Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

Money: Donald Trump Is the President-Elect. Here’s What It Means for Your Wallet

November 7, 2024

Early this morning, the Associated Press declared Republican nominee Donald Trump the winner of the 2024 presidential election. And though nothing is certain, we do have a few clues as to how a second Trump presidency could affect Americans’ wallets in the short term. Read more.

Money: Trump vs. Harris: How Could Your Tax Bill Change Under Each Candidate?

November 2, 2024

Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have made a point of talking about taxes in the final days leading up to the presidential election. This is no accident: With more than 144 million taxpayers filing individual income tax returns this year, it’s a topic a huge swath of voters are likely paying attention to. Read […]

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How Tax Decisions in 2025 Can Advance Racial Justice

October 30, 2024 • By Brakeyshia Samms, Jon Whiten

How Tax Decisions in 2025 Can Advance Racial Justice

In the coming 14 months, federal lawmakers should address longstanding issues of racism in the tax code. With a presidential election this fall and many provisions of 2017’s Trump tax law expiring at the end of 2025, the debate over tax policy and economic fairness is in full swing.

California Budget & Policy Center: California’s Undocumented Residents Make Significant Tax Contributions

October 29, 2024

California’s undocumented residents contribute nearly $8.5 billion in taxes, playing a crucial role in supporting public services while remaining excluded from essential programs. Read more.

ITEP’s Brakeyshia Samms on Race and the 2017 Trump Tax Law

October 28, 2024

On October 25, 2024, ITEP Policy Analyst Brakeyshia Samms discussed race and the 2017 Trump tax law on the webinar “The 2025 Sunsetting of Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA): Tax Justice on the Frontlines,” which was hosted by the American Bar Association’s Section of Civil Rights & Social Justice. Slides can be downloaded here […]

ITEP’s Eli Byerly-Duke on Oklahoma’s Sales Tax Relief Credit

October 28, 2024

On October 23, 2024, ITEP Policy Analyst Eli Byerly-Duke presented to an interim study in the Oklahoma House focused on modernizing the Sales Tax Relief Credit. Click here for slides Click here for video (his remarks begin around the 1:06:00 mark)

AFSCME: Trump’s Tax Plans Would Benefit the Rich, Harris’ Plan Would Benefit Everyone Else

October 24, 2024

Donald Trump’s tax plan would cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans, whereas Kamala Harris’ plan would cut taxes for everyone but the wealthy. That’s the takeaway from a new analysis of the two candidates’ tax plans. Read more.

The Marshall Project: Fact-checking Over 12,000 of Donald Trump’s Statements About Immigration

October 23, 2024

The Marshall Project used text analysis to identify 13 major claims about immigration in over 350,000 of Trump’s public statements from Factba.se, some of which Trump has made 500 times or more. All of them are untrue or deeply misleading. Read more.

Accountable.us: Top 15 Corporate Beneficiaries of Trump Tax Giveaway Law Have Since Spent $839B on Shareholder Handouts

October 23, 2024

The 15 largest corporate beneficiaries of the Trump tax law used their savings to collectively spend $839 billion on stock buybacks and shareholder dividends in the years following the law’s passage. Read more.

Contact: Jon Whiten ([email protected]) The tax proposals announced by Vice President Harris would, on average, lead to a tax increase for the richest 1 percent of Americans and a tax cut for all other income groups, according to a new in-depth analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). This is in stark […]

CNN: Trump’s Mass Deportation Plans Would Be Costly. Here’s Why

October 19, 2024

Former President Donald Trump vows he’ll kick millions of undocumented immigrants out of the US if he’s reelected. Read more.

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Trump’s Tax Plan: Like Robin Hood in Reverse

October 7, 2024 • By ITEP Staff

Proposed tax changes would give richest 5% a tax cut, raise taxes on all other groups Contact: Jon Whiten ([email protected]) The tax proposals announced by former President Trump would, on average, lead to a tax cut for the richest 5 percent of Americans and a tax increase for all other income groups, according to a […]

New York Times: Trump’s Plans Could Increase U.S. Debt While Raising Costs for Most Americans

October 7, 2024

Former President Donald J. Trump’s economic proposals could inflame the nation’s debt burden while ultimately raising costs for a vast majority of Americans, according to a pair of new economic analyses that are among the most in-depth studies to date of the Republican nominee’s plans. Read more.

Education Week: How States Use Tax Credits to Fund Private School Choice: An Explainer

October 7, 2024

Most of the biggest recent developments in the world of private school choice have centered around education savings accounts, a twist on the private school voucher that parents can spend on tuition, fees, and a wide range of other costs tied to their students’ learning outside the traditional public school system. Read more.

NBC News: Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Madeleine Dean Demand Food and Beverage CEOs Put a Stop to ‘Shrinkflation’

October 7, 2024

Two Democratic lawmakers are demanding that some of the biggest food and beverage companies stop engaging in “shrinkflation” — the practice of reducing product sizes while charging prices that are the same or higher. Read more.

HuffPost: Group That Says Tariffs Are Taxes Touts Tariff-Pushing JD Vance Taking Its No-Tax Pledge

October 7, 2024

Americans for Tax Reform’s anti-tax pledge is well known in GOP circles. But what does it mean when punishing tariff hikes are on the table? Read more.

ITEP’s Neva Butkus Discusses Property Taxes in Indiana

October 3, 2024

On September 30, Policy Analyst Neva Butkus discussed Indiana property taxes and how Hoosiers could benefit from a circuit breaker policy at an event hosted by the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute and Prosperity Indiana. Check out her slides here, and an article on the panel here.

Sen. Warren: Warren, Whitehouse, Casar, Lawmakers Slam 35 Companies for Paying Their Executives More Than They Pay in Federal Income Taxes

September 30, 2024

U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Representative Greg Casar (D-Texas) led their colleagues in slamming 35 major companies that have been paying their executives more than they pay in federal income taxes. The lawmakers point to this as an additional reason why Congress must reform the tax code in 2025 to […]

ITEP’s Kamolika Das Responds to Misleading Baltimore Sun Op-ed

September 19, 2024

ITEP Local Policy Director Kamolika Das had this letter to the editor published in the Baltimore Sun on September 18: David F. Tufaro’s recent commentary about the Renew Baltimore campaign is wildly misleading (“Baltimore’s high property taxes sustain a broken system,” Sept. 15). The Renew Baltimore proposal to drastically cut and permanently cap Baltimore’s property tax […]

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Trump’s Plan to Vaporize the Economy Through Mass Deportation

September 16, 2024 • By Michael Ettlinger

Trump’s Plan to Vaporize the Economy Through Mass Deportation

This op-ed originally appeared in the Boston Globe. What would happen if 22 percent of America’s farmworkers vanished from the workforce? Would workers from across the country flock to the cotton fields of Texas, the sugar fields of Florida, and the peanut farms of Georgia to take low-paying jobs in the blazing heat? Or would […]

ITEP’s Brakeyshia Samms: How Property Tax Circuit Breakers Could Help Chicago

September 12, 2024

ITEP Policy Analyst Brakeyshia Samms discussed property tax circuit breakers at a meeting the city of Chicago’s Committee on Housing and Real Estate on September 11, 2024. You can check out her slides here, and watch the video here (starting around 42:40).

The Center for American Progress Action Fund: Donald Trump Is Lying About Immigrants and Social Security/Medicare

September 9, 2024

Contrary to Donald Trump’s claims, an earned path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants strengthens Social Security and Medicare. Read more.

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The Quiet Effort to Make Single Parenthood More Expensive

September 9, 2024 • By Carl Davis

The Quiet Effort to Make Single Parenthood More Expensive

After the dust settles on this year’s election, one of the most pressing issues confronting the next Congress and President will be how to deal with the expiration of the 2017 Trump tax cuts and, more specifically, who will pay for the cost of extending some or all of those cuts. Among the more widely accepted ideas circulating on the right is to raise income taxes on single parents, more than four in five of whom are women and a disproportionate share of whom are people of color.

ITEP’s Carl Davis: Pyramids, Cascades, and the Taxation of Business Inputs

August 26, 2024

ITEP Research Director Carl Davis gave this presentation to the New Mexico Revenue Stabilization and Tax Policy Committee on August 23, 2024. View the slides here.

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Local Tax Trends in 2024

August 14, 2024 • By Kamolika Das

Local Tax Trends in 2024

Many cities, counties, and townships across the country are in a difficult, or at least unstable, budgetary position. Localities are responding to these financial pressures in a variety of ways with some charging ahead with enacting innovative reforms like short-term rental and vacancy taxes, and others setting up local tax commissions to study the problem.