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Tax Justice in the Crosshairs
• By Amy Hanauer
Billionaires and businesses have too much power in Washington. Tax revenue is needed to pay for things we all need. If we want economic justice, racial justice and climate justice, we must have tax justice.
State Rundown 11/07: Election Week and New Special Sessions
• By ITEP Staff
Tax policy results are mixed across the country as many voters weigh in on state and local ballot measures. For example, Washington state voted to maintain its new progressive tax on capital gains; Georgia voters capped growth in property tax assessments; Illinois voters approved a call for a millionaires’ tax; North Dakota voters rejected property […]
How Tax Decisions in 2025 Can Advance Racial Justice
• By Brakeyshia Samms, Jon Whiten
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.
State Rundown 10/24: Tricks, Treats, and Tax Policy
• By ITEP Staff
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry is proposing a regressive tax reform package that would enact a flat personal and corporate income tax while expanding the state’s sales tax base and eliminating certain exemptions to make up for a portion of the lost revenue. West Virginia continues to chip away at its personal income tax, one of the state’s few progressive revenue options. And advocates in New York are rallying around a package of progressive tax legislation…
How Would the Harris and Trump Tax Plans Affect Different Income Groups?
• By Jon Whiten
Presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have put forward a wide range of different tax proposals during this year’s campaign. We have now fully analyzed the distributional impacts of the major proposals of both Vice President Harris and former President Trump in separate analyses. In all, the tax proposals announced by Harris would, on average, lead to a tax cut for all income groups except the richest 1 percent of Americans, while the proposals…
2024 Local Tax Ballot Measures: Voters in Dozens of Communities Will Shape Local Policy
• By Rita Jefferson
Next month, voters across the country will weigh in on many local ballot measures that will have a profound effect on the adequacy of our local tax systems and whether cities and communities can fund public needs. These are in addition to statewide ballot questions, many of which have local implications this year.
2024 State Tax Ballot Questions: Voters to Weigh in on Tax Changes Big and Small
• By Jon Whiten
As we approach November’s election, voters in several states will be weighing in on tax policy changes. The outcomes will impact the equity of state and local tax systems and the adequacy of the revenue those systems are able to raise to fund public services.
Fifteen Companies Each Avoided More than $1 Billion in Taxes from a Single Trump Tax Cut
• By Joe Hughes, Spandan Marasini
The deduction for Foreign-Derived Intangible Income (FDII), one of the tax cuts included in former President Trump’s signature 2017 tax law, provides a lower effective tax rate on income earned from intangible assets, such as patents, trademarks, and other forms of intellectual property. Since the law went into effect in 2018, 15 corporations have separately reported more than $1 billion in tax benefits. Alphabet (the parent company of Google) reported the most, at more than…
State Rundown 10/10: More Special Sessions, More Proposed Tax Cuts
• By ITEP Staff
This week several states are getting an early start at writing new tax policy in special sessions. In West Virginia, the legislature has come to an agreement with Gov. Justice on an additional tax cut—on top of already-planned cuts. The 2 percent cut will cost the state $49 million a year and come from spending […]
State Rundown 9/18: Special Tax Session Results? “Reply Hazy, Try Again”
• By ITEP Staff
As the dust settles...
Trump’s Plan to Vaporize the Economy Through Mass Deportation
• By Michael Ettlinger
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 […]
Voucher Boondoggle: House Advances Plan to Give the Wealthy $1.20 for Every $1 They Steer to Private K-12 Schools
• By Carl Davis
The U.S. House Ways & Means Committee has advanced a new school voucher bill. H.R. 9462—the Educational Choice for Children Act of 2024—would create an unprecedented tax incentive designed to fund private, mostly religious, K-12 schools.
Expanded Child Tax Credit is Key to Reducing Child Poverty, New Census Data Illustrate
• By Jon Whiten
From 2021-2023, child poverty has more than doubled from 5.2 to 13.7 percent. The latest Census data make clear that lawmakers have the tools to help millions of children and their families – and it’s beyond time they take action.
The Quiet Effort to Make Single Parenthood More Expensive
• By Carl Davis
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…
State Rundown 9/5: Property Tax Policy Continues to Make Headlines
• By ITEP Staff
Property tax bills are undeniably a concern for many low- and moderate-income households across the nation...
Here’s a Tip: Keep the Taxation of Tips As-Is
• By Joe Hughes
The no tax on tips idea isn't a new one, but it's always been abandoned because it's practically impossible to do without creating new avenues for tax avoidance. Despite its embrace by the candidates from both major parties, this policy idea would do little to help the roughly 4 million people who work in tipped occupations while creating a host of problems.
Local Tax Trends in 2024
• By Kamolika Das
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.
State Rundown 8/8: States Laying the Groundwork for Future Tax Battles
• By ITEP Staff
Whether they’re in a special session, gearing up for one, or prepping for 2025, states around the country are focusing on important tax fights...
Minnesota Stands Out for Its Moderately Progressive Tax Code
• By Carl Davis
Minnesota stands apart from the rest of the country with a moderately progressive tax system that asks slightly more of the rich than of low- and middle-income families. Recent reforms signed by Gov. Tim Walz have contributed to this reality.
Which States Improved Child Tax Credits and EITCs in 2024?
• By Neva Butkus
Four states expanded or boosted refundable tax credits for children and families, and the District of Columbia is poised to create a new Child Tax Credit. These actions — in Colorado, Illinois, New York, Utah, and D.C. — continue the recent trend of improving the well-being of children and families with refundable tax credits.
State Rundown 7/25: Summertime Hits Different in Different States
• By ITEP Staff
State lawmakers will have a lot to discuss when they compare notes on how they spent their summer vacations this year...
Five Tax Takeaways from 2024 State Legislative Sessions
• By Aidan Davis
Major tax cuts were largely rejected this year, but states continue to chip away at income taxes. And while property tax cuts were a hot topic across the country, many states failed to deliver effective solutions to affordability issues.
State Rundown 7/11: Mansion Taxes in the Spotlight
• By ITEP Staff
While Massachusetts legislators recently dropped a real estate transfer tax from their major housing bill, the District of Columbia council sent a budget to the mayor that includes a mansion tax that would increase the tax rate on properties valued over $2.5 million. Meanwhile, lawmakers in New Jersey and South Carolina continue to, respectively, raise and reduce needed revenues.
Tax the Wealthy and Reject Austerity for a More Just and Thriving Democracy
• By Amy Hanauer
Two of the last five presidents won office over the objection of the majority of the people; California, with 65 times more people, has the same voting power in the U.S Senate as Wyoming; and the U.S. Supreme Court just permitted South Carolina lawmakers to dilute Black votes in drawing districts. These obvious flaws undermine our claim to be a strong democracy. One less appreciated but similarly undemocratic trend is our extreme inequality that supercharges the power…
Reality Interrupts the Fever Dream of Income Tax Elimination in Kentucky
• By Eli Byerly-Duke
Keeping the Kentucky income tax on a march to zero would mean tax hikes for working families or widespread cuts to education, health care, and other public services. Reversing course is certainly the wiser course of action.
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