Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

NBC News: Even Families Making $100K Won’t Be Better Off Under New Tax Plan

May 2, 2017

This might not help taxpayers who live in states with high state and local taxes. Currently, taxpayers in the bottom half of the top income quintile — that is, those with an average income of $129,000 — pay nearly 11 percent in state and local taxes as a percentage of income, according to the Institute […]

CNBC: Trump’s Tax Holiday Could Be a Windfall for These Stocks

May 2, 2017

On a per-share basis, the company’s foreign earnings left overseas come to more than $40 a share, according to CNBC calculations using figures from a recent report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.  Unlike Apple, most companies do not report overseas cash breakdowns. But regulations do require that they report money that will […]

Associated Press: Tax Package Backed by Nebraska Gov. Ricketts Stalls

May 2, 2017

The bill would have given a larger benefit to wealthy residents who pay a larger share of their income at the top tax rate. Supporters said the income tax portion was largely aimed at small businesses that would promote job growth and diversify the economy. Critics said the package doesn’t do nearly as much for […]

Bloomberg: Trump Study of Gas Tax Could Run Afoul of GOP, Rural Voters

May 1, 2017

Voters in rural areas overwhelmingly chose Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, and a higher gas tax also may indeed affect those areas disproportionately, said Carl Davis, research director for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a non-profit research organization in Washington. The gas tax is regressive, meaning it puts […]

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Tax the Rich? Done. Tax Fairness, Well …

April 29, 2017

A broader comparison of all state and local taxes comes from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a progressive Washington research group. It, too, ranks Minnesota’s tax system today among the country’s most progressive — or, as ITEP says, among the “least regressive.”  “Virtually every state tax system is fundamentally unfair,” the report declares, […]

The Hill: Making Wall Street Loopholes Great Again

April 29, 2017

The choice of Cohn and Mnuchin as the faces of Trump’s tax plan really says it all. Their former employer, Goldman Sachs, is already a champion tax dodger. When Cohn stepped down as the bank’s president to join the administration, Goldman had $31 billion in untaxed offshore profits and 987 tax haven subsidiaries, according to […]

PBS News Hour: Corporations Go Overseas to Avoid U.S. Taxes

April 29, 2017

PATRICIA SABGA: From the White House to Capitol Hill, Republicans are determined to lower the 35 percent corporate tax rate — the highest of any developed economy. Matt Gardner is a Senior Fellow with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a liberal, Washington-based think tank. MATT GARDNER: The biggest, most profitable corporations are now […]

Roll Call: As GOP Tax Overhaul Shapes Up, Democrats Push to End the Tax Return

April 28, 2017

Groups like Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, which advocates a flat tax, have also opposed return-free filing, saying it would allow the IRS to “intimidate” taxpayers into paying whatever is on the pre-filled return. Richard Phillips, a senior policy analyst at the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said anti-tax organizations also want people to find doing […]

Crain’s Chicago Business: How Much Do Illinois Companies Pay in Taxes?

April 28, 2017

Illinois’ Fortune 500 companies are paying less and less in state corporate taxes—and sometimes, almost nothing at all. A new report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found certain corporations are finding ways to shelter much of their profit from state taxes. The eight-year study looked at 240 Fortune 500 companies from 2008 […]

CBS News: Trump’s Tax Cut Promise to Pay for Themselves. So Will They?

April 28, 2017

The most durable effect of the 1981 cuts was to lay the groundwork for a tax reform in 1986, which was intended not to raise revenue but to clean up the tax code. In the century-old history of the income tax, the 1986 effort gets high marks from left and right alike as the only […]

CNBC: Companies Holding $2.6 Trillion Pile of Cash Offshore

April 28, 2017

The top companies in terms of overseas holdings are Apple, Pfizer and Microsoft, according to a report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. General Electric and IBM round out the top five. Read more

New York Daily News: Trump’s Tax Plan Ignores Campaign Promise to Help Middle Class

April 27, 2017 • By ITEP Staff

Nor do they jibe with his and his presidential transition team’s guarantee that there wouldn’t be a big tax cut for wealthy people — now-Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin promised on CNBC in late November that “there will be no absolute tax cut for the upper class” — or how it would be paid for. Trump […]

Fast Company: At Last, Silicon Valley May Have Found a Trump Proposal to Like–Hist Tax Plan

April 27, 2017

Apple, for one, would likely be happy about a one-time repatriation of earnings, depending on the details of the plan. In 2016, the European Union, after a lengthy investigation, ruled that Apple parking earnings at its Irish subsidiaries (to avoid paying U.S. taxes) amounts to the tech giant receiving “illegal state aid” from Ireland. As […]

International Business Times: Winners and Losers in Trump Tax Plan

April 27, 2017

On the state level, 240 Fortune 500 firms avoided paying $126 billion in income taxes between 2008 and 2015, a study released Thursday by the non-profit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found. Of those 240 companies, 92 avoided state income taxes for at least one year during that period, and 49 paid no state income […]

Governing: This Week in Public Finance

April 27, 2017

She’s right that sales tax exemptions are political. But to be fair, which exemptions aren’t? Moreoever, taxes themselves are unavoidably political. They speak to the policies and values held by each government. For example, four of the top 10 states that the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy ranks as the most regressive also don’t exempt […]

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Profitable Fortune 500 Companies Avoid $126 Billion in State Corporate Taxes Over Eight Years

April 27, 2017 • By ITEP Staff

The Effective State Tax Rate Paid by Profitable Fortune 500 Corporations Is Declining,Yet States Continue to Actively Dismantle Their Corporate Income Taxes (Washington, D.C.) As states struggle with tough budget decisions about funding essential public services, the average effective state tax rate paid by profitable Fortunate 500 companies continues to drop due to copious loopholes […]

Center for Public Integrity: Big Tax Cuts for the Rich, Less for the Poor

April 26, 2017

Others see it differently. The Tax Foundation is one of the leading proponents of tax cuts that disproportionately favor the wealthy over low-income families, said Meg Wiehe, director of programs at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a liberal tax policy group that receives much of its financial support from the Ford Foundation, the […]

The American Prospect: Trump’s Big Tax Cut Is Unadulterated Trickle-Down Fundamentalism

April 26, 2017

For instance, a report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that examined the corporate tax filings of 258 Fortune 500 companies from 2008 to 2015 provided a snapshot of the realities of corporate taxation. The findings show that some of the country’s biggest and most profitable companies pay nowhere near the 35 percent […]

New York Daily News: President Trump’s Tax Plan Ignores Campaign Promises to Help Middle Class, Reduce National Debt

April 26, 2017

Nor do they jibe with his and his presidential transition team’s guarantee that there wouldn’t be a big tax cut for wealthy people — now-Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin promised on CNBC in late November that “there will be no absolute tax cut for the upper class” — or how it would be paid for. Trump […]

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Trump Tax Plan Revives Economic Voodoo

April 26, 2017 • By Alan Essig

Following is a statement by Alan Essig, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding the tax plan released today by the Trump Administration. The administration has said that this plan will be the “largest tax cut in history.” “The Trump tax plan is not tax reform but a massive tax cut […]

The Seattle Times: Washington State Relies on a Rotten Tax System

April 24, 2017

Poor people across the country pay a higher percentage of their income in state and local taxes than do wealthier people, but Washington is the worst offender in that regard. A report by the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that in our state the 20 percent of households with the lowest income […]

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New Report: DACA-Eligible Immigrants Annually Pay $2 billion in State and Local Taxes

April 24, 2017 • By Meg Wiehe

Young undocumented immigrants’ tax contributions would drop by nearly half if DACA protections were rescinded A new Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy report examined the state and local tax contributions of young immigrants eligible for DACA (deferred action for childhood arrivals) and found that, collectively, they annually contribute $2 billion in state and local […]

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New Analysis: Average Alaskan Would Pay Less Under Income Tax Than Under Other Fiscal Options

April 23, 2017 • By ITEP Staff

Cutting the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) or Implementing a Sales Tax Would Be Costlier than Income Tax for Most Alaskans A new analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) finds that for most Alaskans, a state income tax would capture less of their income than other revenue-raising alternatives such as cutting the […]

The Boston Globe: We Know This Sounds Crazy, But GE Could Help Fix Our Unfair Tax Code

April 21, 2017

Don’t worry. This isn’t yet another screed calling you out as the king of all corporate tax dodgers. By now, most people probably have a general understanding that you’ve been both aggressive and effective in reducing what you owe Uncle Sam over the years, though I suspect few appreciate just how effective. If there is […]