Category: Federal Policy
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Joe Hughes
Senior Policy AnalystThe expanded Child Tax Credit reduced child poverty dramatically and immediately. There is no debate or murkiness on this. Some lawmakers have decided that cutting child poverty in half is not worth the cost if it means an ambiguous and negligible decline in GDP growth. This view is not just cruel, it is bad economics. -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorIf lawmakers believe it’s worthwhile to extend corporate tax breaks, then it would be entirely unreasonable for them to not conclude the same about tax provisions that help low-income children. -
Joe Hughes
Senior Policy AnalystSeptember 14, 2022
Census Data Shows Need to Make 2021 Child Tax Credit Expansion Permanent
The Child Tax Credit expansion led to a 46 percent decline in childhood poverty. That it could be accomplished during the largest economic disruption in most of our lifetimes underscores a basic fact: thoughtful, decisive government action to combat poverty works. -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorSeptember 13, 2022
Billionaires Should Pay Taxes on Their Income Every Year Like the Rest of Us
The Inflation Reduction Act signed by President Biden last month will crack down on corporate tax dodgers and strengthen enforcement of tax laws already on the books, raising hundreds of billions of dollars to be spent on climate, health and other priorities. But these reforms will not directly raise taxes on even the wealthiest individuals. […] -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorSen. Romney’s plan would expand the Child Tax Credit and offset the costs by scaling back other tax benefits. All told, it would raise taxes on a fourth of all kids in the U.S. This includes about a fourth of the children among the poorest fifth of U.S. families. -
Joe Hughes
Senior Policy AnalystWith four major tax policy provisions, the IRA takes a huge step toward a fairer tax code and a more equitable economy. But as always, there are more steps lawmakers should take to build on this progress. -
Amy Hanauer
Executive DirectorEditor’s note: This originally ran as an opinion piece in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. When I left Cleveland to work on federal tax policy after 20 years running Policy Matters Ohio, I knew Ohio would stay in my heart and fuel my work. Accustomed to an America that often ignores our toughest problems, I understood […] -
Jon Whiten
Deputy DirectorAugust 22, 2022
The Case for More IRS Funding
Editor’s note: This originally ran as an opinion piece in The Hill. Though the Inflation Reduction Act is enormously popular, some politicians and pundits are trying to generate hysteria about one feature: Funding for the IRS. All the false claims are distracting us from two important things: how necessary the funding increase is to reverse […] -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorGrasping for some way to criticize the popular Inflation Reduction Act as it approaches final passage, Congressional Republicans have decided to attack its provisions that will reverse a decade of budget cuts to the IRS and instruct the agency to crack down on tax evasion by big corporations and individuals making more than $400,000. Of […] -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorThe Inflation Reduction Act approved by the Senate on Aug. 7 would raise more than $700 billion in new revenue over a decade by closing corporate tax loopholes, empowering the IRS to enforce the tax laws on the books, taxing stock buybacks, and extending a limitation on deductions for business losses. The IRA – if […] -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorFor now, the Senate is poised to reverse cuts to the IRS enforcement against wealthy tax evaders for the first time in a decade, crack down on tax-dodging by huge corporations for the first time since 1986, and finally address the method increasingly used by corporations to transfer income to shareholders to avoid federal taxes. The multi-decade winning streak of corporate lobbyists and special interests who have practically written many of our tax laws in recent years is about to come to an end. -
Joe Hughes
Senior Policy AnalystSenate Democrats have announced an agreement on the Inflation Reduction Act that, among other changes to a previous version of the bill, would apply a 1 percent tax on corporations repurchasing their own stock. This proposal was included in the House-passed Build Back Better Act last year and was estimated at that time to raise $124 billion over 10 years. This measure would ensure that income transferred from corporations to wealthy shareholders does not continue to escape taxation. -
Matthew Gardner
Senior FellowApple, one of the largest corporations in the United States despite manufacturing most of its physical products offshore, would likely pay the corporate minimum tax that is included in the Inflation Reduction Act that the Senate is debating this week. 3M, a manufacturer that has about 40 percent of its workforce in the United States, likely would not pay the corporate minimum tax if current trends in the company’s profits and taxes continue, because it is already paying above 15 percent of its profits in taxes. -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorThe biggest revenue-raising provision in the Inflation Reduction Act, the 15 percent minimum tax for corporations that have more than a billion dollars in profits, is under attack from members of Congress who argue that manufacturing companies should not be required to pay any minimum amount of tax. Sen. Mike Crapo, the top Republican on […] -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorOpponents of requiring corporations to pay even a minimum amount of taxes hold an unpopular position. But Sen. Mike Crapo, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee and a leader of that opposition, is using a one-sided and incomplete analysis to claim that the corporate minimum tax would raise taxes on low- and middle-income people. -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorOpposing a fully paid-for spending bill because of inflation concerns does not make any sense. Opposing a deficit-reducing bill because of inflation is absurd. -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorThere is no justification for recently reported efforts to scale back the tax reforms in the Build Back Better Act, a bill passed by the House of Representatives in November that would raise significant revenue and make our tax code more progressive by enacting widely popular proposals. (See ITEP’s report on the BBBA.) Of course, […] -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorThe vast majority of Senate Democrats joined their Republican colleagues in approving a new corporate tax break related to research in legislation that contains no offsetting corporate tax increases. -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorBillionaires can afford to pay a larger share of their income in taxes than teachers, nurses and firefighters. But our tax code often allows them to pay less, as demonstrated by the latest expose from reporters at ProPublica using IRS data. According to their calculations, Betsy DeVos, the Education Secretary under former President Donald Trump, […] -
Amy Hanauer
Executive DirectorApril 18, 2022
Public Problems Demand Public Solutions
Long-term troubles for this country and this planet now demand our attention. Progressive tax policy would transform our ability to tackle them. -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorThe Billionaires’ Minimum Income Tax included in President Biden's budget plan would limit an unfair tax break for capital gains income and complement proposals the president has offered previously to limit other tax breaks for capital gains. -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorFind the answers to some frequently asked questions about President Biden's Billionaires’ Minimum Income Tax, which would limit very wealthy individuals’ ability to put off paying income taxes on capital gains until they sell assets. -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorThe Biden administration should revise regulations from the TCJA to enforce the law as it was written and passed by Congress, not as big banks and multinational corporations have lobbied for it to be enforced. -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorNew corporate tax proposals address the current situation, but ultimately leaders in Washington must fix federal law to tax all corporate profits and stop the tax dodging that is rampant today. -
Brakeyshia Samms
Senior Policy AnalystWomen’s History Month is a chance to remember what happens for women when tax policy becomes more progressive, boosts income, and helps make raising a family more affordable.
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