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Trump Weighs Another Giveaway to the Wealthy With Capital Gains Indexing Ahead of Midterms
• By Jon Whiten
Trump is once again weighing a proposal to index capital gains taxes to inflation as part of a set of policy promises ahead of the midterm elections. It would amount to a massive new tax break for wealthy investors.
New Yorkers, Please Pay Your City Income Taxes: Why the Pied-à-Terre Tax Rollout Is Not Worth a Meltdown
• By Rita Jefferson
The news coverage of the second home tax has been disconnected from the real living conditions for the millions of New Yorkers who don’t own a second (or third, or fourth) home.
IRS Cuts Could Cruise on Autopilot; New Bill Aims to Restore Funding to Help Taxpayers and Fight Tax Cheats
• By Sarah C. G. Christopherson
This fall, Congress could allow billions of dollars in IRS funding to disappear on autopilot. However, the Stop CHEATERS Act would restore the multi-year mandatory funding rescinded from the IRA and account for recent cuts to the IRS’s base budget.
Missouri Voters Reject Amendment 5 and a Damaging Tax Shift onto Working Families
• By Eli Byerly-Duke, Jon Whiten
Yesterday Missouri voters rejected Amendment 5, declining to give lawmakers a blank check to raise or expand sales taxes, something some lawmakers sought to enable enormous income tax cuts for the state’s wealthiest households.
Trump Says Exxon and Chevron Are Ripping Off Americans, But His Own Policies Are to Blame
• By Matthew Gardner
President Trump lashed out at ExxonMobil and Chevron for “making too much money." These companies are reporting enormous profits right now, partly the result of Trump’s war in Iran but also due to the corporate tax policies he's passed during his time in office.
Microsoft Reports a 2.44 Percent Federal Tax Rate on a Record $101 Billion in Profits
• By Matthew Gardner
Microsoft avoided federal income tax on almost all of its U.S. income for fiscal year 2026. The company’s 2.44 percent federal tax rate on over $100 billion of U.S. income is largely attributable to tax breaks that were either created or expanded by Republican tax cuts enacted at the behest of President Donald Trump in 2017 and 2025.
State Rundown 7/29: The Misguided, Miserly Missouri Amendment to Eliminate the Income Tax
• By ITEP Staff
Missouri voters are facing a major decision at the ballot box next week on Amendment 5, which would amend the state constitution to allow lawmakers to eliminate the individual income tax and expand the state’s sales tax on any good or service to make up for lost revenue.
Flying Under the Tax Radar: How Profitable Airlines Avoided Federal Income Taxes in 2025
• By Sarah Buttikofer, Spandan Marasini
Corporate tax disclosures reveal that five profitable airlines paid almost nothing in federal income tax last year. In 2025, the effective federal income tax rates of these airlines ranged from 1.07 percent to below zero.
The Campaign by Former Democratic Officials to Stop Taxes on the Wealthy Is Back
• By Steve Wamhoff
A former Democratic senator from Nebraska has joined Saving America’s Family Enterprises and taken up its cause of opposing wealth taxes.
Congressional Republicans Say D.C. Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Run Its Own Tax System
• By Matthew Gardner
This week a U.S. House of Representatives committee approved a bill that would effectively take away Washington, D.C.’s fiscal autonomy, requiring Congressional approval of any new D.C. laws that increase taxes or fees.
Localities Try Vacant Land Taxes, Mansion Taxes and Second Home Taxes
• By Rita Jefferson
In 2026, cities, counties, and school districts must manage tax cuts coming from federal and state governments, the end of federal pandemic aid, rising costs, and a stagnant economy. This challenging environment is forcing municipalities of all types to ask how they can best fund core priorities and invest in communities in the long term.
State Tax Expenditures Deserve a Closer Look
• By Brooklyn Ramirez
As many states enter a new fiscal year this month, it’s an ideal time to take a closer look at a major but often overlooked category of government spending: tax expenditures. To make these programs easier to explore and compare, ITEP has updated its state-by-state tax expenditure reports resource.
New Legislation Would Require Big Multinationals to Tell Shareholders Where They’re Hiding Offshore Profits
• By Matthew Gardner
Sen. Chris Van Hollen introduced legislation requiring big multinational corporations to tell shareholders and the public what they’re already telling tax authorities behind closed doors: how much income they’re booking in specific offshore tax havens and how little tax they’re paying to these jurisdictions.
Trump Administration Says Shining Light on Corporate Tax Avoidance is ‘Very Dangerous’
• By Matthew Gardner
Administration officials appear far more concerned about the public knowing too much about how U.S. corporations shift their income into offshore tax havens.
State Rundown 7/14: 250 Years of Good Reasons to Tax the Rich
• By ITEP Staff
As our nation celebrates and reflects 250 years since its adoption of the Declaration of Independence, several states have moved to pass lingering budgets.
2026 Sessions in Review: States Fund Tax Credits by Preserving, Raising Revenue
• By Aidan Davis
In a year of cautious uncertainty around current and ongoing revenues, many state lawmakers strengthened their tax credits for families and children.
America at 250: It’s Time for a Tax Code That Lives Up to Our Ideals
• By Brakeyshia Samms
After 250 years, our leaders must show a commitment to completing the unfinished work of American democracy.
New EU Disclosure Requirements Are Helping Identify Corporate Tax Avoiders
• By Matthew Gardner
Microsoft reports a huge share of its worldwide profit in low-tax Ireland and is achieving this despite having a very small share of its employees there. As other companies make similar disclosures between now and the end of calendar year 2026, investors and the public will likely get a much clearer sense of how much profit corporations are hiding offshore—and how much tax they’re avoiding by doing so.
2026 Sessions in Review: States Move to Tax the Rich and Corporations
• By Aidan Davis
This year several states raised income tax rates on high-income people to fund crucial services and make progress toward remedying the regressive tilt of their tax codes.
A Year Later, Many States Have Decided Not to Double Down on Trump’s Tax Cuts
• By Nick Johnson
Nearly one year after the Trump tax law was signed, many of the 42 states with income taxes are declining to incorporate significant parts of the new law into their own tax codes.
State Rundown 6/25: Trending This Summer? New Revenue!
• By ITEP Staff
It's the first official week of summer, and while many of us are planning vacations, state lawmakers remain busy finalizing and debating tax proposals.
Why Corporations Must Pay More
• By Steve Wamhoff, Amy Hanauer
Corporate tax reforms could be more resilient than proposals to tax wealth or unrealized capital gains while achieving the same goal of more adequately taxing the income of billionaires.
Celebrate Juneteenth With Tax Justice for All
• By Brakeyshia Samms
If Juneteenth is to mean anything beyond symbolism, it must also be a call to confront the policies that continue to shape racial inequities today. One of the most powerful drivers of that inequity is our tax system.
Rhode Island Budget Bets on Tax Fairness with Millionaires’ Tax and New Child Tax Credit
• By Miles Trinidad
The spending plan, signed into law by Gov. Dan McKee today, features a new millionaires’ tax, the state’s first permanent child tax credit, expanded eligibility for its Social Security exemption , and strategic decoupling from federal business tax provisions.
The Final Frontier of Tax Avoidance: Elon Musk’s SpaceX Has $1.9 Billion to Gain from Defunding the IRS
• By Matthew Gardner
A year after Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cut a swath of destruction through vital federal agencies including the Internal Revenue Service, Musk’s apparent antipathy toward the IRS suddenly makes more sense.
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