Blog - Federal Policy
559 posts
Higher fuel and food prices are on track to cost the average household over $1,300 by the end of the year.
Meta is claiming the research tax credit – a tax break meant to encourage innovation and experimentation – to pay for the equipment it uses in data centers to power its AI activities. ITEP described how Meta paid just 3.5% of its profits in federal corporate income taxes in 2025.
Big Tech Is Raking in Enormous Tax Breaks for AI Development
September 17, 2026 • By Matthew Gardner
OBBBA’s expensing provision is becoming especially lucrative for the companies building out AI infrastructure right now. There is no evidence whatsoever that tax breaks are necessary to encourage their construction.
New Census Data Show Importance of Refundable Tax Credits and Need for Improvements
September 16, 2026 • By Joe Hughes
The Child Tax Credit actually moved fewer children out of poverty in 2025 than it did in 2024 prior to Congress passing the so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" (OBBBA).
TurboTax maker Intuit reported nearly $6 billion in U.S. profits in 2025 and paid no federal income tax. Instead, the company received a refund, thanks in part to new tax breaks from OBBBA.
The Biggest Winners from Trump’s Tariff Refunds are Big Corporations
September 3, 2026 • By Matthew Gardner
The Trump administration has been forced to pay out over $100 billion from illegal tariffs, and the biggest winners from these tariff refunds have been big corporations.
The Trump Administration Slashed Taxes for H&R Block and Raised Costs for Tax Filers
August 20, 2026 • By Joe Hughes
Tax-prep giant H&R Block paid no federal taxes on its U.S. income in 2025. It also made a public disclosure, required by the European Union, characterizing one-third of its global profits as earned in Ireland, a low-tax country where the company offers no tax services and has only 15 employees.
Five Things to Know About the Trump Administration’s New Effort to Deny Tax Credits to Lawfully Present Immigrants
August 19, 2026 • By Carl Davis
Today the Trump administration proposed new regulations seeking to drastically reduce the tax credits that certain immigrant tax filers can claim. The affected credits include the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Additional Child Tax Credit, American Opportunity Tax Credit, and the Adoption Tax Credit.
Six Companies Reaped $83 Billion in Federal Tax Breaks in 2025
August 14, 2026 • By Sarah Buttikofer, Matthew Gardner
Six companies alone accounted for $83 billion of federal tax breaks disclosed by publicly traded U.S companies so far for 2025. Microsoft received a record high for single-year federal tax breaks for one publicly traded company, followed by Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, JPMorgan Chase, and Nvidia.
Trump Weighs Another Giveaway to the Wealthy With Capital Gains Indexing Ahead of Midterms
August 12, 2026 • 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.
IRS Cuts Could Cruise on Autopilot; New Bill Aims to Restore Funding to Help Taxpayers and Fight Tax Cheats
August 6, 2026 • 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.
Trump Says Exxon and Chevron Are Ripping Off Americans, But His Own Policies Are to Blame
August 4, 2026 • 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
July 29, 2026 • 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.
Flying Under the Tax Radar: How Profitable Airlines Avoided Federal Income Taxes in 2025
July 27, 2026 • 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
July 24, 2026 • 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
July 23, 2026 • 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.
Trump Administration Says Shining Light on Corporate Tax Avoidance is ‘Very Dangerous’
July 14, 2026 • 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.
America at 250: It’s Time for a Tax Code That Lives Up to Our Ideals
July 1, 2026 • 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
June 30, 2026 • 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.
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.
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.
The Final Frontier of Tax Avoidance: Elon Musk’s SpaceX Has $1.9 Billion to Gain from Defunding the IRS
June 12, 2026 • 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.
The oil and gas industry has long been known for widespread tax avoidance. Now, thanks to new disclosure rules, we have a better picture of how this occurs.
Jeff Bezos’ Amazon Received Almost 10 Percent of Corporate Tax Subsidies Last Year
May 21, 2026 • By Matthew Gardner, Steve Wamhoff
Amazon received $17.5 billion in tax subsidies in 2025. That’s about 10% of all federal income tax subsidies for publicly traded corporations in 2025.
As of May 19, Americans have already spent $39 billion more for motor fuel (both gasoline and diesel) because of the Iran War. This number is growing by the day.
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