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Aidan Davis
State Policy DirectorThe EITC expansion targets workers without children in the home. In 2022 it would provide a $12.4 billion boost, benefiting 19.5 million workers who on average would receive an income boost of $730 dollars. -
Even though Democrats in Congress uniformly opposed the TCJA because its benefits went predominately to the rich, many Democratic lawmakers now want to give a tax cut to the rich by repealing the cap on SALT deductions. -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorSeptember 2, 2021
It’s Not About Farms: Don’t Let Lies Crush Biden’s Tax Plan
Several former Democratic members of Congress have joined a campaign to misrepresent President Biden’s proposal to close a huge tax loophole for wealthy people with capital gains. This proposed reform is the cornerstone of the president’s tax plan. If lawmakers fall for the lies, Biden's plan will collapse. Instead, they should do what is both popular and fair: enact the plan intact so that millionaires and billionaires no longer escape the federal income tax. -
September 1, 2021
State Rundown 9/1: Labor Day Edition
Labor Day is around the corner and in the spirit of celebrating the achievements of workers around the country, we here at ITEP want to call attention to the states (and territories) that are using tax policy to support workers and residents alike... -
Reggie Rucker
Public Affairs ManagerAugust 27, 2021
Millionaire Sounds Off on Calls to Lift SALT Deduction Cap
We asked New York state resident Morris Pearl, former Blackrock executive and current chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, a few questions to hear straight from the mouth of a millionaire how the SALT cap and its proposed repeal would affect his life. -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorA new report from ITEP provides policy recommendations to modify the $10,000 cap on federal tax deductions for state and local taxes (SALT), which was signed into law by President Trump as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Because the SALT cap mostly restricts tax deductions for the richest 5 percent of Americans, the best options are to leave the cap as is or replace […] -
Kamolika Das
Local Policy DirectorHistory has repeatedly shown that such policies harm state economies, dismantle basic public services, and exacerbate tax inequities. -
August 18, 2021
State Rundown 8/18: End of Summer Tax Update
Summer is quickly (and sadly) coming to an end and if you’ve been away enjoying the great outdoors or off the grid, we’re here to help keep you up to date on what’s been happening on the tax front around the country... -
Dylan Grundman O'Neill
Senior AnalystIt’s back-to-school shopping season, so…everyone who buys a cell phone in Arkansas this weekend will do so sales-tax-free. For this whole week in Connecticut, and for the entire spring in New Mexico, the corporate owners of highly profitable multinational restaurant chains had the option to pocket their customers’ taxes rather than remit them to the state to fund vital public services, pass along those savings to their customers, or give a much-needed boost to their employees. And all told, about $550 million of state and local revenue will be forgone in 17 states this year through wasteful and poorly targeted sales tax holidays. -
August 6, 2021
Good Climate Policy Is Good Economic Policy, Too
Congress is proving that there does not need to be a trade-off between good climate policy and good economic policy. Direct hires aside, an even bolder government-backed effort to secure the future of our planet could create as many as 25 million net new jobs at its peak, as well as 5 million permanent jobs, many of which deal directly with domestic infrastructure and cannot be outsourced. With the U.S. economy still down 5.7 million jobs from pre-pandemic levels, climate legislation can be a critical investment for jumpstarting our economic recovery. -
Property taxes are among the oldest and most relied upon form of local taxes. Revenue raised from these taxes funds education, firefighting, law enforcement, street and infrastructure maintenance, and other essential services. Though all members of the community enjoy these public goods, homeowners of color, especially Black families, pay more as a share of home value in property taxes than their white counterparts. -
It’s beginning to look a lot like that time of year again. That’s right, it’s sales tax holiday season and states across the country are doing their best to induce spending that would probably occur regardless...
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Dylan Grundman O'Neill
Senior AnalystThis month, we watched billionaire space-racers with skyrocketing fortunes literally rocket themselves into the sky to look down on us from the largest gap they could put between themselves and the people, communities, and institutions that made their fortunes possible. These events have put an exclamation point on one of the clearest lessons to come […] -
July 23, 2021
The Case for Biden’s Tax Agenda
President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan is the most ambitious economic and social agenda since Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society. It would redirect policy priorities to create educational and economic opportunities for low- and middle-income people and require corporations and wealthy people to pay a fairer share of taxes. -
It’s Olympics season! As countries around the globe battle for first place in a plethora of sports and contests it’s as good a time as any to look around America to see which states deserve a gold medal in the ‘Equitable Tax Policy’ event...
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Aidan Davis
State Policy DirectorFor the next six months, low-, middle- and upper-middle-income families with children are eligible to receive part of their 2021 Child Tax Credit (CTC) in advanced monthly payments. More than putting money in people’s pockets, this policy recognizes “the dignity of working-class families and middle-class families,” as President Biden said last week. -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorSpecial interests lobbying against President Joe Biden’s tax agenda claim that his proposed corporate income tax rate hike will harm small businesses and that his proposed capital gains tax reforms will hurt family farms. Both claims are absurd attempts by powerful interests to pretend they are defending the little guy. -
Steve Wamhoff
Federal Policy DirectorIRS budget cuts starting in 2010 have forced the agency to reduce its audit rate for corporations with $20 billion or more in assets from 98 percent to 50 percent. The Washington Post found that during the decade, the amount of “uncertain tax benefits” claimed by corporations increased 43 percent, from $164 billion in 2010 to $235 billion in 2020. -
Reggie Rucker
Public Affairs ManagerJuly 16, 2021
The Last Dance for Billionaire Sports Owners?
Comparing athletes to inanimate objects, of course, is incredibly degrading. It’s also standard fare in the sports talk world to compare athletes to stocks in which you want to buy low and trade high to maximize your returns—the greatest return usually being championship trophies. It wasn’t until ProPublica released its latest report, The Billionaire Playbook: How Sports Owners Use Their Teams to Avoid Millions in Taxes, that we were able to see so clearly how the athlete as a stock is not just a dehumanizing concept in team sports at the individual level, but also how owners of sports teams view these players collectively. That is until it comes time to pay their taxes. -
Jenice R. Robinson
Communications DirectorDuring a Tuesday webinar (The Child Tax Credit in Practice: What We Know about the Payoffs of Payments) hosted by ITEP and the Economic Security Project, panelists explained why the expanded Child Tax Credit is a transformative policy that should be extended beyond 2021. They highlighted tax policy and anti-poverty research and discussed lessons learned from demonstration projects that have provided a guaranteed income to low-income families. -
July 14, 2021
A Divided and Insufficiently Taxed House Cannot Stand
“It’s not just condominium buildings that are showing their age,” Peter Coy writes in a piece critiquing the condominium form of ownership for underinvesting in maintenance. Coy just as easily could have been describing American democracy that is showing its age in similar ways. -
States were busy over the past week despite the Fourth of July holiday. Many are gearing up for upcoming tax and budget clashes that could shape their futures for some time...
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Marco Guzman
Senior AnalystMany states find themselves in a peculiar fiscal situation right now: federal pandemic relief money has been dispersed to states and revenue projections have exceeded expectations set during the pandemic. Meanwhile, more and more workers are returning to jobs as vaccines roll out and typical economic activity resumes. Some states, however, have decided to squander their unexpected fiscal strength on tax cuts. -
Meg Wiehe
Deputy Executive DirectorPresident Joe Biden's American Families and Jobs plans intend to “build back better” and create a more inclusive economy. To fully live up to this ideal, the final plan must include undocumented people and their families. -
Today is the last day of the fiscal year in many states, and some lawmakers might want to take the opportunity to make some new fiscal year resolutions. Legislators in Arizona, New Hampshire, Ohio, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, for example, should really cut back on the trickle-down tax-cut Kool-Aid, which may make parties with rich donors more fun but tends to be both harmful and habit-forming...
Blog Categories
- Corporate Taxes
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- Local Refundable Tax Credits
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- SALT Deduction
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- Tax Credits for Workers and Families
- Tax Reform Options and Challenges
- Taxing Wealth and Income from Wealth
- Trump Tax Policies
- Who Pays?