California
Huffington Post: Poverty Is Rising, But State Tax Systems Burden The Poor, While Rich Get Off Easy
December 21, 2012
Original Post September 27, 2011 by Tyler Kingkade WASHINGTON — Newly released U.S. Census data reveal that poverty levels have skyrocketed, but in most states, the tax systems disproportionally burden the poor. Most states also impose tax structures similar to what current Republican presidential candidates are advocating, and experts warn these should serve as cautionary […]
Bloomberg/BNA: Tax Reform Likely in 15 State Legislatures in 2013, Think Tank Says
December 20, 2012
December 20,2102 The major shifts in partisan control due to the November elections, which resulted in 37 states having unified one-party control over the Legislature and governorship, are likely to bring state tax reform to the forefront in 2013, Matthew Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), said Dec. 19. […]
San Francisco Chronicle Bay: Area firms among 30 not paying federal taxes
December 19, 2012
(Original Post) Andrew S. Ross, Chronicle Columnist Friday, November 4, 2011 More grist for the anticorporate mill. Thirty major U.S. public companies, including San Francisco’s PG&E Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co., paid no federal taxes over the past three years, according to a report released Thursday. A number of them, notably Wells Fargo, also […]
Reuters: Benefiting from taxes
December 19, 2012
(Original Post) Tue Nov 8, 2011 7:00am EST By David Cay Johnston Nov 8 (Reuters) – In a competitive market, economists argue endlessly about who bears the burden of corporate income tax. Is it owners, who get a smaller net return? Or workers, who make less? Or suppliers, who get lower prices? Or customers, who […]
Mercury News: Richmond takes step toward divesting from corporations
December 19, 2012
(Original Post) By Hannah DreierContra Costa TimesPosted: 11/16/2011 06:15:49 PM PSTUpdated: 11/17/2011 09:17:07 PM PST In solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, Richmond is exploring divestment from corporations that do not pay income tax. Council members took inspiration from a report on corporate tax dodgers. The report found that 30 large corporations, including Verizon, Boeing, Wells […]
San Francisco Chronicle: Government gets blamed for widening wealth gap
December 19, 2012
(Original Post) Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, December 8, 2011 The state and federal governments are largely responsible for the widening gap between the rich and poor in the United States and should institute policy changes – including reforms to the tax code and more investment in education – to help reverse this 30-year […]
ABC-7 San Francisco: Profitable corporations paying minimal taxes
December 19, 2012
(Original Post) Thursday, December 08, 2011 Nannette Miranda SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KGO) — As the battle rages in California over increasing taxes or cutting state spending, a new report on corporate taxes is raising a lot of eyebrows. A surprising number of very profitable corporations are paying either very low, or even no state income tax. […]
The Courier-Journal: Study names Yum! Brands among companies “dodging” state taxes
December 19, 2012
(Original Post) Posted on December 9, 2011 by Chris Otts A new report names Louisville-based Yum! Brands as one of 68 Fortune 500 companies that paid no state corporate income taxes in at least one year between 2008-2010, despite earning profits for shareholders. The report doesn’t say that Yum! has been shorting the state of […]
About.com: Corporate Tax Dodgers Hurting States, Group Says
December 19, 2012
(Original Post) By Robert Longley, About.com Guide December 16, 2011 If your state, like most states, is hurting for money and is putting the squeeze on you for more, then this news will not make it hurt any less. A new report from the Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) identifies 256 Fortune 500 corporations which, […]
California Budget Project: Measuring Up: The Social and Economic Context of the Governor’s Proposed 2012-13 Budget
December 17, 2012
Read the Full Report (PDF)
California Budget Project: What Makes a Tax System Fair
December 17, 2012
While everyone believes a tax system ought to be fair, there is disagreement as to what constitutes a fair or equitable tax system. This Budget Backgrounder describes what economists generally believe makes a tax system fair, examines how fair California’s tax system is, and discusses why fairness matters. Read the Full Report (PDF)
California Budget Project: What Would Proposition 38 Mean for California
December 17, 2012
Proposition 38, which will appear on the November 6, 2012 statewide ballot, would temporarily increase personal income tax rates for nearly all California taxpayers and allocate the new revenues to K-12 education, early childhood education, and repayment of state general obligation (GO) bond debt. Proposition 38 would raise an estimated $10 billion in 2013-14 – […]
California Budget Project: What Would Proposition 30 Mean for California
December 17, 2012
“Proposition 30, which will appear on the November 6, 2012 statewide ballot, would increase personal income tax rates on very-high-income Californians for seven years and raise the state’s sales tax rate by one-quarter cent for four years. The Legislative Analyst’s Offi ce (LAO) estimates that the measure would raise an average of approximately $6 billion […]
Huffington Post: Hollywood Activists Protest FedEx’s Low Corporate Tax Rate
December 17, 2012
(Original Post) Anna Almendrala First Posted: 01/25/2012 9:55 pm Updated: 01/26/2012 12:49 pm Unfair tax rates are the topic du jour when it comes to inequality in America and protesters in Hollywood put the issue center stage on Wednesday afternoon with a march down Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard to highlight what they called FedEx’s excesssively low […]
Chicago Tribune: The case for a graduated income tax in Illinois
December 17, 2012
(Original Post) Tuesday, February 28, 2012 If Illinois were to adopt the same graduated income tax rate structure as Iowa, Illinois would raise $6.3 billion more in revenue than it does from its current five percent flat rate, while 54 percent—over half—of all taxpayers would pay less in state income taxes…from The Case for Creating […]
Journal News: Gas taxes fail in their purpose
December 17, 2012
11:02 PM, Mar. 19, 2012 Written by A Journal News editorial Sunday’s report on gas taxes in New York helps codify the pain and anguish so many New Yorkers feel when they so much as drive by a gas station in the Empire State. “It’s outrageous,” declared Stephen Lester, whose quest for cheaper gas takes […]
Business Week: A Tax Windfall From the Housing Bust
December 17, 2012
(Original Post) By Amanda J. Crawford on April 26, 2012 As Karen Jacobs, an economist in Arizona’s Department of Revenue, was reviewing income tax data for 2010, she came across a puzzling trend: Refunds were down and tax liability was up even though the state’s unemployment rate peaked that year, at 10.8 percent. “My first […]
Fairfield County Business Journal: Corporations dodge taxes, hand small biz the bill
December 17, 2012
(Original Post) by Janice Kirkel The amount the average American small business had to pay in 2011 to cover the cost of corporate abuse of tax havens was $2,116.The amount an individual tax filer had to pay was $426. Both are the findings of a report by U.S. PIRG, the federation of state public interest […]
Casper Star-Tribune: Wyoming ranks high again for economic growth
December 17, 2012
(Original Post) By JOAN BARRON Star-Tribune capital bureau | Posted: Sunday, April 29, 2012 10:00 am CHEYENNE — Wyoming again ranks fourth among states for best economic growth and outlook, largely because of the state’s low total tax burden, according to a nonprofit group’s report. The American Legislative Exchange Council ranked Wyoming fourth for the […]
Chicago Tribune: Tax distortions
December 17, 2012
(Original Post) June 08, 2012 This is in response to “Illinois shouldn’t adopt progressive tax; Take it from an ex-Californian” (Perspective, June 8), by Lawrence J. McQuillan, chief economist at the Illinois Policy Institute, a free-market think tank. I was alarmed by the way McQuillan’s op-ed distorts both the Illinois and California tax systems. He […]
Bloomberg: States Lacking Income Tax Get No Boost in Growth
December 17, 2012
(Original Post) By Brian Chappatta on June 25, 2012 Governors seeking to expand their economies by eliminating income taxes find little support for the idea in the record of U.S. states that lack such a levy. The BGOV Barometer shows the nine states with the highest personal income taxes on residents outperformed or kept pace […]
Think Progress: Having No Income Tax Gives States No Economic Boost
December 17, 2012
(Original Post) By Pat Garofalo on Jun 26, 2012 at 10:30 am According to a report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, states without an income tax received no discernible boost in growth over the last decade compared to states with relatively high income taxes. Lacking an income tax provided no boost to […]
NPR’s State Impact: Recent Study Questions “New Hampshire Advantage”
December 17, 2012
(Original Post) June 29, 2012 | 11:23 AMBy Emily Corwin A couple of weeks ago, Arthur Laffer — an economist made famous for his work in the Reagan administration — co-wrote an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal warning that the expiration of federal tax cuts in January puts the country on the verge […]
New York Times: To Cut Taxes or Keep Services- 2 States Act as Test Cases
December 17, 2012
(Original Post) By MICHAEL COOPERPublished: July 10, 2012 OCEAN CITY, Md. — As state governments begin to emerge from the long downturn, many are grappling with a difficult choice: should they restore some of the services and jobs they were forced to cut after the recession or cut taxes in the hopes of bolstering their […]
South Bend Tribune: Here’s a better idea on Indiana’s sales tax
December 17, 2012
ANDREA NEAL 5:46 a.m. EDT, September 19, 2012 At 3.4 percent, Indiana’s personal income tax is one of the nation’s lowest. A half dozen states, including Texas and Florida, don’t charge income tax at all; 41 states impose a rate higher than Indiana’s. At 7 percent, the Indiana sales tax ties for second highest with […]
