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Voters Have the Chance in 2020 to Increase Tax Equity in Arizona, Illinois, and California, And They Should
• By Marco Guzman
There’s a lot at stake in this election cycle: the nation and our economy are reeling from the effects brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and states remain in limbo as they weigh deep budget cuts and rush to address projected revenue shortfalls.
State Rundown 10/21: States Preparing Ingredients for 2021 Fiscal Debates
• By ITEP Staff
State lawmakers around the nation are already looking well past the upcoming election to the legislative debates they’ll be cooking up in 2021. In Iowa and Nebraska, anti-tax groups are thawing out regressive tax shift ideas they had put on ice earlier in the pandemic. In Delaware, a lawsuit and recent settlement have put educational and property tax inequities on the menu for the upcoming session. Meanwhile New Jersey and New York are both looking…
A Conservative Supermajority on the Supreme Court Could Be a Boon to Wealthy Tax Cheats
• By Carl Davis
By early next year, the Supreme Court could be operating under a 6-3 conservative supermajority that may unwind hard-fought progressive reforms across every area imaginable. While reproductive rights and health care are at the forefront of public discourse, the Court’s impact will extend far beyond these two areas. Voting rights, the battle against climate change, anti-discrimination laws, the separation of church and state and yes, even progressive taxation, are all at risk.
Supreme Court Would Provide Massive Tax Cut for the Rich if It Strikes Down Affordable Care Act
• By Steve Wamhoff
If the Supreme Court strikes down the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as argued for by the Trump administration and the president’s nominee to the court, Amy Coney Barrett, one under-appreciated result will be a tax break of roughly $40 billion annually for about 3 percent of Americans, who all have incomes of more than $200,000.
Putting California Proposition 15 in Context
• By Dylan Grundman O'Neill
Californians are voting now on Proposition 15, which would require commercial and industrial property worth $3 million or more to be taxed based on an up-to-date assessment of full market value. Proposition 15 is sound tax policy that would raise much needed revenue and help to advance racial and economic justice.
State Rundown 10/7: States Looking Inward for Needed Revenue
• By ITEP Staff
The biggest news for state and local fiscal debates this week was that federal fiscal relief to help with their pandemic-induced revenue crises is effectively off the table for at least another month. But if there is a silver lining to this federal inaction, it may be that it coincides with New Jersey’s success filling part of its own revenue shortfall through a millionaires tax, as well as with prominent wealth managers admitting that their…
New ITEP Report Shows Few Taxpayers in Each State Paying More Under Biden’s Tax Plan
• By Steve Wamhoff
An ITEP report finds that taxes that people pay directly would stay the same or go down in 2022 for 98.1 percent of Americans under President-elect Joe Biden’s tax plan.
Donald Trump and Taxes: Fast and Loose with Loopholes or Fraud?
• By Matthew Gardner
The president’s apparent abuse of everything from hair-care deductions to consulting fees for family members raises questions about whether Trump was fast and loose with tax loopholes or whether the IRS simply wasn’t enforcing the law. Either way, Trump successfully flouting or pushing the limits of the law shouldn’t come as a surprise: Congress has cut IRS funding, in real terms in each of the last 10 years.
A 2017 Tax Provision Could Have Restrained Trump’s Tax Dodging, But Congress Just Weakened It
• By Steve Wamhoff
President Trump and Republicans in Congress passed up almost every opportunity to shut down special tax breaks and loopholes for real estate investors when they enacted their 2017 tax law. They did, however, include some welcome provisions to limit how business owners use losses to avoid taxes, and these provisions could potentially limit the sort of tax dodging perfected by Trump. Unfortunately, Congress temporarily reversed these limits with some provisions tucked into the CARES Act…
Real Tax Reform Never Had a Chance Under Trump
• By Steve Wamhoff
Congress is certainly to blame both for providing a ridiculously lenient tax code for the super-wealthy and for preventing the IRS from enforcing even the existing weak limits in the law on tax avoidance. But make no mistake, one person is primarily responsible for the farce that is Donald Trump’s tax dodging, and that is Donald Trump. For years, he has actively and loudly supported special tax breaks and tax shelters, making him anything but…
It’s Time to Change the Tax Laws to Make Donald Trump and Corporate Giants Pay Up
• By Amy Hanauer
It’s time for a new approach. Trump’s egregious tax avoidance further exposes a system that preserves an enormous and growing economic divide. Congress has gutted IRS funding so that we don’t have the resources to audit wealthy tax avoiders. And lobbyists continue to secure giveaways for corporate clients that do nothing for our communities.
It’s No Secret—To Save State Budgets End Preferential Treatment of Capital Gains
• By Marco Guzman
In an updated policy brief, ITEP explores the flaws in state capital gains tax breaks and highlights how ending special tax breaks provides one of the simplest ways to raise additional revenue and increase equity in the tax system.
Of Shiny Objects and Scapegoats
• By Jenice R. Robinson
While the moneyed elite were dangling shiny objects, scapegoating Black and brown people, denigrating immigrants, and financing studies to convince us that poor people are the problem, they were concurrently securing policies that cut taxes primarily for the rich and profitable corporations, deregulated industry, weakened unions and attacked voting rights. This and more allowed the rich to amass even more wealth and power.
State Rundown 9/23: Tax Justice Advanced in New Jersey, On the Ballot in Illinois
• By ITEP Staff
New Jersey leaders grabbed the biggest headlines of the week by finally agreeing to implement a much-needed and long-discussed millionaires tax to shore up the budget and improve tax fairness. And Illinois residents can begin voting tomorrow to enact a graduated income tax there. Relatedly, ITEP Research Director Carl Davis updated our research debunking the myth that progressive taxes interfere with economic growth. Cannabis legalization and taxation was a hot topic as well, as lawmakers…
Another Reason to Tax the Rich? States with High Top Tax Rates Doing as Well, if Not Better, than States Without Income Taxes
• By Carl Davis
ITEP updated a 2017 study that examined the economic performance of the nine states with the highest top marginal tax rates compared to the nine states with no state income tax. Economies in states with the highest top marginal rates grew faster. States facing budget shortfalls should first look at raising taxes on those most able to pay (incomes at the top have grown during this economic crisis) before considering harmful budget cuts.
New ITEP Estimates on Biden’s Proposal to Expand the Child Tax Credit
• By Steve Wamhoff
On Thursday, former Vice President Joe Biden announced that his tax plan would include a provision passed by House Democrats to temporarily expand the Child Tax Credit (CTC), potentially lifting millions of children out of poverty. Estimates from ITEP show that this change would benefit most families with children—more than 83 million children live in households that would benefit if this was in effect in 2020—but the most dramatic boost would go to low-income families.
Illinois’s Flat Income Tax Amounts to a Tax Subsidy for the Wealthiest Illinoisans that Compounds Income and Wealth Inequalities
• By Lisa Christensen Gee
This November, Illinoisans will decide whether to amend the state constitution to allow a graduated income tax. A “yes” vote on the Illinois Fair Tax constitutional amendment will make effective legislation that will replace the current flat tax rate of 4.95 percent with graduated rates that cut taxes for those with taxable income less than $250,000 and institute higher marginal rates on taxable incomes greater than $250,000.
The Vital Role of Public Programs in Moving People and Families Out of Poverty
• By Aidan Davis
More families across our nation are struggling to meet their most basic needs. High unemployment, the struggle to put enough food on the table, and an inability to make rent or mortgage payments are widespread. Absent federal intervention, outcomes would have been worse. Over the past few months, federal and state relief measures have mitigated hardship. By putting cash in the hands of those who need it most, lawmakers were able to stabilize some families’ budgets and prop up our fragile…
State Rundown 9/11: Benefits of Progressive Taxation Getting Well-Deserved Attention
• By ITEP Staff
Readers may want to start with our “What We’re Reading” section this week, which is full of good reading on how progressive taxation is needed to fund vital public services, helpful for state and local economic growth, and popular among voters as well. In that spirit, leaders in both New Jersey and New York are looking at small taxes on stock trades to help improve their budgets and tax codes. These last couple of weeks…
Millionaire Population Swells in Blue States Despite Migration Fearmongering
• By Carl Davis
Although the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has created a slew of problems, it is now clear that a mass migration of top earners out of higher-tax blue states is not one of them.
The Rich Are Weathering the Pandemic Just Fine: Tax Them
• By Carl Davis, ITEP Staff, Meg Wiehe
Reductions in critical state and local investments, including health care and education, would only exacerbate the economic crisis brought on by COVID-19 and worsen racial and income inequality for years to come. Higher taxes on top earners are among the best options for addressing pandemic-related state revenue shortfalls in the coming months.
State Rundown 8/26: Progressive Revenue Ideas Featured in Many States’ Fiscal Debates
• By ITEP Staff
Voters could significantly change the tax landscape through ballot measures this November regarding oil taxes in Alaska and a high-income surcharge for education funding in Arizona. Legislators are doing their part to bring progressive tax ideas to the fore as well, including a possible wealth tax in California, a millionaires tax in New Jersey, and a pied-a-terre proposal in New York. And Nebraska lawmakers reached a property tax and business tax subsidy compromise before closing…
Missed Opportunity: Flimsy Paper Touts Flawed Program
• By Amy Hanauer, ITEP Staff, Lorena Roque
Republicans continue to tout Opportunity Zones as their main vehicle to assist poor people, most recently with a deeply flawed report from President Trump’s White House Council of Economic Advisors and a mention from Donald Trump Jr. in his opening night convention speech. The report purports to compare—as a way of cutting poverty—tax breaks for investors vs food, cash or health insurance coverage for struggling families.
Analysis: Trump’s Proposed Capital Gains Break Almost Exclusively Benefits Top 1 Percent
• By Steve Wamhoff
On Aug. 13, President Trump pledged to cut the top federal income tax for capital gains to 15 percent. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that 99 percent of the benefits would go to the richest 1 percent of taxpayers. This is unsurprising given that only those with taxable income of nearly half a million dollars are subject to a capital gains tax rate higher than 15 percent.
Trump’s Executive Order on Social Security Payroll Taxes Is a Mess
• By Steve Wamhoff
President Trump’s executive order that would supposedly allow workers to delay paying Social Security taxes, along with his related public statements, have created a situation that is bizarre even by 2020 standards.
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