Category: Inequality and the Economy
-
ITEP Staff
November 21, 2024
The Impact of Trump’s Proposed Tariffs
The tariffs proposed by Donald Trump, which are far larger than any on the books today, would significantly raise the prices faced by American consumers across the income scale. -
Amy Hanauer
Executive DirectorNovember 8, 2024
Tax Justice in the Crosshairs
Billionaires and businesses have too much power in Washington. Tax revenue is needed to pay for things we all need. If we want economic justice, racial justice and climate justice, we must have tax justice. -
Brakeyshia Samms
Senior Policy AnalystOctober 30, 2024
How Tax Decisions in 2025 Can Advance Racial Justice
In the coming 14 months, federal lawmakers should address longstanding issues of racism in the tax code. With a presidential election this fall and many provisions of 2017’s Trump tax law expiring at the end of 2025, the debate over tax policy and economic fairness is in full swing. -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorPresident Biden discussed multiple tax proposals during the State of the Union address to Congress. Several of these proposals appeared in the budget plan he submitted to Congress last year, but at least two appear to be new proposals. Raise Corporate Tax Rate from 21 Percent to 28 Percent 10-Year Revenue Impact in President’s Previous […] -
Brakeyshia Samms
Senior Policy AnalystMoore v. United States, already a cause for concern for tax lawyers, could create more barriers for racial equity advocates working to reverse the economic plight of many households of color. -
Amy Hanauer
Executive DirectorMarch 14, 2023
Worried About the Debt? Tax the Rich
As one of the most prosperous countries in human history, we have enough resources for our collective needs. By better taxing corporations and the wealthiest, we can generate revenue to improve family security, strengthen our communities, and reduce the debt too. -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorThe "Fair Tax" bill would impose a 30 percent federal sales tax on everything we buy – groceries, cars, homes, health care - and lead to a giant tax shift from the well-off to everyone else. -
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 DirectorMarch 1, 2022
Taxes Should be Part of the State of the Union Agenda
President Biden should elevate his tax and revenue proposals which remain essential if we are to pay for environmental restoration, health priorities and peacekeeping, the front-burner items that may dominate the speech. -
Brakeyshia Samms
Senior Policy AnalystCurrently, millennials of color are worse off than their parents when it comes to wealth expectations. So, if one of the goals of federal policymakers is to reduce racial income and wealth disparities, the proposals outlined are a good start. Tax reforms included in the budget package making its way through Congress would help by boosting incomes and making raising children more affordable—two things that would help millennials of color thrive in today’s economy. -
Emma Sifre
Senior Data AnalystOctober 18, 2021
The Role of Census Data in Policy and Racial Equity
The Census has changed the way it asks questions in the past and can choose to do so again in the future. As the Biden administration makes data a central part of its plan to achieve greater racial equity, it has an opportunity to implement research-backed changes that will improve our understanding of race and ethnicity in the United States, and in turn, our ability to draw meaningful conclusions about how our tax laws impact tax filers of different races. -
Joe Hughes
Senior Policy AnalystThe racial wealth and income gaps are the results of centuries of government policies favoring the accumulation of wealth among white communities while marginalizing communities of color. Policy solutions that are race-forward, meaning they remedy past and ongoing racial inequities, can also address broader social inequities. -
October 4, 2021
State Income Tax Reform Can Bring Us Closer to Racial Equity
To pave the way for a more racially equitable future, states must move away from poorly designed, regressive policies that solidify the vast inequalities that exist today. -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorMembers of Congress frequently claim they want to make it easier for working people to scrape together enough savings to have some financial security in retirement. But lawmakers’ preferred method to (ostensibly) achieve this goal is through tax breaks that have allowed the tech mogul Peter Thiel to avoid taxes on $5 billion. This is just one of the eye-popping revelations in the latest expose from ProPublica. -
Marco Guzman
Senior Policy AnalystAs the Biden administration maps out the next steps in America’s response to the coronavirus pandemic—through what is now being called the American Families Plan—it should make sure a proposed expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) includes undocumented children who have largely been left out of federal relief packages this past year. Prior to 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act, all children regardless of their immigration status received the credit as long as their parents met the income eligibility requirements. This change essentially excluded around 1 million children and their families. -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorMarch 1, 2021
Senator Warren Introduces Federal Wealth Tax Legislation
With the onslaught of news about billionaire wealth soaring while low- and moderate-income families have trouble making ends meet, a federal wealth tax makes good economic and fiscal sense—and the public supports it. One poll found that 64 percent of respondents favor the idea, including a majority of Republicans. -
Jenice R. Robinson
Communications DirectorSeptember 24, 2020
Of Shiny Objects and Scapegoats
While the moneyed elite were dangling shiny objects, scapegoating Black and brown people, denigrating immigrants, and financing studies to convince us that poor people are the problem, they were concurrently securing policies that cut taxes primarily for the rich and profitable corporations, deregulated industry, weakened unions and attacked voting rights. This and more allowed the rich to amass even more wealth and power. -
Jenice R. Robinson
Communications DirectorIRS Commissioner Charles Rettig vowed to work with Congress to explore how the federal tax system contributes to the racial wealth gap. There are at least two ways this can happen: tax policies enacted by Congress and IRS enforcement of these policies. -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorProponents of capital gains tax breaks have always offered a weak argument that they encourage investment and thereby grow the economy. But the Trump administration is now floating a temporary capital gains tax break, which is supported by no argument at all. It would only reward investments made in the past while doing nothing to encourage new investment. -
Jessica Schieder
Federal Tax Policy FellowNew data released today estimates 20.5 million jobs were lost in the month of April alone. Workers not currently receiving paychecks would be left out of any benefits provided by a payroll tax cut. -
Jenice R. Robinson
Communications DirectorUnconscious bias runs deep. Legislative proposals to assuage the exploding economic crisis are advancing and changing quickly, but initial GOP proposals are consistent with the nation’s long history of ostensibly race-neutral policies that are discriminatory in their outcomes. -
Amy Hanauer
Executive DirectorMarch 10, 2020
Taxes in a Time of Coronavirus
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. -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorAnti-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. -
Jenice R. Robinson
Communications DirectorFebruary 12, 2020
2021 Trump Budget Continues 40-Year Trickle-Down Economic Agenda
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act may as well have been called the Promise for Austerity Later Act. -
Matthew Gardner
Senior FellowWhen 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 and significantly less than what it was 30 years ago.
Blog Categories
- Corporate Taxes
- Earned Income Tax Credit
- Education Tax Breaks
- Federal Policy
- Fines and Fees
- Immigration
- Inequality and the Economy
- Local Income Taxes
- Local Policy
- Local Property Taxes
- Local Refundable Tax Credits
- Local Sales Taxes
- Maps
- Personal Income Taxes
- Property Taxes
- Refundable Tax Credits
- Sales, Gas and Excise Taxes
- SALT Deduction
- State Corporate Taxes
- State Policy
- Tax Analyses
- Tax Basics
- Tax Credits for Workers and Families
- Tax Reform Options and Challenges
- Taxing Wealth and Income from Wealth
- Trump Tax Policies
- Who Pays?