Citations

The findings demonstrate that tax changes over the past two decades—including the introduction and reduction of the flat tax and the shift from a five-bracket system with a top rate of 9.90 percent to today’s three-bracket system with a top rate of 5.99 percent—have disproportionately benefited the highest-income filers while steadily draining state revenue. The […]

This written testimony was submitted to the Rhode Island House Finance Committee on May 6, 2025.  Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony in support of H-5473, a bill to create a 3 percent surcharge on those earning over $625,000 a year. My name is Miles Trinidad. I am an analyst at the Institute […]

ITEP researcher Carl Davis joins the Economic Progress Institute (EPI) for Rhode Island's Revenue Roundtable.

With scenic beaches, culinary and arts communities, higher education institutions, and a vibrant celebration of culture, Rhode Island can be a wonderful place to live and to raise a family. Yet many Rhode Islanders work at jobs with wages that pay too little to meet even the most basic living costs. They experience multiple barriers […]

We propose raising revenue for Rhode Island by adding one new tax bracket for the top 1% of earners – from 5.99% to 8.99% on adjusted gross income above $475,000. The average adjusted gross income for those impacted is $1 million dollars per year. This proposal will have no effect on Rhode Islanders outside of […]

The RISN calculates a household budget for families with two young children, and for single adults. The no-frills budget includes the costs of housing, food, transportation, health care, child care and other necessities including clothing, toiletries and telephone service. The RISN also demonstrates how work supports like food assistance, tax credits, and child care and health care subsidies help close the gap between income and basic need expenses. By taking all of these factors into account, the RISN provides a more realistic measure of the economic security of Rhode Islanders than the federal poverty level.

The greater your income in Rhode Island, the less of it you pay in state and local taxes, a new study finds. The top one percent of Rhode Islanders [those making more than $467,700 a year] pay 7.9 percent of their income in total state and local taxes, while the bottom 20 percent [those earning less than $21,700 a year] pay 12.1 percent of their income in such taxes.

There’s a practical reason for Rhode Island and all states to be concerned about regressive tax structures, according to ITEP. If the nation fails to address growing income inequality, states will have difficulty raising the revenue they need over time. The more income that goes to the wealthy (and the lower a state’s overall tax rate on the wealthy), the slower a state’s revenue grows over time.

To help explain what the Act will mean for Rhode Island, the Economic Progress Institute released a paper entitled "Changes in federal tax law will cut taxes for many Rhode Islanders; wealthiest families and corporations benefit the most."

For Rhode Island to achieve its potential as a first-class place to live and do business we need to ensure that we have the public services and amenities that enhance the quality of life and work in our state. Rhode Islanders make a collective investment through taxes, fees, and other forms of revenue to fund the services that businesses and residents count on.

A new analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reveals a federal tax reform plan based on President Trump’s April outline would fail to deliver on its promise of largely helping middle-class taxpayers, showering 61.4 percent of the total tax cut on the richest 1 percent nationwide. In Rhode Island, the top 1 percent of the state’s residents would receive an average tax cut of $86,610 compared with an average tax cut of just $430 for the bottom 60 percent of taxpayers in the state.

The Motor Vehicle Tax (commonly known as the “Car Tax”) is a property tax collected by each Rhode Island municipality based on the value of each motor vehicle owned. There are three components that determine how much each individual car is taxed: valuation, tax rate and exemption. Read more here

  The Economic Progress Institute publishes the Rhode Island Standard of Need (RISN) to answer two fundamental questions: What is the cost of meeting basic needs for families and individuals in Rhode Island? How do state and federal work and income  supports help households meet the cost of basic needs? The RISN calculates a no-frills […]