Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

ITEP's Research Priorities

Atlanta Business Chronicle: General Assembly in Tax Cutting State of Mind

March 1, 2018

https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2018/03/01/general-assembly-in-tax-cutting-state-of-mind.html?ana=bbg

New Republic: Has Amazon Become Too Big to Tax

March 1, 2018

Earlier this week, Matthew Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reported that Amazon, which recorded $5.6 billion in profits in 2017, paid zero in federal taxes, thanks to “various tax credits and tax breaks for executive stock options.” That’s remarkable in isolation, but especially remarkable when you consider that Donald Trump’s corporate tax bill […]

Fiscal Times: New Tax Bill Takes Aim at US Companies Moving Overseas

February 28, 2018

Critics of the GOP tax overhaul say it rewards U.S. companies for moving jobs and profits offshore and may actually encourage outsourcing compared to the old rules. The liberal Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that the new international provisions will cost the Treasury an additional $14 billion in lost revenue over the next […]

Politico Morning Tax: Amazon/taxes

February 28, 2018

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s finding that Amazon won’t pay any federal taxes for 2017 gets picked up back in Seattle. Read more

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Amazon Paid No U.S. Income Tax

February 27, 2018

Matthew Gardner, senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, wrote about Amazon’s tax bill that won’t come due in a Feb. 13 blog post. Without being privy to the company’s tax return, no one can say exactly how CEO Jeff Bezos and Co. avoided what could have been more than $1.3 billion […]

The Economist: The Spoils from American Corporate Tax Reform Are Unevenly Spread

February 23, 2018

Most are bonuses that amount to a small part of the total gains, leading sceptics to attribute the announcements to clever public relations. A few firms have gone further, announcing permanent wage increases or new investment projects. But these were probably in the pipeline anyway, given improving demand, says Matt Gardner, from the Institute on […]

Business Insider: Facebook Co-Founder Wants the Richest Americans to Fund a Basic Income for 90 Million People

February 22, 2018

“We know that when people get modest amounts of cash, they use it smartly, their kids stay in school longer, health outcomes improve, and they’re happier,” Hughes said on Reddit. “We have the power to rebalance our economic system and provide more opportunity to all — we just have to develop the political will to […]

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Cuomo’s Tax Overhaul Response Is a Missed Opportunity

February 21, 2018 • By Aidan Davis

Any politician can score points by railing against President Trump and his wildly unfair, loophole-ridden tax law. But if New York’s working people find out they will be subjected to a new and complicated set of state tax rules all to help the richest 5 percent, they’ll wonder why a better solution that targets corporations and high-income earners who just received a sizable federal tax break, was not found. In the wake of the Trump-GOP tax law, this is a missed opportunity for lawmakers in New York to increase taxes on those who just benefited from a substantial tax cut.

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Why We’re Not Eternally Grateful for $1,000 Crumbs

February 20, 2018 • By Jenice Robinson

Two narratives that intentionally obscure who benefits from the tax law are emerging. One focuses on the personal income tax cuts that will result in an increase in net take-home pay for many employees once their employers adjust withholding. Anecdotes abound of working people getting a $100 or more increase, after taxes, per paycheck, but the reality is that most workers will receive a lot less than that. Meanwhile, the wealthiest 1 percent of households will receive an average annual tax break of $55,000, an amount that nearly eclipses the nation’s median household income.

Bloomberg: Why Gas Taxes Aren’t Paying the Bills Anymore

February 20, 2018

A big part of the ups and downs in the above chart has to do with ups and downs in the price of gas, and this volatility is one reason why gas taxes generally aren’t levied as a percentage of the price. Many states switched to percentage taxes during the oil crises of the 1970s and early […]

New York Times: When Calling an Uber Can Pay off for Cities and States

February 20, 2018

The new fees and taxes are often part of broader regulatory measures as states and localities scramble to update tax codes and laws that have not kept up with the proliferation of app-based ride services. For instance, a Georgia state tax applies to rides in taxis but not ride-hailing cars even though they essentially do […]

Politico: EU Mulls Retaliation over Trump Tax Overhaul

February 20, 2018

European countries may fight back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tax overhaul by arguing that it breaches World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, finance ministers said Tuesday. Their tough rhetoric came after the ministers gathered in Brussels to discuss a response to the U.S. reform, which many Europeans say unfairly favors American trade interests over their […]

Concord Monitor: NH School Choice Bill Could Create a Tax Shelter for the Rich

February 18, 2018

Carl Davis, the research director at the Washington-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, has written extensively about ETCs as tax shelters. Nationwide, about $1 billion in potential tax dollars is diverted each year into these scholarship organizations, according to a 2016 ITEP report by Davis. What kinds of tax credits states allow under ETC […]

Houston Chronicle: U.S. Economy Needs Immigrants to Grow

February 16, 2018

Half of unauthorized workers even file tax returns, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Many believe it will help them qualify some day for amnesty and legal residency, which is how DACA worked for the Dreamers. Even with 8 million unauthorized workers already here, more than half of American employers say they […]

The Augusta Chronicle: Georgia Governor Nathan Deal wants to slash state tax windfall

February 15, 2018

It is difficult to quantify how much the average taxpayer would be affected under current law. A middle income family in Georgia — making between $40,000 and $62,000 annually — could see its federal tax burden decrease by about $600 annually, according to an analysis from the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in […]

CNBC: Trump’s Budget May Delay Future Tax Refunds

February 13, 2018

The president released his budget Monday for fiscal 2019, proposing $11.1 billion for the Internal Revenue Service, including $2.3 billion for tax filing and compliance applications and $110 million to modernize the agency’s computer systems. “The real question is whether the base level of funding will be sufficient for the IRS to do its job […]

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Two Months after Top-Heavy Tax Cuts, Trump Budget Proposes “Savings” by Making Cuts to Safety Net Programs

February 12, 2018 • By Alan Essig

“In case it was not apparent after the White House pushed for a tax plan that overwhelmingly benefits corporations and the rich, the White House budget proposal is clear on what and whom it prioritizes: wealth over work, corporate interest before the public good.”

Vice News: The Trump Tax Cut Isn’t Trickling Down to Workers

February 7, 2018

That all added up to a massive PR campaign on behalf of the cuts that elided all of the bill’s negative consequences, like the decision by Kleenex maker Kimberly-Clark to use its tax windfall to fund a plan that included laying off 5,000 workers. And it’s not clear that the cut directly led to the […]

Dallas Morning News: Look out N.Y., L.A. and Chicago: The New Tax Law Makes Dallas even stronger

February 2, 2018

Most of the individual and family savings from tax reform are going to high earners. In Texas, three-quarters of the upside will be claimed by taxpayers earning over $106,000, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a “nonprofit, nonpartisan” research firm in Washington. To offset those gains — and the hit on the […]

In These Times: Cities Scrambling to Attract Amazon Because It “Creates Jobs” Are Being Sold a Lie

January 31, 2018

Indeed, it’s far more likely that businesses make decisions on where to locate based on a talented workforce and top-quality infrastructure than their tax rate. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reported in 2013 that state and local taxes are only about 1.8 percent of a company’s cost of doing business. You cannot possibly lower the […]

Bloomberg BNA: States in Pickle Over Deductions for Federal Taxes

January 31, 2018

Iowa lawmakers attempted in vain to repeal the deduction last year, and Alabama has considered repeal efforts as a way of offsetting the revenue loss that would occur if the state repeals its tax on groceries, according to a blog post by Dylan Grundman, senior policy analyst with the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic […]

Newark Star-Ledger: GOP lawmakers shouldn’t skew our numbers to defend Trump’s tax cuts

January 31, 2018

Below is an excerpt of an op-ed by ITEP deputy director Meg Wiehe. It’s well known that the GOP tax law approved in a rush at the end of last year provides a small tax cut for most working people and a bonanza for the wealthy. Attempting to make this historically unpopular bill more agreeable, […]

HuffPost: Companies Are On A Cheap Charm Offensive For Trump’s Tax Bill

January 30, 2018

Meanwhile, Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, announced it would spend an additional $700 million over the next two years on employee pay, thanks to the tax bill. That’s less than 5 percent of the company’s most recent annual profit. Walmart announced the closure of 63 Sam’s Club stores, which will result in hundreds of […]

Tulsa World: Legislative Action Preventing Federal Income Tax Change from Blowing a $375 Million Hole in State Budget

January 28, 2018

December’s federal income tax reform bill would have decreased Oklahoma’s state income tax revenue by $375 million had legislators not “decoupled” from the federal standard deduction last year, analysts say. “Had we not decoupled, the state would have been bringing in $375 million less this year,” said David Blatt of the Oklahoma Policy Institute, citing […]

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Federal Tax Law Will Have Mixed Effect on Taxpayers’ State Tax Bills and States’ Revenue

January 26, 2018 • By Meg Wiehe

Most states piggyback on federal law to some extent for their own taxes, especially personal and corporate income taxes. These states in particular must understand what the federal changes mean for their own tax codes and decide whether to remain “coupled” to changes in the tax bill, decouple from them or take other action in response.