report published Monday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. ITEP examined financial filings from 379 Fortune 500 companies that reported a profit in 2018, the first year President […]

CNBC: These 91 Companies Paid No Federal Taxes in 2018

December 16, 2019

Nearly 100 Fortune 500 companies effectively paid no federal taxes in 2018, according to a new report. The report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank, covers the first year following the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act championed by President Donald Trump, which was signed into law in December 2017. Read more

Axios: 91 Fortune 500 Companies Paid No Federal Income Tax in 2018

December 16, 2019

91 Fortune 500 companies paid no federal income taxes on their U.S. income last year, according to a report released Monday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Why it matters: Some of the companies that paid no federal income tax last year still made billions of dollars — and they include some of the country’s biggest names, […]

Washington Post: Corporations Paid 11.3 Percent Tax Rate Last Year, in Steep Drop Under President Trump’s Law

December 16, 2019

About 400 of America’s largest corporations paid an average federal tax rate of about 11 percent on their profits last year, roughly half the official rate established under President Trump’s 2017 tax law, according to a report released Monday. The 2017 tax law lowered the U.S. corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, […]

Chicago Tribune: What Happens to the Weed Black Market when Recreational Marijuana Goes Legal Jan. 1? ‘I See It Opening the Door to More Clients,’ One Dealer Says.

December 16, 2019

Stores selling recreational marijuana will be allowed to operate between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., though operating hours vary by dispensary. Whether stores truly are convenient will depend on how many are allowed to open and where they can locate, said Carl Davis, research director at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. […]