Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

ITEP's Research Priorities

Michigan Live:If second round of stimulus payments is approved, how much could you get?

May 18, 2020

Additionally, the bill as currently written would make those people retroactively eligible to receive the initial stimulus payment under the CARES Act. The Institute On Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that ITIN filers would receive over $9.4 billion in direct economic relief. Other than that, the HEROES Act has the same eligibility requirements as the previous […]

Forbes: 4.3 Million Adults Eligible For Two $1,200 Stimulus Checks If HEROES Act Passes

May 15, 2020

The Institute On Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) estimates that over 4.3 million adults, as well as 3.5 million children, would benefit from this change in eligibility. The organization calculated that ITIN filers would receive over $9.4 billion in direct economic relief from the new economic impact payments. Moreover, the retroactive clause would mean disbursement […]

Politico Morning Tax:STATESIDE JOCKEYING CONTINUES

May 15, 2020

One key element of the latest legislation would provide $1,200 in direct stimulus payments to individuals including those with Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, building on an initial round of payments that was more restrictive. It would also retroactively expand those first payments to ITIN holders, which would permit the benefit for more than 4.3 million […]

Yahoo!: How the coronavirus outbreak may help keep Amazon’s federal tax bill low (again)

May 15, 2020

“I’d say their tax rate will be a lot closer to zero than to 21%,” said Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, referencing the current U.S. corporate tax rate. To be sure, it remains too early to predict Amazon’s pretax income for the full year, and therefore whether […]

Madison.com: Why many rich people keep a Faustian bargain with the GOP

May 15, 2020

The Faustian bargain embraced by well-off conservatives is all about greed. Trump lied that his 2017 tax law was to help ordinary people. The top 1 percent of income earners got a tax break of $48,000 a year, while the bottom 20 percent got $120, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a […]

Business Insider: A Tax Break Tucked in the CARES Act Will Save Some Companies Tens of Millions

May 9, 2020

Read more (subscription)

Center for Public Integrity: COVID-19 Didn’t Affect This Company, But It Still Got a $893K Federal Loan

May 8, 2020

“There doesn’t appear to be any mechanism whatsoever to ensure that these loans were available only to companies that were actually affected by the coronavirus and the associated economic shutdown,” said Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a think tank in Washington, D.C. “It’s hard to see how […]

Quartz:Congress is facing fury over CARES Act tax breaks for the rich

May 8, 2020

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy explained in Aprilthat the new rules will allow companies to “game the system.” They can amend their past taxes, applying current losses to offset income earned in years before 2018 when tax rates were more favorable to them. “Of course, this sort of timing shift is utterly unavailable […]

Los Angeles Times: Trump’s Payroll Tax Cut Demand Is Absurd

May 5, 2020

Specifically, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit think tank that tracks how taxes and tax breaks are distributed along the income spectrum, 65% of the benefit would go to the top 20% of earners — those making $118,700 or more a year. Fully 25% of the benefit would go to […]

New Yorker: How Greenwich Republicans Learned to Love Trump

May 4, 2020

On average, Trump gave households in the top one per cent a forty-eight-thousand-dollar tax cut, while those in the bottom twenty per cent received a hundred and twenty dollars, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan think tank. Jim Campbell, the Republican organizer who embraced Trump early in 2016, told me […]

Forbes: President Trump Says Next Stimulus Package Must Have Payroll Tax Cut

May 4, 2020

Who would this benefit? The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy did an analysis in mid-March that showed a complete elimination of the payroll tax would most benefit the top 20% of income earners. 65% of the benefits would go to the richest 20% of taxpayers – in part because many high earners are also […]

Alternet:Government leaders including Betsy DeVos push their personal agendas as economic tsunami crashes into America’s schools

May 4, 2020

“For states facing catastrophic revenue declines, asking more of taxpayers with a clear ability to pay is far preferable to cutting state budgets, which would lead to mass layoffs, steep cuts in public services, and a downward spiral in the economy,” write fiscal policy analysts in a report for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. They […]

Boston Globe: Why exclude some Americans from the coronavirus stimulus?

May 4, 2020

According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, between 50 and 75 percent of the estimated 8 million undocumented workers in the country pay annual federal income taxes using an ITIN. Unauthorized workers are more likely to work in low-wage but essential jobs in the pandemic such as janitors, food delivery drivers and shoppers, […]

Colorado Sun:Coloradans in the U.S. illegally — and their citizen families — were denied coronavirus aid. Will the state step in?

May 4, 2020

According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, there are 4.35 million ITIN filers in the country, 89,500 of whom live in Colorado. Additionally, there are about 70,000 children with ITINs in the state, according to the nonprofit Colorado Fiscal Institute. Read more

LA News: California should support immigrants with expanded tax credit eligibility

May 4, 2020

According to Public Policy Institute of California, there are more than 2 million undocumented immigrants in the state, more than 6 percent of the population. Many, if not most, undocumented workers pay federal, state and local taxes. In fact, an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy showed that undocumented immigrants living in […]

Bloomberg: Loan Forgiveness Deductions Left in Hands of Congress

May 1, 2020

The IRS could have gotten flack for allowing the deductions, tax professionals said, as the agency could be seen as effectively legislating. The agency didn’t immediately return a request for comment. “They’re there to administer the law, not to make it, and that’s exactly what they’re doing,” said Matt Gardner, a senior fellow at the […]

Arizona Republic:Undocumented immigrants pay billions in taxes and get no benefits. We’re going to help

April 29, 2020

The 2016 Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy report stated that 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States are paying an annual estimated amount of $11.64 billion in state and local taxes by filing tax returns with their Individual Tax Identification Numbers. Read more

The Washington Post: Why Paying off Your Mortgage Early Makes Sense

April 24, 2020

The number of homeowners who benefit from the mortgage tax break plummeted following the passage of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which nearly doubled the standard deduction, with the result that fewer taxpayers itemized deductions on their tax returns. The tax law reduced the share of taxpayers claiming the mortgage-interest deduction from 23% […]

The State: Not Everyone with a Social Security Number Gets a Stimulus Check

April 18, 2020

In Alejandra’s case, a U.S. citizen born in this country will be denied her stimulus check. Of course, her husband falls into the same category of roughly 4.3 million immigrants who do not have a Social Security number but file taxes using a taxpayer identification number. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that […]

Zero Hedge: Wall Street & Main Street ‘Rescues’ Look Increasingly Disconnected From One Another

April 18, 2020

As Steve Wamhoff of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy points out, the changes on the use of “pass-through” losses only benefit a select group. “It has to be stressed that this exclusively helps wealthy people,” Wamhoff says. “It only has an impact on people already making over $250,000.” Read more

Chicago Tribune: Agencies scramble to help Lake County undocumented immigrants impacted by coronavirus crisis

April 18, 2020

According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Illinois is one of six states that derive the most revenue from taxes paid by undocumented immigrants. California, Florida, New York, Texas and New Jersey, are also on the list. Read more

KQED: More ‘Peace of Mind’ for Undocumented Californians, Still May Not Be Enough

April 17, 2020

Unauthorized immigrants in California collectively pay about $3 billion in state and local taxes each year, according to the nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more

Bloomberg Tax: Governors Ask Trump for $500 Billion in Federal Support

April 16, 2020

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, in a policy brief Wednesday, outlined some tax code reforms to help states cope with shortfalls and safeguard for the future. Among the institute’s suggestions: personal and corporate income taxes for states heavily reliant on retail sales collections; increased taxation of digital transactions; decoupling from certain federal tax […]

Politico Morning Tax: We Are Shut Down

April 16, 2020

In any event, there’s also agreement across the political spectrum that those six states should get rid of those policies. “That would fix this particular issue and could generate revenue for these states that will be sorely needed to address the budget gaps they will surely face,” said Carl Davis of the liberal Institute on […]

ABC News: Tax provision in coronavirus stimulus will mostly benefit wealthy: Study

April 15, 2020

The measure lifted the limit for this year, and allows filers to apply it retroactively for the last two years. “It’s a really big deal for a really small group of wealthy people,” Matt Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, told ABC News. Read more