Alex Welch – Page 53

ITEP Work in Action February 11, 2019
MassBudget: Why Highest Incomes in Massachusetts Receive Most Tax Benefits from Charitable Deduction

Our Commonwealth does best when all people experience rising prosperity. But for several decades, the wealth and income of the top 1 percent of households has grown briskly while others…
blog February 11, 2019
A Tale of Two States: How State Tax Systems Perpetuate Income Inequality

To explain how state tax systems make income inequality worse, we compared tax systems in New Jersey and Texas which, before taxes, have similar levels of income inequality. This comparison provides an example of how policymakers’ decisions affect the economic wellbeing of their constituents.
blog February 7, 2019
Trends We’re Watching in 2019

This year is full of opportunity for state policymakers and advocates seeking to improve upside-down tax systems and generate needed funding for shared priorities. In a series of blog posts, ITEP staff summarize key trends we are watching in statehouses this year, with special attention to the many efforts underway to reduce racial and economic inequities and better prepare state budgets for the next recession and reduced federal investments. Along the way, we’ll also draw attention to some of the more destructive policy ideas to watch for in 2019.
blog February 7, 2019
Trends We’re Watching in 2019: Attempting to Double Down on Failed Trickle-Down Regressive Tax Cuts

It’s always troubling for those concerned with adequate and fair public finance systems when states prioritize tax cuts at the cost of divesting in important public priorities and exacerbating underlying tax inequalities. But it’s even more nerve-racking when it happens on the eve of what many consider to be an inevitable economic downturn.
blog February 7, 2019
Trends We’re Watching in 2019: Consumption Taxes: the Good, Bad and the Ugly

Consumption taxes are a significant source of state and local revenue, and we expect that lawmakers will continue to adjust state consumption tax levies to adapt to budget needs and a changing economy.
blog February 7, 2019
Trends We’re Watching in 2019: Cannabis Tax Implementation and Reform

Few areas of state tax policy have evolved as rapidly as cannabis taxation over the last few years. The first legal, taxable sale of recreational cannabis in modern U.S. history did not occur until 2014. Now, just five years later, a new ITEP report estimates that recreational cannabis is generating more than $1 billion annually in excise tax revenues and $300 million more in general sales tax dollars.
blog February 7, 2019
Trends We’re Watching in 2019: Addressing Lingering Federal Conformity Questions and Opportunities

In our last update on state responses to the federal tax cut (Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or TCJA), we noted that several states were waiting until 2019 to make their final decisions, giving them additional time to (hopefully) respond in ways that improve their fiscal situations and upside-down tax codes. The TCJA is affecting the 2018 federal taxes people are filing now, in some cases adding urgency and/or confusion to these debates.
blog February 7, 2019
Trends We’re Watching in 2019: Raising Revenue and Spending Surpluses to Prioritize Critical Public Investments

A second notable trend in 2019 is states raising revenue to address longstanding needs and states allocating their surpluses to invest in critical public priorities such as early childhood programs, education and other human services.
blog February 7, 2019
Trends We’re Watching in 2019: The Use of Targeted Tax Breaks to Help Address Poverty and Inequality

Continuing to build upon the momentum of previous years, states are taking steps to create and improve targeted tax breaks meant to lift their most in-need state residents up and out of poverty. Most notably, a range of states are exploring ways to restore, enhance or create state Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC). EITCs are an effective tool to help struggling families with low wages make ends meet and provide necessities for their children. The policy, designed to bolster the earnings of low-wage workers and offset some of the taxes they pay, allows struggling families to move toward meaningful economic security. Lawmakers and advocates for equitable tax policy recognize the value of these credits and are taking steps to reflect that in their state tax codes in the following ways:
ITEP Work in Action February 6, 2019
Maine Center for Economic Policy: To Fund Shared Prosperity, We Must End LePage-Era Tax Cuts for the Wealthiest

For years under Gov. Paul LePage, budget-busting tax cuts robbed our state of the revenue we need to build a stronger, fairer economy. Tax cuts delivered windfalls to the wealthiest…
February 6, 2019
Shared Prosperity: A Progressive Approach to Marginal Tax Rates

Panel: In recent years, economists have been engaged in robust academic debate over the top marginal tax rate, with leading researchers estimating the optimal rate to be 73 percent or even higher. Yet despite widespread public support for raising the rate from its current level of 37 percent, many policymakers and media figures have demonstrated misunderstandings over what marginal tax rates are and how they work.
blog February 5, 2019
New ITEP Report Shows How Congress Can Meet Public Demand for Progressive Taxes

A recent headline tells us that bold tax plans proposed by lawmakers today reflect a “profound shift in public mood.” But, in fact, the public’s mood has not changed at all. Americans have long wanted progressive taxes but few, if any, lawmakers publicly backed this view. What’s happening now isn’t a shift in public opinion, rather it’s Washington finally catching up with the American people.
ITEP Work in Action February 5, 2019
Wrong Priorities: It Doesn’t Make Sense to Give a Tax Cut to the Rich While Arizona Asks Children in Public Schools to Wait

Arizona stands to gain $130 million to $230 million in General Fund revenues if it conforms the Arizona tax code to the federal tax changes enacted in 2017. Rather than directing those additional revenues to better prepare for the next economic downturn or toward increased investments in our public schools, SB1143 and HB2522 will direct the additional revenues toward a tax cut that will benefit the wealthiest Arizonans.
ITEP Work in Action February 5, 2019
Montana Budget & Policy Center: House Bill 300: Sales Tax Proposal Makes Montana’s Taxes More Regressive and Reduces State Revenue

Replacing property taxes with a sales tax is both impractical and unfair for Montana families. HB 300 would make Montana’s tax system more regressive, increasing the taxes paid by families…
report February 5, 2019
Progressive Revenue-Raising Options

America has long needed a more equitable tax code that raises enough revenue to invest in building shared prosperity. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), enacted at the end of 2017, moved the federal tax code in the opposite direction, reducing revenue by $1.9 trillion over a decade, opening new loopholes, and providing its most significant benefits to the well-off. The law cut taxes on the wealthy directly by reducing their personal income taxes and estate taxes, and indirectly by reducing corporate taxes.
blog February 1, 2019
Senator Sanders Proposes to Reform the Estate Tax

Progressive tax proposals are finally being discussed with the urgency and seriousness they deserve. Following Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s call for a much higher marginal tax rate for multi-millionaires and Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s proposal to introduce a wealth tax for those at the very top, Sen. Bernie Sanders has introduced a revised version of his proposal to reform the federal estate tax.
report February 1, 2019
Congress Should Reduce, Not Expand, Tax Breaks for Capital Gains

Even though income derived from capital gains receives a special lower tax rate and is therefore undertaxed, some proponents of lower taxes on the wealthy claim that capital gains are overtaxed due to the effects of inflation. But existing tax breaks for capital gains more than compensate for any problem related to inflation. Congress should repeal or restrict special tax provisions for capital gains rather than creating even more breaks.
ITEP Work in Action January 31, 2019
Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families: Tax Cut Bill Filed: Plan Revised But Not Fixed

An analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows that the benefits of this proposal are even more heavily skewed towards the richest taxpayers than the previous…
blog January 30, 2019
Data for the Win: Advocating for Equitable State and Local Tax Policy (Webinar)

Watch the video recording below for discussion on how ITEP’s distributional data can be part of an advocacy and communications strategy for securing state tax policies that raise enough revenue to fund various priorities. Outline includes a brief overview of findings from the sixth edition of Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States as well as insight from state advocates who use Who Pays? and other tax policy analyses research to pursue their legislative agendas.
blog January 24, 2019
Yes, It’s Time to Talk about Progressive Taxes, Even a Wealth Tax

Earlier today, several news organizations reported that Sen. Elizabeth Warren is set to formally propose a federal wealth tax. Immediately after, social media was atwitter with comments that ranged from praise to predictable outcries of how will the wealthy cope if forced to pay more in taxes.
ITEP Work in Action January 24, 2019
West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy: Fixing the Social Security Tax Bill with a Bottom-Up Tax Cut for Working Families

The fact that so few West Virginians pay income tax on their Social Security benefits should tell us that this is not a middle-class tax cut. As the graph and…
ITEP Work in Action January 24, 2019
Law360: Montana Mulls Statewide Sales Tax To Replace Property Taxes

Montana could become the first state in the nation to eliminate residential and commercial property taxes in exchange for creating a new 2.5 percent statewide sales tax…
ITEP Work in Action January 23, 2019
NC Policy Watch: Report: Corporations Are Stiffing North Carolina on $373 Million in State Taxes

It turns out that state leaders can ensure that companies pay the proper amount of taxes on income generated from business conducted in their jurisdictions, but existing tax codes at…
report January 23, 2019
The U.S. Needs a Federal Wealth Tax

A federal wealth tax on the richest 0.1 percent of Americans is a viable approach for Congress to raise revenue and is one of the few approaches that could truly address rising inequality. As this report explains, an annual federal tax of only 1 percent on the portion of any taxpayer’s net worth exceeding the threshold for belonging to the wealthiest 0.1 percent (likely to be about $32.2 million in 2020) could raise $1.3 trillion over a decade.
blog January 23, 2019
Thoughts about a Federal Wealth Tax and How It Could Raise Revenue, Address Income Inequality

Wealth inequality is much greater than income inequality. The 1 percent of Americans with the highest incomes receive about a fifth of the total income in the United States. In contrast, the top 1 percent of wealth holders in the United States own 42 percent of the nation’s wealth, according to estimates from University of California at Berkley economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman.

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