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Here’s a Tip: Keep the Taxation of Tips As-Is
• By Joe Hughes
The no tax on tips idea isn't a new one, but it's always been abandoned because it's practically impossible to do without creating new avenues for tax avoidance. Despite its embrace by the candidates from both major parties, this policy idea would do little to help the roughly 4 million people who work in tipped occupations while creating a host of problems.
Local Tax Trends in 2024
• By Kamolika Das
Many cities, counties, and townships across the country are in a difficult, or at least unstable, budgetary position. Localities are responding to these financial pressures in a variety of ways with some charging ahead with enacting innovative reforms like short-term rental and vacancy taxes, and others setting up local tax commissions to study the problem.
State Rundown 8/8: States Laying the Groundwork for Future Tax Battles
• By ITEP Staff
Whether they’re in a special session, gearing up for one, or prepping for 2025, states around the country are focusing on important tax fights...
Minnesota Stands Out for Its Moderately Progressive Tax Code
• By Carl Davis
Minnesota stands apart from the rest of the country with a moderately progressive tax system that asks slightly more of the rich than of low- and middle-income families. Recent reforms signed by Gov. Tim Walz have contributed to this reality.
Which States Improved Child Tax Credits and EITCs in 2024?
• By Neva Butkus
Four states expanded or boosted refundable tax credits for children and families, and the District of Columbia is poised to create a new Child Tax Credit. These actions — in Colorado, Illinois, New York, Utah, and D.C. — continue the recent trend of improving the well-being of children and families with refundable tax credits.
State Rundown 7/25: Summertime Hits Different in Different States
• By ITEP Staff
State lawmakers will have a lot to discuss when they compare notes on how they spent their summer vacations this year...
Five Tax Takeaways from 2024 State Legislative Sessions
• By Aidan Davis
Major tax cuts were largely rejected this year, but states continue to chip away at income taxes. And while property tax cuts were a hot topic across the country, many states failed to deliver effective solutions to affordability issues.
State Rundown 7/11: Mansion Taxes in the Spotlight
• By ITEP Staff
While Massachusetts legislators recently dropped a real estate transfer tax from their major housing bill, the District of Columbia council sent a budget to the mayor that includes a mansion tax that would increase the tax rate on properties valued over $2.5 million. Meanwhile, lawmakers in New Jersey and South Carolina continue to, respectively, raise and reduce needed revenues.
Tax the Wealthy and Reject Austerity for a More Just and Thriving Democracy
• By Amy Hanauer
Two of the last five presidents won office over the objection of the majority of the people; California, with 65 times more people, has the same voting power in the U.S Senate as Wyoming; and the U.S. Supreme Court just permitted South Carolina lawmakers to dilute Black votes in drawing districts. These obvious flaws undermine our claim to be a strong democracy. One less appreciated but similarly undemocratic trend is our extreme inequality that supercharges the power…
Reality Interrupts the Fever Dream of Income Tax Elimination in Kentucky
• By Eli Byerly-Duke
Keeping the Kentucky income tax on a march to zero would mean tax hikes for working families or widespread cuts to education, health care, and other public services. Reversing course is certainly the wiser course of action.
State Rundown 6/26: Summer Special Sessions Are In, Anti-tax Ballot Initiatives Out
• By ITEP Staff
Many families are heading out on summer vacations, but legislators across the country are heading back to statehouses for special sessions...
Property Tax Circuit Breakers Can Help States Create More Equitable Tax Codes
• By Brakeyshia Samms
Well-designed property tax circuit breaker programs allow states to reduce the impact that property taxes have on the upside-down tilt of their tax codes.
SCOTUS Rejects Expansion of Trump’s Corporate Tax Cuts, Leaves Broader Tax Questions for Another Day
• By Steve Wamhoff
The Supreme Court matters, for tax fairness as for every other part of our lives. Whether or not we ever have a government that taxes billionaires as much as it taxes the rest of us will depend on how the Supreme Court rules in the future and who appoints justices to the Court.
Tax Policy is a Part of the Black American Story
• By Brakeyshia Samms
Juneteenth is a reminder of the hard-fought victories that helped Black Americans secure their delayed freedom, justice, and suffrage. And in the chapters about tax policy, the tales are no less fraught. From America’s prologue to the last paragraph of the Civil War, governments raised more tax revenue from the taxation of Black bodies than […]
State Rundown 6/13: Decisions are falling into place, but some states will come back for more
• By ITEP Staff
State budgets are falling into place as lawmakers near the end of their legislative sessions...
State Rundown 6/6: A Tale of Two Tax Laws
• By ITEP Staff
This week, it was the best of times or, in some cases, the worst of times for tax policy in two different states...
State Rundown 5/30: Sessions Are In for Summer
• By ITEP Staff
Legislative sessions across the country are still very much in for summer, which means more pencils, more budgets, and more tax plans...
States Should Opt Into IRS Direct File as the Program is Made Permanent
• By Jon Whiten
While there is plenty of room to expand Direct File at the federal level, states can take matters into their own hands and bring this benefit to their residents by opting into the program.
State Rundown 5/22: When One Legislative Session Closes, Another Opens
• By ITEP Staff
State legislatures are wrapping up, but don’t stray too far from your state capital or you’ll miss out on the action...
Better Tax Codes Help Boost Teacher Pay
• By Alex Welch
There are a variety of factors that affect teacher pay. But one often overlooked factor is progressive tax policies that allow states to raise and provide the funding educators and their students deserve.
State Rundown 5/15: The Merry Merry Month of May(be)
• By ITEP Staff
Uncertainty abounds in state tax debates lately...
State Rundown 5/9: Special Sessions in the Air
• By ITEP Staff
This week, special sessions with major tax implications are in the air...
Iowa Flat Tax Shows Why Such Policies Are a Problem Everywhere
• By Eli Byerly-Duke
As Iowa lawmakers change the state’s graduated personal income tax to a single flat rate, they are designing a state tax code where the rich will pay a lower rate overall than families with modest means.
State Rundown 5/2: Vetoes and New Major Tax Proposals
• By ITEP Staff
This week, many states took steps toward enacting tax cuts...
ITEP Comment on Proposed IRS Rule REG-123376-22
• By ITEP Staff
Increased information transfer from the IRS would improve the quality of data at the Census Bureau and expand opportunities for tax policy research. This is critical for researchers who rely on Census Bureau data and products to fill the informational gaps present in tax data.
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