June 27, 2018
But the very same charge can be made against the tax credit programs for private K-12 schools, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said in its report. These programs are now being openly promoted by tax advisers and accountants as a way to sidestep or circumvent the SALT deduction cap, according to ITEP. “In […]
June 27, 2018
Tax experts say the federal government will find it difficult if not impossible to write rules to stop the workarounds in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut without also limiting existing tax credits in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and elsewhere. According to a recent paper from law professors, 33 states currently have more than 100 […]
June 27, 2018
Most states currently have some kind of sales tax, though the amount—and what items or services are taxed—varies widely from state to state. Some experts think states will need to pass additional legislation to collect more tax on online purchases, which could take some time. “The Court’s decision provides no hard-and-fast rules for states to […]
June 27, 2018
It’s hard to imagine a greater encouragement for companies to shift as much profit overseas as possible, mostly to low- or no-tax havens. By the time the tax debate began, the corporate offshore profits pile had grown to $2.6 trillion, on which the companies owed more than $750 billion in unpaid U.S. taxes, according to […]
June 26, 2018
But Meg Wiehe, deputy director of the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, notes that the federal corporate income tax cut also has an effect on high-income earners. Historically, shareholders have been the biggest beneficiaries of corporate tax cuts. According to her organization’s research, that means New Jersey’s wealthiest 1 percent will still see […]
June 22, 2018
While the court made clear that the states do not have unlimited power to require sales tax collection, “The court blessed South Dakota’s law,” said Carl Davis, research director for the Institute of Taxation and Economic policy. The law specifically protects small businesses from collecting sales taxes if they have less than $100,000 in sales […]
June 22, 2018
The decision, in South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc., was a victory for brick-and-mortar businesses that have long complained they are put at a disadvantage by having to charge sales taxes while many online competitors do not. And it was also a victory for states that have said that they are missing out on tens of […]
June 22, 2018
If you haven’t been doing this, you might get a nasty surprise at checkout if your state successfully pushes online merchants to collect those taxes. “This is about improved enforcement of a tax that’s already on the books,” said Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “For years, shoppers have […]
June 22, 2018
The store, which brands itself as “the official retail website of The Trump Organization,” currently names just four states in which it collects sales taxes. Before April, only two were listed. “The end game here is that internet stores like Trump store should begin collecting sales tax” in more states, said Carl Davis, research director […]
June 22, 2018
Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington think tank, was quoted in The New York Times saying, “State and local governments have really been dealing with the nightmare scenario for several years now.” He added that “this is going to allow state and local governments to improve their […]
June 22, 2018
A Trump Organization representative did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on how the Supreme Court decision could affect TrumpStore.com. When New York was added to the list of states, a Trump Store spokesperson told Business Insider the online retailer has “always, and will continue to collect, report, and remit sales […]
June 21, 2018 • By Carl Davis
For years, state and local governments have been dealing with a tax enforcement nightmare as out-of-state Internet retailers have refused to collect sales tax. That non-collection was facilitated by a Supreme Court precedent that tax collection can only be required when a retailer has a “physical presence” inside of a state. In today’s ruling in […]
June 20, 2018
“If the guardrails in the new territorial system were meant to prevent companies from avoiding all taxes, AbbVie’s (tax rate) is a pretty clear signal that these guardrails may not be effective,” said Matthew Gardner, senior fellow with the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more
June 20, 2018
The construction pause “was a concrete action as opposed to just a threat,” said Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit in Washington, D.C., focused on federal, state and local tax reform issues. “It seems pretty clear now that whoever ‘wins’ the HQ2 battle is very likely going to be […]
June 20, 2018
According to a 2017 study carried out for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington, D.C. research organization, undocumented immigrants collectively pay almost $12 billion a year in state and local taxes, approximately 8 percent of their income. To put this in perspective, the institute observes that “the top 1 percent of taxpayers pay […]
June 15, 2018
In neighboring Pennsylvania, the Legislature in 2014 approved decreasing the minimum profit margin from 27 percent to 25 percent and projected net revenue would increase by $40 million over the following three to four years. Since the change, Pennsylvania’s net revenues decreased cumulatively by $35 million, according to research by the Institute on Taxation and […]
June 12, 2018
“There’s a bargaining power problem here, and cities are on the wrong side of it,” said Matthew Gardner, a tax policy analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank. “When Amazon decides to be bullies and make this kind of threat, it’s really hard for officials to know how seriously […]
June 9, 2018
“This is a brand new tax break that was created automatically by an obscure linkage to federal law, and whether lawmakers want to offer it or not is worth discussing,” said Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington-based tax think tank that tends to favor liberal policies. “It’s […]
June 8, 2018
GUILTY OF WANTING TO CHANGE GILTI: House Democrats, led by Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, have rolled out a bill that would revamp the international system Republicans crafted in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. One of the big changes in the proposal: Forcing companies paying the minimum tax on Global Intangible Low Taxed Income […]
June 7, 2018
In the past several years, the LePage administration and now the Trump administration have been very kind to higher-income earners. In 2011, the governor signed a $400 million tax cut, largely skewed to benefit the wealthiest income earners, which he paid for by cutting tax revenue sharing to municipalities, causing property taxes to rise. Since […]
May 31, 2018
According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the poorest 20 percent of Nevada families pay 6.1 percent of their income in sales tax. The wealthiest one percent of Nevada families pays six-tenths of one percent. That fund has generated from nine to six million dollars annually. With 20 years of sales tax payments […]
May 30, 2018
Although Illinois is widely viewed as a blue state because of its recent record of supporting Democratic presidential candidates, from a “who pays” angle it looks much more like a red state, collecting a much higher proportion of taxes from low earners than high earners. The next chart, based on data developed by the Institute […]
May 25, 2018
But Matt Gardner, senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said there is a distinction between tax dollars and taxpayer dollars. “User fees are, technically, not ‘tax dollars’ in that they are not the product of our tax system,” Gardner said. “But the broader claim that these are not ‘taxpayer dollars’ doesn’t […]
May 24, 2018
But the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, or ITEP, warned that narrow action could have unintended consequences for federal charitable donations if the government imposes arbitrary distinctions between different types of organizations. The group said Congress is better positioned to act fairly. “The gifts being made under these schemes are not truly ‘charitable’ […]
May 24, 2018
Carl Davis, the research director for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington, said that Alabama provides a 100 percent state tax credit for taxpayers who donate money to organizations that give children vouchers to attend private school. Under its new law, New York gives an 85 percent state tax credit to residents […]