Blog - Federal Policy
525 posts
The move was expected, given heavy lobbying from tax prep companies like Intuit and H&R Block to put a halt to the IRS’s popular Direct File program.
Biden Tax Reforms Take a $16 Billion Bite Out of Trump’s Big Tax Giveaway to Meta
October 30, 2025 • By Matthew Gardner
Meta’s earnings setback is entirely attributable to an important tax reform championed by the Biden administration in 2022.
Oil and Gas Companies Are Paying Less Tax to the U.S. than to Foreign Governments
October 30, 2025 • By Matthew Gardner
Since 2017, these companies paid $135 billion in income taxes to foreign governments, but just $29 billion to the U.S.
Well, That Was Fast: Trump Tax Law’s New Corporate Breaks are Already Worsening the Deficit
October 9, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
Corporate income taxes for the fiscal year that ended in September are $77 billion lower than in the previous year, a 15 percent drop.
Many lawmakers who were vocal supporters of this bill will see direct personal benefits while most of their constituents benefit little or will be worse off.
Trump Tax Law Erases Economic, Racial Progress in the Tax Code
October 6, 2025 • By Brakeyshia Samms
President Trump’s massive tax-and-spending bill continues the administration’s assault on racial and economic justice by prioritizing tax breaks for the top 1% while neglecting the economic well-being of poor and working families of all races, especially people of color.
Coca-Cola To Shareholders: $18 Billion Tax Bill? What $18 Billion Tax Bill?
October 1, 2025 • By Matthew Gardner
If Coca-Cola only pays 3% of the $18 billion tax bill it's facing, then the rest of us will have to pick up the remaining 97%.
Leaving Billions on the Table: Trump-Induced Brain Drain Leaves the IRS Struggling to Prevent Corporate Tax Avoidance
September 25, 2025 • By Matthew Gardner
The IRS's capacity to prevent big multinational corporations from avoiding income taxes is facing a generational crisis.
What currently stands in the way of better corporate tax transparency.
President Trump is Still Lying About Ending Taxes on Social Security
September 11, 2025 • By Matthew Gardner
Why is Trump saying that he has eliminated taxes on Social Security?
Who Can Make a Billion Dollar Mistake and Not Lose Their Jobs? Congress
September 5, 2025 • By Matthew Gardner
A drafting error in the 2017 tax law will cost U.S. taxpayers over $1 billion in unintended tax cuts for big multinationals.
As federal data systems erode, the U.S. risks losing the impartial information needed for sound policymaking and public trust.
The Trump Megabill Hands the Rich a Gift — and Sends the Bill to Young Americans
August 21, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
Trump's megabill directs most benefits to the wealthy, while leaving younger generations with higher taxes, more debt, and fewer opportunities. For Millennials and Gen Z, it means reduced public investment and an economy less likely to work in their favor.
SALT in the Wound: New Tax Law’s Limit on State Tax Deductions Exempts Some of the Very Wealthiest
August 21, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
The new tax law enacted last month found a temporary compromise on the level of the cap, boosting it to $40,000 through 2029, but failed to fix a loophole that allows some rich taxpayers with good accountants to completely avoid the cap
Trump Administration’s English-Only IRS Would Undermine Public Trust and Boost Budget Deficits
August 19, 2025 • By Matthew Gardner
The Trump administration’s push to make English the official U.S. language threatens decades of progress in taxpayer services for non-English speakers, risking cuts to IRS multilingual support, harder tax filing, lower compliance, and an undermined agency mission.
Trump’s Tax Law Clobbers State Budgets. Now’s the Time to Prepare.
August 13, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
The Trump megabill hands the richest 1% a trillion-dollar windfall while gutting funding for health care, education, and disaster relief — leaving communities to pick up the pieces. State and local leaders must step up, tax the wealthiest fairly, and safeguard the essentials that keep America healthy, educated, and safe.
Trump’s Firing of BLS Commissioner is Part of Larger Erosion of Federal Data Infrastructure
August 7, 2025 • By Emma Sifre
Last week, President Trump fired the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in apparent retaliation for weak jobs numbers. The move drew sharp criticism for spooking investors and weakening trust in official data. But it also reflects a deeper problem: the ongoing erosion of the federal data infrastructure.
Excessive CEO Pay Makes Inequality Worse. Shareholders and the Public Deserve to Know About Compensation Disparities
July 30, 2025 • By Matthew Gardner
Huge executive pay packages are a prime driver of income inequality. Shareholders and the public deserve to know about how CEOs are compensated, but new SEC leadership seems to think otherwise.
Americans Want to Know Which Corporations Aren’t Paying Taxes, but House Republicans Want to Keep this Information Secret
July 23, 2025 • By Matthew Gardner
The appropriations plan released by House Republicans this weekend threatens to withhold funding for an obscure but vital financial oversight board because that board now requires corporations to disclose basic information about their income tax payments (or lack thereof).
Nobody should be too excited and think this means our country is headed toward lower deficits - especially when the administration recently signed one of the most expensive budget reconciliation bills in history.
How Much Would Every Family in Every State Get if the Megabill’s Tax Cuts Given to the Rich Had Instead Been Evenly Divided?
July 14, 2025 • By Michael Ettlinger
If instead of giving $117 billion to the richest 1 percent, that money had been evenly divided among all Americans, we'd each get $343 - or nearly $1,400 for a family of four.
This country’s biggest historical challenge has been delivering this progress to all Americans, but Republicans have cut it back for everyone, retreating from many 20th century achievements in ways that will slam doors, rather than opening them, for the next generation.
10 Crazy Comparisons Showing How Much Trump and Congress Just Cut Taxes for the Rich
July 10, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
$117 billion is a big number, so we thought it could use a little context.
Top 1% to Receive $1 Trillion Tax Cut from Trump Megabill Over the Next Decade
July 3, 2025 • By Carl Davis
The Trump megabill will give the top 1 percent tax cuts totaling $1.02 trillion over the next decade. For comparison, the bill’s cuts to the Medicaid health care program will total $930 billion over the same period.
The endlessly debated cap on deductions for state and local taxes (SALT) has emerged in the GOP megabill largely unscathed—despite the efforts of Republican lawmakers from “blue” states. Those lawmakers are correct that the cap reduces the bill’s tax cuts for their wealthy constituents more than for those in other states. The megabill, however, is so loaded up with other provisions that result in a dramatic tax cut for the richest 1 percent in every state.
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