• map   April 6, 2023

    What Income Tax Subsidies Do States Offer to Seniors?

    Every state with a personal income tax offers tax subsidies for seniors that are unavailable to younger taxpayers. The best academic research suggests that the median state asks senior citizens…
  • brief   March 30, 2023

    How Local Governments Raise Revenue—and What it Means for Tax Equity

    Most local tax systems are falling short of their potential. Well-structured local tax policies support communities by facilitating important investments and advancing fairness, but the tax revenue sources most utilized by local governments tend to disproportionately weigh on households with fewer resources. Learning from these realities can inform the path to improved tax policies and stronger communities.

  • blog   March 23, 2023

    State Rundown 3/23: A Spring Awakening of Tax Proposals

    As nature bursts into life and color with the arrival of spring, state tax proposals are doing the same as the legislative seeds planted by lawmakers earlier this year start to grow, blossom, and in some cases rot. However, some governors are not entirely happy with what state lawmakers have produced.

  • blog   March 23, 2023

    States Prioritize Old Over Young in Push for Larger Senior Tax Subsidies

    Under a well-designed income tax based on ability to pay, it is simply not necessary to offer special tax subsidies to older adults but not younger families. At the end of the day, your income tax bill should depend on what you can afford to pay, not the year you were born. It’s really as simple as that.

  • report   March 23, 2023

    State Income Tax Subsidies for Seniors

    State governments provide a wide array of tax subsidies to their older residents. But too many of these carveouts focus on predominately wealthy and white seniors, all while the cost climbs.

  • report   March 10, 2023

    Revenue-Raising Proposals in President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Plan

    President Biden’s latest budget proposal includes trillions of dollars of new revenue that would be paid by the richest Americans, both directly through increases in personal income, Medicare and estate taxes, and indirectly through increases in corporate income taxes.

  • blog   March 8, 2023

    President’s Budget Would Strengthen Medicare Taxes Paid by the Wealthy

    As part of his new budget plan, President Biden is asking the richest Americans to pay a little bit more to strengthen Medicare. The proposal includes raising taxes related to Medicare very slightly for the highest earners and closing a loophole that some wealthy individuals use to avoid Medicare taxes altogether.

  • map   March 7, 2023

    Which States Have Tax Cut Triggers or Phase-ins?

    In recent years, lawmakers have been quick to push for phased-in tax cuts or cuts attached to trigger mechanisms. These policy tools push the implementation of tax cuts outside of the current budget window with a predetermined phase-in schedule or a mathematical formula tied to state revenue trends.

  • brief   March 3, 2023

    Tax Avoidance Continues to Fuel School Privatization Efforts

    Wealthy families are overwhelmingly the ones using school voucher tax credits to opt out of paying for public education and other public services and to redirect their tax dollars to private and religious institutions instead. Most of these credits are being claimed by families with incomes over $200,000.

  • ITEP Work in Action   February 23, 2023

    Policy Matters Ohio: Speaker’s #1 priority – Tax cut for the rich

    One of Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens’ top-priority bills, House Bill 1, is a massive giveaway to the rich, and the first of two such proposals by leading Republicans in…
  • blog   February 13, 2023

    Biden Says the Stock Buyback Tax Should Be Higher. Here are Three Reasons Why He’s Right.

    A higher tax on stock buybacks would reduce the tax disparity between dividends and buybacks, raise more revenue for productive public investments, and recoup some of Trump’s corporate tax cuts that went to wealthy shareholders.

  • brief   February 13, 2023

    Higher Stock Buyback Tax Would Raise Billions by Tightening Loophole for the Wealthy

    A higher excise tax rate on buybacks is completely reasonable. Quadrupling the rate, as the President proposes, would raise more revenue and cut into the tax advantage buybacks have over dividends. When a company uses their cash holdings to repurchase their own stock, it is an admission that they have few productive investment opportunities. The public does have productive uses for the tax revenue like infrastructure and schools that create value for the entire economy.

  • blog   February 1, 2023

    By Fighting Audit Bias, Funding for Tax Enforcement Can Advance Racial Equity

    Black households are between 2.9 and 4.7 times more likely to be audited by the Internal Revenue Service than non-Black households. This disparity is driven in part but not wholly by a lack of resources at the IRS, which itself is driven by years of budget cuts the agency has faced.

  • blog   January 18, 2023

    State Lawmakers Should Break the 2023 Tax Cut Fever Before It’s Too Late

    Despite mixed economic signals for 2023, including a possible recession, many state lawmakers plan to use temporary budget surpluses to forge ahead with permanent, regressive tax cuts that would disproportionately benefit the wealthy at the expense of low- and middle-income households. These cuts would put state finances in a precarious position and further erode public investments in education, transportation and health, all of which are crucial for creating inclusive, vibrant communities where everyone, not just the rich, can achieve economic security and thrive. In the event of an economic downturn, these results would be accelerated and amplified.

  • blog   January 18, 2023

    Momentum Behind State Tax Credits for Workers and Families Continues in 2023

    Refundable tax credits are an important tool for improving family economic security and advancing racial equity, and there is incredible momentum heading into 2023 to boost two key state credits: the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit.

  • blog   January 17, 2023

    National Taxpayer Advocate: Infusion of New IRS Funding a ‘Gamechanger’ for Taxpayers

    A new report from the National Taxpayer Advocate – part of an independent oversight arm inside the IRS – found that the agency struggled in 2022 with timely processing of tax returns and refunds, responding to taxpayer correspondence quickly, and answering phone calls. It expects these issues to improve in 2023, thanks in part to the influx of $80 billion in new funding from last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, which the Advocate’s office calls a “gamechanger” for Americans.

  • blog   January 13, 2023

    GAO Report Confirms: Trump Tax Law Cut Corporate Taxes to Rock Bottom

    A new report from the Government Accountability Office finds the average effective federal income tax rate paid by large, profitable corporations fell to 9 percent in the first year the Trump tax law was in effect, and the share of such companies paying nothing at all rose to 34 percent that year.

  • blog   January 11, 2023

    “Fair Tax” Plan Would Abolish the IRS and Shift Federal Taxes from the Wealthy to the Rest of Us

    The “Fair Tax” bill would impose a 30 percent federal sales tax on everything we buy – groceries, cars, homes, health care – and lead to a giant tax shift from the well-off to everyone else.

  • blog   January 4, 2023

    Trump’s Tax Shenanigans Show Need for Real Reforms

    Congress should unite around a basic principle that Republican, Democratic, and independent voters support: the wealthiest, whether they are presidents, CEOs, or just rich heirs, should pay their fair share. Using Trump’s tax maneuvering as a guidebook could make the tax code much fairer for all of us.

  • blog   December 21, 2022

    The European Union Moves Forward on Global Minimum Tax. Time for the U.S. to Follow.

    The European Union has reached unanimous agreement to implement a global minimum tax beginning in 2024. With the EU and UK fully on board, it’s time for Congress to follow suit and implement the plan negotiated by the Biden administration. Doing so would improve the corporate tax system here and around the world while making the United States economy stronger and more competitive.

  • blog   December 19, 2022

    ITEP’s Top 5 Charts of 2022

    Covering federal, state, and corporate tax work, here are our top 5 charts of 2022. It’s worth noting that the biggest tax news of 2022 – the adoption of a federal 15 percent corporate minimum tax in the Inflation Reduction Act –  should make some of these charts look much better after the new law is implemented.

  • blog   December 14, 2022

    Guide to a Potential Year-End Tax Bill in Congress

    Any tax legislation enacted before this Congress ends should prioritize policies that have a proven track record of helping workers and children rather than policies that cut taxes for corporations or for individuals who are already well-off. It’s not clear right now whether lawmakers will do that – or whether they will enact any tax legislation at all before the year ends, but here we take a look at the key tax issues that lawmakers are discussing.

  • blog   December 8, 2022

    Lawmakers Seek to Extend Tax Break for “Research” that Corporations Use to Develop Frozen Foods, New Beer Flavors, Casino Games and Tax Avoidance

    If Congress creates a tax break to encourage businesses to conduct research that benefits society, should Netflix be eligible for it? There is no shame in binge-watching Stranger Things or…
  • report   November 16, 2022

    State Child Tax Credits and Child Poverty: A 50-State Analysis

    Regardless of future Child Tax Credit developments at the federal level, state policies can supplement the federal credit to deliver additional benefits to children and families. State credits can be specifically tailored to meet the needs of local populations while also producing long-term benefits for society as a whole

  • blog   November 10, 2022

    Election Day in the States: Voters Deliver Important Victories for Tax Justice

    Voters in Massachusetts and Colorado raised taxes on their wealthiest residents to fund schools, public transportation and school lunches for kids while making their tax codes more equitable. And voters in West Virginia defeated a proposal to deeply cut taxes, mostly for businesses, and drain the coffers of county and local governments.