Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

ITEP's Research Priorities

The Kansas City Star: American Tax Policy Has 50 Shades of Gray

February 18, 2015

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy recently examined state and local tax policy and found Kansas has the ninth-most “unfair” tax system in the nation. A Kansan earning $47,700 a year — smack dab in the middle of all earners — pays 9.5 percent of his or her income in state and local taxes. […]

Park Forest eNews: GOP Lawmakers Push Millionaire-Friendly Tax Schemes

February 18, 2015

The Keystone/Good Jobs study comes on the heels of report by the non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which said that states’ growing reliance on consumptive taxes contributes to a “fundamentally unfair” tax system, in which lower- and middle-income households pay a greater percentage of their income. Read more

The Cinncinati Post: Top 1% Would Save Most Under Kasich Plan

February 18, 2015

Those were the findings of a just-released report by Policy Matters Ohio and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (see http://www.policymattersohio.org/kasich-tax-proposal-feb2015). It also found that even excluding changes in tobacco taxes in Kasich’s proposal, taxpayers making less than $37,000 a year – those in the bottom two-fifths of the income spectrum – on average […]

USA Today: States with the Worst Taxes on Average Earners

February 18, 2015

When looking at taxes paid as a share of the income earned, all states have a regressive tax system, which means poorer residents are taxed more than the wealthiest ones. The difference in effective tax rates between income groups, however, varies widely between states. According to “Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems […]

Detroit Free Press: Time to Talk Tax Equality in Michigan

February 18, 2015

Michigan ranks 29th in personal tax equality and 48th in the percentage of tax revenue contributed by businesses, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and the House Fiscal Agency. Why is it that an impoverished family living in Flint making $10,000 a year and a working-class family in Howell making $50,000 both […]

The Economic Populist: Feed the Rich and Starve the Poor

February 18, 2015

As it is now, the poor already pay more than the rich in taxes — that’s to say, as a percentage of their income. According to another recent report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, in nearly every state, low- and middle-income families pay a bigger share of their income in state and […]

The Hill: The Transportation Moment

February 18, 2015

In fact, the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy, claims that as many as 12 states could pass gas tax increases this year. Taken in sum, there is a general sense that change is coming. It may be top-down, and put hundreds of billions of new dollars on the table. It may be a more […]

The Toledo Blade: Governor’s Reform Plan Draws Fire from the Left, Right

February 18, 2015

An evaluation of the proposal by the Washington-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, requested by Policy Matters, suggests the top 1 percent of Ohio earners, those making $388,000 or more, will see an average tax cut of $11,906. Those earning less than $58,000 a year would see a net hike of $116 on average, […]

The New Republic: Brownback’s Right-Wing Experiment is Bankrupting Kansas

February 18, 2015

There’s a much better way for Kansas to fulfill its constitutional duties and avoid these yearly budget shortfalls: give up on its failed tax cuts and raise revenue. And that revenue should come from the richest Kansans. Between 1979 and 2012, the top 1 percent of Kansans has nearly doubled its share of income, from […]

New York Times: States Consider Increasing Taxes on the Poor, Raising Them on the Rich

February 13, 2015

While the bottom fifth of earners pay more than 10 percent of their income in state and local taxes, the top 1 percent pays closer to 5 percent, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates. Percentage of income is, of course, only one way to measure the tax burden — in sheer dollar terms, […]

International Business Times: Closing Tax Gap Would Reap $200B a Year

February 13, 2015

Last month, the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that the poorest 20 percent of households pay on average more than twice the effective state and local tax rate (10.9 percent) as the richest 1 percent of taxpayers (5.4 percent). The report out Friday from Good Jobs First and the Keystone Research Center finds […]

Providence Journal: Taxing the Poor

February 12, 2015

“While the federal income tax system is generally progressive, state and local taxes hit lower-income Americans hard. The nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has been on a mission to emphasize the fact, and to draw state-by-state comparisons. In its latest annual report, it condemned all systems across the board, concluding that “virtually every […]

The Inlander: Taxes-Idaho v. Washington

February 12, 2015

But don’t look so smug, Washington progressives: Washington may take in more tax revenue to fund more programs than Idaho, but its tax system hits the poor far harder. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy concluded that Washington had the most unfair tax system in the nation, with the the bottom 20 percent of […]

The Arkron Beacon Journal: Kasich the Tax Shifter

February 12, 2015

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy performed an analysis of the governor’s tax plan for Policy Matters Ohio. Released on Tuesday, the evaluation reveals how the overall impact would shift the tax system further in favor of wealthier Ohioans, or the top 5 percent. The top 1 percent would enjoy relief of an average […]

NPR All Things Considered: Failing Bridges Take a Toll

February 11, 2015

“Asphalt costs are higher, machinery costs are higher. Construction workers’ wages are usually higher,” says Carl Davis of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington. “So the revenues that we’re chipping in aren’t keeping pace with the costs that we have.” Davis says the federal government can borrow money to fund transportation projects. […]

Washington Post: Can These Red States Raise the Gas Tax?

February 11, 2015

Some states can’t wait around to see what the federal government will do. In order to fix their roads, many are seriously considering raising a tax that in some states hasn’t been touched in over two decades. Which states are those? On Tuesday, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a liberal think tank, updated […]

Bloomberg: Will State Legislatures Pass Gas Tax Hikes This Year?

February 11, 2015

However, the kind of funding structure that Maryland put in place has been called good policy by organizations like the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a non-profit, non-partisan research organization in Washington, D.C., because the inflation adjustment allows the revenue’s buying power to keep up with transportation expenses over time. Flat-rate taxes do […]

The Columbus Dispatch: 60% of Ohioans Would Receive Tax Increase Under Kasich Plan

February 11, 2015

Some of that gap is attributed to the governor’s plan to impose a $1-a-pack increase on the state cigarette tax. But even removing that from the table, taxpayers in the bottom 40 percent – $37,000 a year or less — still would see no tax benefits as a whole from Kasich’s proposal, according to an […]

Reuters: U.S. Companies May Not Be Fleeing Due to High Tax Rate

February 10, 2015

In a project for Reuters, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a tax policy think tank in Washington, looked at the six companies’ data somewhat differently, stripping out certain accounting adjustments, and found an average effective tax rate of 22.2 percent over the period. Read more

KELO TV: Paying More for Being Poor

February 10, 2015

Being poor in South Dakota is harder than in most other states in the U.S.. A recent study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that South Dakota’s tax structure, along with other factors, make it one of the most difficult states to live in for low-income families. The city of Sioux Falls […]

The Kennebec Journal: LePage Following Republican Governors’ National Strategy

February 5, 2015

Meg Wiehe, state policy director for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning organization that evaluates tax reform initiatives, questions whether journalists are making accurate appraisals of Republican policy in Maine and other states. “It’s frustrating to me because they’re not looking hard enough,” she said. “I just don’t think that it’s true […]

24/7 Wall Street: 10 States with the Worst Tax Averages for Americans

February 5, 2015

When looking at taxes paid as a share of the income earned, all states have a regressive tax system, which means poorer residents are taxed more than the wealthiest ones. The difference in effective tax rates between income groups, however, varies widely between states. According to “Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems […]

Washington Post: It’s Time to Stop Letting Sports Team Owners Blackmail Taxpayers for New Stadiums

February 5, 2015

“It’s a silly tax break,” said Matt Gardner, director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “It’s ludicrous that the federal government would be subsidizing state and local borrowing to give investors tax breaks to make it easier for them to build sports stadiums.” Read more

The Spokesman Review: Economy Finally Recovering–for the 1 %

February 4, 2015

Washington’s tax fairness problem is old news – every year, new analyses emerge that rank Washington near the bottom on measures of fairness. That’s based on the state’s reliance on the sales tax, which hits the poor the hardest. A report issued this month by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy ranked Washington at […]

Palm Beach New Times: Florida Has the 2nd Least Fair Tax System in the Nation

February 4, 2015

A big selling point to convincing people to move to the Sunshine State has always been that Florida has no state income tax. And that’s true. But the reality is that Florida ranks at the very bottom when it comes to the fairest taxes in the U.S. This means that the poorest of those living […]