Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

Blog

561 posts
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Jeff Bezos’ Amazon Received Almost 10 Percent of Corporate Tax Subsidies Last Year

• 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.

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High Gas Prices Weigh on Americans as Summer Travel Season Begins

• By Carl Davis

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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Progressives Need a Slight Course Correction on Tax Policy

• By Steve Wamhoff

Corporate tax reforms should be the backbone of any progressive tax agenda and should be counted on to remain if other changes to our tax code are later thwarted by any of the three branches of government.

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Amidst Soaring Tech Earnings, Meta and Qualcomm Disclose a $13.7 Billion Tax Gift from Trump Administration

• By Matthew Gardner

Both companies acknowledge that they will save billions because of the Trump administration's weakening of the Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (CAMT). Meta and Qualcomm are just two of the corporations that will benefit from this corporate tax cut provided unilaterally by the Trump's Treasury Department.

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The Washington Post Is Wrong: Many Rich Americans Are Not Paying Their Fair Share

• By Jessica Vela

Bezos' hand-picked editorial board argues that our tax code does not need to be more progressive because the share of federal income tax paid by the rich already exceeds their share of income. This is grossly misleading for at least two reasons.

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The Big Corporations That Avoided All Federal Income Taxes on Their 2025 U.S. Profits Would Like Us All to Please Just Look at That Squirrel Over There

• By Matthew Gardner

When confronted with the completely accurate observation that their own annual reports disclose an estimated current federal income tax expense of zero on current-year income, the companies will desperately point to something else entirely.

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Tax Break for Ultra-wealthy Investors Takes a Hit in Maine and Oregon

• By Nick Johnson

Policymakers in Maine and Oregon wisely said “no” last week to an income tax break for deep-pocketed tech investors and venture capitalists that was expanded in last year’s federal tax bill.

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Despite Any Refunds, You’re Probably Paying More Taxes Under Trump While Richest Pay Less

• By Steve Wamhoff

For a large majority of Americans, the tax increase resulting from Trump’s tariffs, along with the ending of the health care tax credits, more than offsets any tax cuts provided by OBBBA. The exception is the richest 5 percent of Americans, for whom the net result is a tax cut on average.

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The Progress of Tax Policy: Q&A With Vanessa Williamson, Author of ‘The Price of Democracy’

• By Brakeyshia Samms

Williamson speaks about why tax politics has long been tied to questions of democratic inclusion, what history can teach us about today’s tax debates, and how tax policy shapes the future of American democracy.

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How to Make the Rich and Corporations Pay for This Unpopular War

• By Michael Ettlinger

The war is widely unpopular. Whether the cost of the war ends up being $200 billion, more than that amount, or less, let’s at least have it paid for by those who can most afford it.

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We Must Focus on Black Women to Reduce Inequity in the Tax Code

• By Brakeyshia Samms, Francine Lipman

As nice as it is to celebrate Women’s History Month, if we want a brighter future for women, we need to forge public policies that reduce inequity and include all of us.

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New Income Tax Disclosure Rules Mean Halliburton Can No Longer Conceal Its Offshore Tax Avoidance

• By Matthew Gardner

The company’s latest annual report throws the doors wide open once again on Halliburton’s penchant for offshoring its profits to tax havens, thanks to terrific new disclosure rules introduced by an obscure but vital agency, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).

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Cheniere Energy Gets $380 Million Gift from Trump’s Treasury Department

• By Matthew Gardner

Cheniere Energy's latest annual financial report shows the company reaped a cool $380 million in tax cuts from a single regulatory change made by the Trump administration last fall.

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Nvidia’s Tax Bill Shows It’s Not Just Zero-Tax Corporations That Hurt Our Budget Deficit the Most

• By Matthew Gardner

Semiconductor giant Nvidia reported avoiding $6.8 billion in federal income taxes last year. The company did this in a year when it reported greater earnings growth than almost any corporation in history, with U.S. pretax income coming in at an astonishing $123 billion.

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Yum! Brands’ Recipe for Tax Avoidance: Trump Tax Cuts with a Dash of Malta

• By Matthew Gardner

the fast-food multinational that owns KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut reported this week that it made $1 billion of pretax profits in the U.S. last year—and didn’t pay a dime of federal income taxes on those profits.

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Despite a Supreme Court Victory for Middle-Class Americans, Trump’s Disastrous Tariff Policies Are Not Over

• By Steve Wamhoff

Today the Supreme Court made the right decision in striking down most of the tariffs President Trump has put into motion during his second term.

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Live Nation Entertainment Says Trump Tax Law Drove its 2025 Federal Income Tax Bill to Zero

• By Matthew Gardner

The company paid zero federal income tax in 2025 despite reporting $145 million of U.S. profits.

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Trump Administration Provides Biggest Illegal Tax Cuts Yet for Billion-Dollar Corporations

• By Amy Hanauer

The Treasury Department is unilaterally cutting corporate taxes with regulations that ignore the statute they claim to implement, disregarding the separation of powers between the branches of government that has defined how America works for more than two centuries.

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Palantir Pays Zero Federal Income Tax Despite Explosive Growth, Largely Due to Trump Tax Law

• By Matthew Gardner

Palantir reported $1.5 billion of U.S. income but paid exactly zero federal income tax in 2025. Despite explosive growth, tax breaks from the Trump tax law helped Palantir avoid paying even a dime of federal income tax on its earnings.

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NCTI is an Important Part of the Federal Corporate Tax. States Should Adopt It Too.

• By Carl Davis

Including NCTI in state corporate tax law is an effective way to neutralize much of the tax avoidance that occurs when multinational companies artificially shift their profits into overseas tax havens.

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Trump Undermined the Constitution to Give Corporations a $10 Billion Tax Cut

• By Matthew Gardner

This unilateral corporate tax cut from the Trump administration will cost $10 billion over a decade unless it is reversed.

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What Did 2025 State Tax Changes Mean for Racial and Economic Equity?

• By Brakeyshia Samms

The results are a mixed bag, with some states enacting promising policies that will improve tax equity and others going in the opposite direction.

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Four Big Tech Companies Avoid $51 Billion in Taxes in Wake of One Big Beautiful Bill Act

• By Matthew Gardner

Four of the corporations whose CEOs flanked President Trump at his 2025 inauguration ceremony have now disclosed that they collectively received $51 billion in federal tax breaks in 2025, much of that likely from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).

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Meta’s Federal Tax Rate Hits an All-Time Low Due to Breaks Expanded by Trump Tax Law

• By Matthew Gardner

The company paid an effective federal income tax rate of just over 3.5% in 2025, the lowest it has recorded since the company went public as Facebook in 2012.

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Trust Reform is Needed to Protect States, Especially in the Wake of IRS Enforcement Cuts

• By Sarah Austin

Trust use is widespread among the wealthiest households, with reports showing that roughly half of the nation’s wealthiest people rely on trusts for tax avoidance reasons