Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

ITEP's Research Priorities

Dayton Daily News: Kasich Flirts With Flat Tax

June 9, 2015

“If you ask its advocates why it’s a good idea, one of the first things they’ll say is it’s a simpler way to tax,” said Matt Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning non-profit organization in Washington. “I think that’s largely an illusion.” “Any move to a flat tax […]

Chicagoist: Addressing Property Taxes And Gentrification Along The 606

June 5, 2015

Most gentrification narratives go vaguely like this: hipsters come to a neighborhood and open up fancy businesses and build fancy stuff and the original residents get pushed out. But often there is little focus on how exactly the original residents get pushed out. Some policy institutes like The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy consider most property […]

Hutchinson News: Brownback’s Latest Tax Plan Appears To Be More Of Same

June 3, 2015

Brownback proposed the state eliminate income taxes for 388,000 poor residents and raise taxes for business owners. Sounds good. But the nonpartisan Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy found that the plan actually would raise taxes on the poorest 40 percent of Kansans. That’s because Brownback also proposes raising the sales tax to 6.65, from […]

WNPR: Hold On: Why Don’t Corporations in Connecticut Pay (More) Tax?

June 3, 2015

Matt Gardner is director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, and he explained it this way: “If you think it’s wrong for companies to be able to shift their profits freely from state to state, on paper, without actually moving employees, without actually moving production, then this reform is a no-brainer,” he told […]

Kansas City Star: Early analysis shows that Gov. Sam Brownback’s plan would raise taxes for 40 percent of low- and middle-income Kansans

June 2, 2015

The non-partisan Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy found that the plan leaves behind the poorest 40 percent of Kansans. “The data does not support Governor Brownback’s claims,” said Annie McKay, executive director of the Kansas Center for Economic Growth. “In fact, data indicates the governor’s proposal not only fails to fix inequalities of his […]

Providence Journal: Proposed Tax Breaks Focus on Keeping Retirees in RI

June 2, 2015

Kate Brewster, executive director of Economic Progress Institute, also had a warning for the committee. She cautioned that while many have stories of seniors who move out of state because of taxes, a study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington, D.C., estimates that less than 1 percent of those in 65 […]

In These Times: 30,000 Teachers Walk Out

June 2, 2015

Indeed, Washington has the nation’s most regressive tax structure, according to a study published in January by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The study found that the state’s top 1% contributes 2.4 percent of family income in state and local taxes while the poorest 20 percent contribute 16.8 percent, making Washington the “highest-tax […]

Ashville Citizen Times: Long-Term Tax Shifts May Hit Rich and Poor Differently

June 2, 2015

North Carolina’s sales tax is unfair because it “requires the least from those with the most,” said Meg Wiehe, state tax policy director at the national Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which leans to the left. And because it exempts services and falls less heavily on the rich, the sales tax by itself will […]

US News & World Report: The Party of Red Ink

May 29, 2015

Meg Wiehe, state tax policy director at the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, says Kansas’ tax cuts are “definitely the number-one reason the state faces a big budget gap.” And in Wisconsin, she adds, it is that, as the national recession ended and state revenues ticked up, Walker “enacted some permanent tax cuts” […]

The Emporia Gazette: Tax Structure Is the Problem

May 28, 2015

When considering income taxes overall, information from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy indicates that the poorest 20 percent of Kansans pay 11.1 percent of their income in taxes while the wealthiest 1 percent of Kansans pay only 3.6 percent. We have an unfair tax system. More than 300,000 businesses in Kansas are paying […]

The Toledo Blade: Ohio Readies for First Break on Sales Tax

May 28, 2015

However, Carl Davis, a senior analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit nonpartisan Washington think tank, said that while tax holidays help retailers, they don’t accomplish much else. “I think the major takeaway with sales tax holidays is they’re high profile and they get a lot of favorable attention for politicians, […]

Stateline: To Create Revenue, Some States Put Scofflaws in Virtual Stocks

May 28, 2015

Matthew Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank, said that while making tax delinquents’ names public may work, a larger question is whether that technique is being used because state tax collection departments are underfunded and under-staffed, making regular collections more difficult. “A better strategy would be […]

CBS Moneywatch: Who Will Pay for Ever-Growing Infrastructure Needs

May 21, 2015

But with the summer driving season about to start this weekend, the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) has jumped into the debate with some new data and commentary about the gas tax. It points out that, taking inflation into account, the federal gas tax has lost close to 40 percent of its […]

PolitiFact: Are there more U.S. Senators than Wisconsin residents who would benefit from GOP estate tax plan

May 21, 2015

Matthew Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, called the estimation “pretty rock solid” and said the Center on Budget Policies and Priorities used a sensible starting point. “To be able to do anything differently, you would have to know exactly how many people were going to die in 2016,” Gardner […]

The News&Observer: Ending Privilege Tax Drives up Property Taxes

May 21, 2015

The supposed “historic” tax cut of 2013 actually resulted in a tax code under which the average taxpayer in the bottom 80 percent of the income distribution now pays more in state and local taxes, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The “cut” in the gas tax actually eliminated a larger automatic […]

Vox: These Common Tax Breaks Are a Disaster for Small Business

May 20, 2015

The left-wing Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy agrees with the conclusion and observes that when targeted tax breaks do reduce revenue, “that means reductions in the public services that businesses use every day.” In other words, the Hotel Niagara’s windfall tax benefit may mean more potholes on the road, slightly slowing traffic and damaging […]

Grist: Why It’s a Bad Idea to Tax People for Every Mile They Drive

May 18, 2015

Twenty-four states haven’t touched their gas tax rates in more than a decade, according to left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. For 16 of those states, the last change was more than 20 years ago. Read more

Honolulu Civic Beat: A Progressive Legislative Lament

May 18, 2015

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy report of 2015 notes that Hawaii is the state with the second highest percent of its taxes paid by the bottom fifth as we tax them at a rate of 13.4 percent. The top fifth of our population only pay about 8 percent of their income in taxes. […]

Kearny Hub: Static Gas Tax Rate Curbs Nebraska’s Buying Power

May 18, 2015

“It’s an inevitable fact that if gas tax rates are not updated from time to time, the tax is not going to keep pace with construction costs,” said Carl Davis of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a think tank in Washington. However, due to the difficulty of mustering the votes to raise a […]

The Birmingham News: The Easiest Budget Fix? Make the Rich Pay Taxes Like the Poor

May 18, 2015

The Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy calculated what Alabamians pay toward those three taxes and broke them down by what are called quintiles – 20 percent chunks of the population. The first three of those quintiles – 60 percent of the population – pay about 10 percent of their family income in state and […]

Gannett: The Fair Tax Is Anything But Fair

May 18, 2015

According to the authoritative Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, it would mean an average $225,000 a year tax cut for the top 1 percent, and a net increase of about $3,200 for eight out of every 10 taxpayers. There’s nothing fair about that. Read more

The News&Observer: NC Forgoes a Tax Windfall

May 18, 2015

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit research group that focuses on tax fairness, analyzed that shift. Its findings have often been misconstrued to say that 80 percent of North Carolina taxpayers ended up paying more after the tax changes. Instead, the institute found that in 2014 – allowing for the expiration of […]

The Press Democrat: The Five Biggest Myths about Measure A

May 18, 2015

According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the gas tax has lost “28 percent of its value since 1997” as costs of highway construction and road repair work have climbed. Our infrastructure is a mess because of it. Read more

PolitiFact: Fair Tax Claim Ignores Contradictory Economic Models

May 18, 2015

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimated the sales tax would need to be 45 percent to be revenue neutral, as the proposal pledges, and also account for tax cheats. The rate matters when deciding if the proposal will do as Perdue suggests and boost economic activity. Read more

Law 360: Marijuana Legalization Accompanied By Tax Hurdles: Report

May 11, 2015

tates are gradually legalizing recreational and medical marijuana and expecting tax windfalls in the process, but the world of marijuana taxation is fraught with complexities that states must consider in advance, according to a report released Wednesday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more