Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

ITEP's Research Priorities

Equitities: Corporate Tax Dodgers Spending Big on CEO Pay, Lobbyists

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) January 25, 2012 The release of Mitt Romney’s tax return has renewed a debate that Warren Buffett raised last year when he pointed out that, because of the way income from investments is taxed, he paid a lower tax rate than his secretary. President Obama further called attention to this issue by inviting […]

Huffington Post: Hollywood Activists Protest FedEx’s Low Corporate Tax Rate

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) Anna Almendrala First Posted: 01/25/2012 9:55 pm Updated: 01/26/2012 12:49 pm Unfair tax rates are the topic du jour when it comes to inequality in America and protesters in Hollywood put the issue center stage on Wednesday afternoon with a march down Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard to highlight what they called FedEx’s excesssively low […]

PA Independent: PA Bill Eliminates Biz Tax Shelters, Lowers Biz Income Taxes

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) Would close so-called “Delaware loophole” January 29, 2012 By Stacy Brown | PA Independent HARRISBURG — Two Pennsylvania state representatives, a Democrat and a Republican, are teaming up to produce a bill that would close the so-called Delaware loophole and potentially add up to $600 million annually in state income. State House Policy […]

NPR: Reporting On Romney’s Taxes: Economics, History And Morality

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) 07:12 pm February 3, 2012 by Edward Schumacher-Matos Is Mitt Romney being treated unfairly in the coverage of the taxes he pays? Hardly. Some might find it rich even to raise the question, but many NPR listeners have, and it is journalistically and intellectually a valid question. According to tax returns that Romney […]

Chicago Reporter: Activists in Illinois push to tip the scales in favor of civil society

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) By YanaKunichoff, Monday at 4:57 pm The scales are tipped in Illinois, and not in favor of the 99 percent, community groups say. A series of reports and actions, including the delivery of a golden toilet, seek  to highlight the state cuts and corporate loopholes that advocates say are leaving Illinois citizens in […]

Bloomberg: Obama’s Corporate Tax Plan Could Be Fairer, Simpler

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) By the Editors Feb 22, 2012 7:30 PM ET President Barack Obama’s corporate- tax framework, unveiled Wednesday, recognizes that the U.S. tax code desperately needs a spring cleaning. There are too many loopholes, deductions, subsidies, allowances and special rules. The 35 percent statutory rate is also too high, especially because most companies have […]

Outcome Magazine: U.S. tax loopholes allow some highly profitable companies to skate

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) February 22, 2012 By ANTHONY HALL The U.S. corporate tax code just became the biggest sidebar under jobs for the national election campaign. It should be clear to one and all that large corporations have not begun to participate in hiring to any significant degree and are, in fact, far short of getting […]

Huffington Post: Obama Corporate Tax Plan Would Create Big Winners And Big Losers

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) Dan Froomkin Senior Washington Correspondent, Huffington Post Posted: 02/23/12 03:18 PM ET  |  Updated: 02/23/12 03:30 PM ET WASHINGTON — Every one of the dozens of corporate tax loopholes and subsidies that President Barack Obama announced this week he’d like to expunge has something in common: Somebody fought really hard to get it […]

Think Progress: Kansas Conservatives Move Bill That Raises Taxes On The Poor While Cutting Them For The Rich

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) By Pat Garofalo on Feb 24, 2012 at 3:35 pm In what one state Democrat has called “Robin Hood in reverse,” Kansas’ tax committee this week approved a bill that would cut taxes on the wealthiest Kansans to the tune of $1,500, while raising taxes on those residents making less that $25,000 per […]

Sacramento Bee: Congress needs to overhaul corporate taxes

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) Published: Friday, Feb. 24, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 12A With loopholes as big as locomotives in the federal tax code, many of America’s most profitable corporations pay little or nothing in corporate taxes. When companies don’t pay their fair share, that means the rest of us have to pay more in […]

Accounting Web: Obama’s Corporate Tax Plan Begins to Take Shape

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) Posted by AccountingWEB in Tax, Income Tax on 02/27/2012 – 16:46 By Ken Berry The battle lines are being drawn. Last week, President Obama unveiled the framework for an extensive corporate tax package. It didn’t take long for his rivals to poke holes in the plan. In fact, the Republican front-runner for the presidency, […]

Chicago Tribune: The case for a graduated income tax in Illinois

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) Tuesday, February 28, 2012 If Illinois were to adopt the same graduated income tax rate structure as Iowa, Illinois would raise $6.3 billion more in revenue than it does from its current five percent flat rate, while 54 percent—over half—of all taxpayers would pay less in state income taxes…from The Case for Creating […]

International Business Times: GE Taxes Again Under Scrutiny: Only 2.3% Paid Over 10 Years, Group Says

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) By Ashley Portero February 29, 2012 1:30 PM EST General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) again stands accused of employing tax-dodging techniques to avoid paying a fair rate of income tax. In a dispute that crystallizes the politically charged debate over corporate taxes, GE is again the focus of criticism from Citizens for Tax […]

Wichita Eagle: Laffer’s claims about taxes, growth are empty

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) By William T. Terrell Published Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012, at 5:25 p.m.Updated Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012, at 5:26 p.m. It’s amazing that economist Arthur Laffer is having a great impact on attempts to alter Kansas individual income taxes, and that neither Gov. Sam Brownback nor Revenue Secretary Nick Jordan has arranged for a […]

Associated Press: Wash. House Dem freshmen call for tax code changes

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) JONATHAN KAMINSKY, Associated Press THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STATEMENT OF NEWS VALUES AND PRINCIPLES OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington state’s freshman House Democrats on Wednesday called for wide-ranging changes to the state’s tax code, from creating a state capital gains tax to eliminating the out-of-state sales tax exemption. A dozen lawmakers — one of […]

The Street: U.S. Corporate Taxes Need to Go to Zero

December 17, 2012

by Chris Markowski March 10, 2012 On April 1, our ally Japan is playing a cruel little April Fools’ Day joke on us: The country is lowering its corporate tax rate from 39.5% to 35%. This will give the United States the dubious and awkward distinction of having, at 39.2%, the highest integrated federal/state tax […]

Montgomery Advertiser: Rally calls for end to state tax on groceries

December 17, 2012

by Brian Lynn March 15, 2012 Speakers at a State House rally Thursday said repealing the state’s sales tax on groceries and a federal income tax deduction would create tax equity and address looming budget shortfalls. “Asking the richest Alabamians to pay the same share as the rest of us is common sense,” said Kimble […]

The Columbus Dispatch: Still a good catch?

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) By  Tim Feran The Columbus Dispatch Sunday March 18, 2012 9:40 AM When Ohio offered Sears big money in hopes the retailer would relocate its headquarters to central Ohio, it seemed like a rare chance to snag an iconic American company. Sears dashed Ohio’s hopes in December by deciding to stay in Illinois. […]

Birmingham News: Alabama’s tax system is unfair and immoral, but lawmakers have yet to ease the burden on most families

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) Once upon a time six years ago, the Legislature, prodded by a governor and shamed by a tax study, actually took a baby step toward tax fairness. Lawmakers raised the nation’s lowest income tax threshold — the point at which people begin paying state income tax — from an embarrassingly low $4,600 a […]

Journal News: Gas taxes fail in their purpose

December 17, 2012

11:02 PM, Mar. 19, 2012 Written by A Journal News editorial Sunday’s report on gas taxes in New York helps codify the pain and anguish so many New Yorkers feel when they so much as drive by a gas station in the Empire State. “It’s outrageous,” declared Stephen Lester, whose quest for cheaper gas takes […]

Cincinnati Enquirer: Will lower income tax bring jobs to Ohio?

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) Kasich thinks so, but our taxes aren’t really so high8:02 AM, Mar. 22, 2012 Written by Paul E. Kostyu COLUMBUS — Lower Ohio’s burdensome personal income taxes. Create jobs. That’s what Gov. John Kasich proposed last week in an expansive plan to reform government and improve the state’s economy. Kasich said Ohio’s income […]

Lawrence World Journal: Brownback active in promoting agenda

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) By Scott Rothschild April 2, 2012 Tax-cut proposals harmful, group says The League of Women Voters of Kansas issued a news release critical of Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax-cutting plan as well as two major proposals in a House-Senate conference committee. All three plans reduce income tax rates and eliminate income taxes on nonwage […]

Kansas Reporter: Will KS plan cut taxes or just shift them?

December 17, 2012

Posted on Tuesday, April 03, 2012 By Gene Meyer | Kansas Reporter TOPEKA — Gov. Sam Brownback and state lawmakers say they want to cut income taxes. So what? tax mavens say. The state government will get its money. Somewhere. Somehow. “True tax reform has to be a combination of reduced tax rates and spending […]

Bluffton Today: Why demonize poor people?

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) Posted: April 4, 2012 – 12:23am By BARBARA KELLYLowcountry Liberal “A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” These words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt would be a good reminder for some in the Republican Party who have a new sport — demonizing poor people. In this time when the top […]

Salon: States shush corporate critics

December 17, 2012

(Original Post) Wednesday, Apr 4, 2012 7:45 AM Eastern Daylight Time From factory farms to home foreclosures, state governments are helping hide corporate wrongdoingBy David Sirota You can’t be outraged by — or fight back against — what you don’t know. At least that seems to be the theory behind a spate of new government-backed […]