Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

ITEP's Research Priorities

The Real News Network: How Dismantling an Obscure Tax Created an American Aristocracy

October 22, 2018

Republicans’ decades-long efforts to gut the estate tax is creating a permanent ultra-rich class, and undermining the government’s ability to pay for popular programs like Social Security and Medicare. 

Christian Science Monitor: A New Candidate Class: Schoolteachers Running For Office

October 22, 2018

North Carolina, one of six states where teachers held strikes before school let out last spring, “is an example of how lawmakers have prioritized tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy over public services,” says Meg Wiehe, deputy director of the Washington, DC-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, and a North Carolina resident. “The big tax-cutting spree started here in 2013, and they’ve continued cutting.”

Idaho Statesman: Poor Idahoans Pay Largest Share of Taxes, Study Finds

October 22, 2018

Low-income Idahoans were hit hardest by property and sales taxes, ITEP reported. The lowest-earning segment spent 3.3 percent of income on property tax and 6 percent of income on sales and excise taxes (the latter are sometimes known as “sin taxes”).

Tulsa World: Political Notebook: Report Says Oklahoma’s State and Local Taxes Among the Most Regressive in the Nation

October 21, 2018

Oklahoma’s state and local taxes are among the most regressive in the country, according to a report released last week by the Institute on Taxation and Policy.

KTVB: Idaho Tax Analysis

October 20, 2018

Study finds lower income Idahoans paying higher tax rates than those with higher incomes.

CPPP: The Staggering Unfairness of Our State Tax System

October 19, 2018

Here’s one way to think about it: Families at the top of the income ladder receive 20 percent of all personal income in Texas, but pay only 8.5 percent of all state and local taxes. Families at the bottom of the scale receive only three percent of all income, but pay 5.7 percent of all taxes.

WVTF: Study: State Taxes Have Disproportionate Impact On Lower Income Virginians

October 19, 2018

Virginians who make the least amount of money pay 40 percent more taxes as a percent of their income than the wealthiest Virginians. That’s according to a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which says Virginia’s tax code is upside down.

WOWK TV: Tax Issues in West Virginia

October 19, 2018

WOWK TV - Sean O'Leary, of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, talks to Mark Curtis about a new report that shows there's room improve West Virginia's upside-down tax system.

FOX13 SLC: Middle Income Utahns Bear Brunt of State and Local Tax Burden

October 19, 2018

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released a report showing how every state and the District of Columbia use tax policy in regressive and progressive ways. Their conclusion: all but five states and the District of Columbia have regressive systems, meaning they favor the wealthy over middle and/or low-income earners.

Governing: The Week in Public Finance: Most States’ Tax Systems Worsen Income Inequality

October 19, 2018

Some people pay more than their fair share of taxes -- and it’s not the rich. According to a new report by the progressive-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), the lowest-income households pay 50 percent more, on average, of their income in state and local taxes than the wealthiest. That leads to worsening inequality in four out of every five states. “While state and local taxes can’t eliminate income inequality, well-designed systems can help lessen the problem,” says Meg Wiehe, ITEP’s deputy director. “Meanwhile, it’s clear that steeply regressive systems only make it worse.”

Eagle Pass Business Journal: Report: Low-Income Taxpayers Pay Most in Connecticut

October 19, 2018

The report, by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and Connecticut Voices for Children, found the state’s lowest-income earners pay 41 percent more of their income in taxes than wealthier residents. According to Jamie Mills, director of fiscal policy and economic inclusion at Children’s Voices of Connecticut, taken as a whole the tax system in the Nutmeg State is upside down – because, as in many other states, the tax on personal income is only part of total tax revenue.

Florida Phoenix: New Study Says Florida Has the 3rd Most Unfair State and Local Tax System in US

October 19, 2018

Florida is the third largest state in the country, and according to a new report, has the third-most unfair state and local tax system in the U.S. That data comes from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a nonpartisan, nonprofit tax policy organization.

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Lawmakers Want Working People to Foot the Bill for Top-Heavy Tax Cuts

October 18, 2018 • By ITEP Staff

Lawmakers Want Working People to Foot the Bill for Top-Heavy Tax Cuts

Earlier this week, the Treasury Department reported that the federal deficit this fiscal year climbed by 17 percent to $779 billion, and next year is expected to be at least $1 trillion. The increased deficit comes after Congress last December passed an unpopular tax cut (The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act) that will cost nearly $2 trillion over a decade. GOP leaders repeatedly claimed the measure would pay for itself and not increase annual deficits, in spite of multiple economic predictions to the contrary.

New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute: Report Shows Higher Effective Tax Rates for Residents with Low Incomes

October 18, 2018

Most New Hampshire residents with lower incomes pay a higher percentage of the money they earn in state and local taxes than residents with higher incomes do. In a new report released yesterday, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy conducted evaluations of state and local government tax systems in each of the 50 states and modeled their impacts on non-elderly residents. The report concludes that 45 states have tax systems that ask a greater percentage of the incomes of those with low earnings than those with the highest incomes.

Chicago Tribune: A Key Issue in Illinois Governor Race — Gov. Bruce Rauner, J.B. Pritzker Have Very Different Plans for State Income Tax

October 18, 2018

Last year, state lawmakers raised income taxes and ended the state’s two-year budget impasse over the passionate objections and veto of Rauner. At the time, the governor called the move “another step in Illinois’ never-ending tragic trail of tax hikes.”

Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: New Report Shows Kentucky’s Tax System Worsens Income Inequality

October 18, 2018

In Kentucky, the income inequality that exists between our poorest and wealthiest residents is magnified by the structure of our tax system. And thanks to the new tax law enacted by the 2018 General Assembly, that problem is getting worse.

West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy: West Virginia’s Upside Down Tax System Grows Inequality

October 18, 2018

State and local tax systems can be effectively used to boost economic opportunity, create broadly shared prosperity and build equitable state economies. But in most states, including West Virginia, tax systems are upside down and are making inequality worse, as a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows.

U.S. News and World Report: Study: Residents With Lower Incomes Pay a Higher Effective Tax Rate

October 18, 2018

States and localities are filling their coffers by disproportionately burdening lower-income residents, who are taxed at a higher effective rate than top earners, according to a study released Wednesday by a tax policy group. The 50-state analysis by the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that the lower one's income, the higher the effective overall state and local tax rate. The study includes sales taxes, excise taxes, user fees and income taxes. In fact, states which boast low income taxes are often the most likely to have systems that end up shifting the fiscal burden to lower-income residents,…

Associated Press: Kansas Governor’s Race is Referendum on Notorious Tax Cuts

October 18, 2018

The argument over taxes is likely to dominate the campaign’s final weeks; it is playing out in television ads and was a persistent theme Tuesday. Tax cuts appeal to voters in a GOP-leaning state like Kansas, but the fiscal problems that followed Brownback’s tax experiment made Kansas a memorable cautionary tale across the U.S. “It’s […]

The Pitt News: Editorial: Riding High: United States Should Follow Canada’s Pot Legalization

October 18, 2018

“We don’t know the size of the marijuana market right now,” Carl Davis, senior analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy told The Huffington Post. “But we do know that legalization would lead to a positive revenue impact on the income and sales tax side.”

Seattle Met: Report: Washington State Taxes Are Still the Most Inequitable in the Country

October 18, 2018

In Washington state, the less money you make, the larger your percentage of income goes toward taxes. A study from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released on Wednesday concludes that Washington state still has the most regressive taxes in the U.S., meaning the poorest households pay a disproportionate amount of taxes compared to the richest households in the state.

Bloomberg: States Could Feel Conservative Tax Pinch Even If Blue Wave Wins

October 18, 2018

Opponents say such restrictions are a recipe for political paralysis or deep budget cuts the next time the economy lapses into a recession. "It restricts future lawmakers -- even next year or in five years or ten years -- from making fiscally responsible decisions," said Meg Wiehe, deputy director of the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. "Whoever is in charge of the state should be able to make decisions that are best for the state at that time."

NJ Spotlight: New Jersey’s Tax System Ranked Among Fairest in the Country

October 18, 2018

A report on the fairness of state and local tax policy that was released yesterday by the Washington, D.C.-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy ranked New Jersey among the U.S. states with the most equitable tax systems. Read more

Message-Inquirer: Tax Study Explores ‘Who Pays?’ in Kentucky

October 18, 2018

A new study from a national economic policy research group suggests Kentucky’s tax structure has become less equitable since the last General Assembly's tax reform legislation, putting more tax obligation on poor and middle-class Kentuckians.

The Atlantic: Kamala Harris’s Trump-Size Tax Plan

October 18, 2018

An analysis of Harris’s proposal by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy finds it to be roughly the same size as the Trump tax cuts. But the average family in the bottom income quintile will see $100 in benefits from Trump’s tax initiative as of 2019, with the average family in the middle getting $800 in benefits and $55,190 for those in in the top 1 percent. In contrast, Harris’s legislation would have families in the bottom and middle of the income distribution benefit by $2,000 on average, with no effect on those at the top.