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New ITEP Report on President’s Misguided Payroll Tax Proposal
• By Steve Wamhoff
Earlier this week, ITEP analyzed what would happen if Congress and the President repeated the 2 percentage-point cut in the Social Security payroll tax that was enacted for two years during the last recession. Little did we know that President Trump was about to propose something far more radical: eliminating all Social Security and Medicare […]
Trump’s Proposed Payroll Tax Cut Is Not the Right Answer
• By Steve Wamhoff
The Trump administration is floating a cut in the Social Security payroll tax as a measure to counteract a potential economic downturn related to the COVID-19 virus. It should go without saying that a public health crisis requires government interventions that have nothing to do with taxes. But even if policymakers want to find ways to stimulate the economy beyond solving the health crisis, the payroll tax cut is not likely to be very effective.
COVID-19 Is No Excuse for Airline Industry or Any Other Corporate Tax Cut
• By Matthew Gardner
Trump administration officials have reportedly floated the idea of including tax breaks for the airline industry in its package of COVID-19-related stimulus proposals, which would allow airline companies to defer income taxes into the future. This is an odd policy choice since most of the biggest airlines are already using deferral to zero out most or all of their federal income taxes on billions of dollars in profits.
Taxes in a Time of Coronavirus
• By Amy Hanauer
Some problems can only be solved when public officials have the resources to act. Today’s public health crisis is that kind of problem. Unfortunately, the Trump administration’s deep tax cuts leave our health infrastructure knee-capped, just when we need it most.
The Latest Wildly Misleading Argument Against Taxing the Rich
• By Steve Wamhoff
Anti-tax activists’ convoluted claims that the rich pay too much in taxes broke new ground with an op-ed published last week in the Wall Street Journal. Penned by former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm and John Early, a former official of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the piece is particularly misleading. The so-called evidence in support of their argument against raising taxes on the rich fails to correctly calculate effective tax rates.
Federal Inaction on the Gas Tax is Costing Us Dearly
• By Carl Davis
Lawmakers should keep in mind that transportation funding woes can be traced to the federal government’s extremely outdated gas tax rate, which has not been raised in more than 26 years—not even to keep up with inflation.
Tax Cuts Floated by White House Advisors Are an Attempt to Deflect from TCJA’s Failings
• By ITEP Staff, Jenice R. Robinson, Steve Wamhoff
Now that multiple data points reveal the current administration, which promised to look out for the common man, is, in fact, presiding over an upward redistribution of wealth, the public is being treated to pasta policymaking in which advisors are conducting informal public opinion polling by throwing tax-cut ideas against the wall to see if any stick. But the intent behind these ideas is as transparent as a glass noodle.
How Democratic Presidential Candidates Would Raise Revenue
• By Steve Wamhoff
One of the biggest problems with the U.S. tax code in terms of fairness is that investment income, which mostly flows to the rich, is taxed less than the earned income that makes up all or almost all of the income that working people live on.
2021 Trump Budget Continues 40-Year Trickle-Down Economic Agenda
• By Jenice R. Robinson
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act may as well have been called the Promise for Austerity Later Act.
Hearing Witness: Trump Administration Giving Tax Breaks Not Allowed by Law
• By Steve Wamhoff
The Treasury Department, tasked with issuing regulations to implement the hastily drafted Trump-GOP tax law, is concocting new tax breaks that are not provided in the law. This is the short version of what we learned while watching Tuesday’s House Ways and Means Committee hearing on “The Disappearing Corporate Income Tax.”
Washington Is Finally Having the Right Conversation about Taxes
• By Amy Hanauer
Presidential candidates and some elected officials are finally talking about bold tax policy ideas that would increase taxes and raise revenue. This is a dramatic shift from when a radical, right-wing narrative dominated the public debate. Republicans redefined “fiscal responsibility” as fewer taxes and less government, peddled supply-side economic theories, and denied the clear evidence that tax cuts were adding to our nation’s deficits.
ITEP Urges IRS to End SALT Workaround Scheme for Businesses
• By Carl Davis
A new IRS proposal could once again allow wealthy business owners to use state charitable tax credits–including tax credits for donating to support private and religious K-12 schools–to dodge the federal government’s $10,000 cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions.
GOP Legacy on IRS Administration: Auditing Mississippi, not Microsoft
• By Matthew Gardner
Money doesn’t buy happiness—but it can buy immunity from the reach of Uncle Sam. The IRS is outgunned in cases against corporate giants because that’s how Republican leaders want it to be. They have systematically assaulted the agency’s enforcement capacity through decades of funding cuts. Instead of saving money, these cuts have cost billions: each dollar spent on the IRS results in several dollars of tax revenue collected.
White House Council of Economic Advisers Crows about Lowest-Income Americans Being Infinitesimally “Wealthier”
• By Matthew Gardner
When the White House Council of Economic Advisors last week tweeted that the poorest 50 percent of Americans’ wealth is growing 3 times faster than the wealth of the top 1 percent, we were skeptical. As it turns out, the CEA’s tweet is a reminder that the poorest 50 percent wealth grew twice as fast during Barack Obama’s second term than it has under Trump, but to this day remains far below its pre-recession share…
Time to Throw Cucumbers
• By Steve Wamhoff
A basic understanding and idea of fairness is a trait we share with intelligent primates, which is precisely why more than two years ago as Congress was debating the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the American public disapproved of the tax bill.
Guilty, Not GILTI: Unclear Whether Corps Continue to Lower Their Tax Bills Via Tax Haven Abuse
• By Matthew Gardner
President Trump and GOP lawmakers often cited corporations’ abuse of tax havens, e.g. shifting profits offshore to avoid taxes, as justification for dramatically lowering the federal corporate tax rate under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. By 2016, corporations’ offshore cash haul had grown to $2.6 trillion, representing hundreds of billions in lost federal tax […]
Corporate Tax Avoidance Is Mostly Legal—and That’s the Problem
• By Steve Wamhoff
As usual, corporate spokespersons and their allies are trying to push back against ITEP’s latest study showing that many corporations pay little or nothing in federal income taxes. One way they respond is by stating that everything they do is perfectly legal. This is an attempt by the corporate world to change the subject. The entire point of ITEP’s study is that Congress has allowed corporations to avoid paying taxes, and that this must change.
More of the Same: Corporate Tax Avoidance Hasn’t Changed Much Under Trump-GOP Tax Law
• By Matthew Gardner
A new report from ITEP released today shows that, based on the first year of financial reports released by companies operating under the new tax law, tax avoidance appears to be every bit as much of a problem under the new tax system as it was before the Trump tax law took effect.
House Democrats’ Latest Bill on SALT Deductions Would Mean Bigger Tax Cuts for the Rich
• By Steve Wamhoff
ITEP estimates show that if the House Democrats' proposal was in effect in 2022, it would have a net cost of $81 billion in that year alone. The estimates also show that 51 percent of the benefits would go to the richest 1 percent of taxpayers in the U.S. Clearly, lawmakers concerned about the SALT cap need to go back to the drawing board.
There’s a lot more to Corporate Tax Reform than Tax Rates
• By Lorena Roque
Several Democratic candidates have proposed raising the statutory corporate tax rate from its current level of 21 percent to fund their spending proposals. Political reporters and observers may read a great deal into the different corporate rates proposed by candidates, but the truth is that rates mean very little on their own.
Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman’s New Book Reminds Us that Tax Injustice Is a Choice
• By Steve Wamhoff
Cue Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman. In their new book, The Triumph of Injustice, the economists, who already jolted the world with their shocking data on exploding income inequality and wealth inequality, tell us to stop acting like we are paralyzed when it comes to tax policy. There are answers and solutions. And in about 200 surprisingly readable pages, they provide them.
How a Federal Wealth Tax Can Help the Economy
• By Steve Wamhoff
A New York Times article explained that proponents of a federal wealth tax hope to address exploding inequality but then went on to list the fears of billionaires and economic policymakers, finding that “the idea of redistributing wealth by targeting billionaires is stirring fierce debates at the highest ranks of academia and business, with opponents arguing it would cripple economic growth, sap the motivation of entrepreneurs who aspire to be multimillionaires and set off a…
The Nation’s Income Inequality Challenge Explained in Charts
• By Stephanie Clegg
Income inequality has reached its highest level since the U.S. Census Bureau began tracking the measure more than 50 years ago, according to recent data. While recent Census data show modest increases in median household income and average hourly wages—numbers anti-tax politicians and pundits have used to deny rising inequality—a deeper look at some of the latest numbers reveals a decades-long trend of widening economic inequality.
A Well-Designed Carbon Tax Could Curb Emissions, Offset Costs for Many Families
• By Carl Davis
A well-designed carbon tax package—that is, levied at a sufficiently high rate and paired with equitable offsets for lower- and middle-income families—could improve both our environment and the fairness of our tax system.
Wealth Tax Proposals from Warren and Sanders: What You Should Know
• By Steve Wamhoff
Earlier this year, Sen. Elizabeth Warren proposed a federal wealth tax on a handful of U.S. households with the highest net worth. Sen. Bernie Sanders has just announced his own wealth tax proposal, which is similar to Warren’s. A few other presidential candidates say they support the concept although they have not provided any details. Here's what you need to know about the potential for a federal wealth tax.
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