Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

ITEP Work in Action

West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy: Big Beautiful Bill’s Tax Cuts Overwhelmingly Favor the Wealthiest in West Virginia Even Before Accounting for Tariffs and Benefit Cuts

May 31, 2025

Earlier this month the U.S. House of Representatives passed a major new tax and spending bill that not only represents the largest cuts to Medicaid and SNAP in history, taking away SNAP and Medicaid benefits from millions of recipients including tens of thousands in West Virginia, but also includes tax provisions that would overwhelmingly favor the richest taxpayers in […]

West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy: House Personal Income Tax Cut Plan Largely Benefits Wealthy, Not Fiscally Sustainable

February 15, 2022

The West Virginia Legislature has introduced a bill to cut and eventually eliminate the state’s personal income tax. The House Finance Committee voted to advance that bill to the House floor with no discussion or questions asked. Like previous attempts to eliminate the state’s income tax, HB 4007 would lead to major revenue losses for the […]

West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy: Senate Income Tax Cut Plan is More of the Same: Tax Cuts for the Wealthy, Tax Increases and Budget Cuts for Everyone Else

March 31, 2021

This week, the Senate Finance Committee took up HB 3300, the House’s income tax cut plan, and made significant changes before quickly passing it out of committee. Unlike the House plan, which phased out the income tax over time with no revenue offsets, the Senate’s plan is more similar to the governor’s proposal, making a […]

West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy: Governor Justice’s Tax Plan Favors the Wealthy, While Creating Large Holes in the Budget

March 5, 2021

Governor Justice has finally unveiled his proposal to make sweeping changes to the state’s tax system, including a substantial cut to the state’s personal income tax, while raising a variety of sales and other taxes. The changes would be a dramatic shift in who pays state taxes in West Virginia, shifting the responsibility onto working […]

West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy: House Income Tax Plan Benefits Wealthy and Could Punch Large Holes in State Budget

March 2, 2020

Once the fund reaches “an amount equal to or exceeding 2.5 times the total net reduction in personal income tax revenue collections that would have been received in that fiscal year if the income tax rates for that fiscal year had been reduced by 0.25 percent” it triggers a reduction in the state’s personal income […]

West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy: Senate Tax Plan a Bad Deal for West Virginia

February 19, 2020

Senate Republicans unveiled their latest proposal to eliminate the business personal property tax this week, passing the proposal out of the Senate Finance Committee. The plan, which builds upon an earlier proposal to eliminate the property tax on manufacturing equipment, machinery, and inventory, would blow a nearly $100 million hole in the state budget, introduce inconsistency in […]

West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy: Who Pays? Rethinking West Virginia’s Tax System

January 28, 2020

To get a sense of a state’s values, one often need look no further than its tax system. What a state spends its tax dollars on and how it acquires those tax dollars typically reveals a lot about the priorities of its people—what they care about and what they stand for. In theory, it’s a […]

Public News Service: Could Fast-Moving Tax-Cut Proposal Blow WV Budget?

February 27, 2019

House Bill 3137 would create a fund where new money, including out-of-state online sales taxes, would go. Then, each time that fund reached a certain level, it would trigger compounding cuts in state income taxes. Ted Boettner, executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, said some lawmakers may not realize they […]

West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy: House Income Tax Cut Plan Mostly Benefits Wealthy and Puts Large Holes in the State Budget (HB 3137)

February 25, 2019

According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a one-percentage reduction in each personal income tax rate would give a West Virginian with an income between $36,000 and $56,000 an average tax cut of $231 compared to $6,044 for someone in the top 1 percent with an income of above $451,000. This means someone […]

West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy: Fixing the Social Security Tax Bill with a Bottom-Up Tax Cut for Working Families

January 24, 2019

The fact that so few West Virginians pay income tax on their Social Security benefits should tell us that this is not a middle-class tax cut. As the graph and analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) below shows, the average tax change from eliminating the state income tax on Social Security […]

WOWK TV: Tax Issues in West Virginia

October 19, 2018

WOWK TV - Sean O'Leary, of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, talks to Mark Curtis about a new report that shows there's room improve West Virginia's upside-down tax system.

West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy: West Virginia’s Upside Down Tax System Grows Inequality

October 18, 2018

State and local tax systems can be effectively used to boost economic opportunity, create broadly shared prosperity and build equitable state economies. But in most states, including West Virginia, tax systems are upside down and are making inequality worse, as a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows.

West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy: Low-Income West Virginians Pay Far More in Taxes as a Percent of Income Than Wealthiest West Virginians

October 17, 2018

West Virginia's tax system is regarded as regressive because the lower one's income, the higher one's effective tax rate. While West Virginia has a progressive personal income (meaning the higher one's income, the higher one's effective personal income tax rate), it also, like most other states, relies heavily on the more regressive sales and excise taxes to raise revenue. Low-income West Virginians pay up to 6.6 percent of their income on sales and excise taxes, while the wealthiest in the state pay less than one percent of income in state and local sales taxes.

West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy: Don’t Double Down on Failed Federal Tax Cuts

September 18, 2018

Extending most of these provision does more of the same and is a huge and alarming waste of resources. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economy Policy, if the individual tax provisions are extended to 2026 and beyond, the richest 1 percent – those making on average $762,000 – in West Virginia would receive an average tax cut of over $20,000. Meanwhile, the poorest 20 percent with an average income of $12,900 will see an average tax increase of $40.

West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy: New Report Shows Trump Tax Plan Benefits Wealthy, Fails to Help Middle Class

July 20, 2017

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 West Virginia, the top 1 percent of the state’s residents would receive an average tax cut of $51,600 compared with an average tax cut of $720 for the bottom 60 percent of taxpayers in the state.

Evidence Counts: Senate Tax Plan Punches More Holes Into Budget (Updated)

May 24, 2017

Similar to previous tax plans from the Senate, this plan increase taxes on most West Virginians while lowering them for higher-income residents. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the Senate tax plan increases taxes on 60 percent of West Virginia households while lowering taxes on the top 40 percent of households. This is because lower income West Virginians pay more in sales taxes than income taxes, while the opposite is true for higher income people.

Evidence Counts: Latest Compromise Tax Plan Still a Bad Deal for West Virginia

May 10, 2017

Last week, the governor called the legislature back into special session to continue work on the state budget. The actual budget bill, however, was not part of the call, instead the intention was for the legislature to vote on a compromise tax plan that would influence how the budget was finalized. The version of the plan ( […]

Evidence Counts: What is the Impact of the “Compromise Tax Proposal” on the Budget and Working Families?

April 24, 2017

Earlier this week, the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy examined the fiscal impact of the proposed compromise tax plan between Governor Justice and Senate leadership that will influence how the budget is finalized. It appears House leadership is saying “nope” to this plan and it is unclear how the plan would close the state’s […]

Evidence Counts: Senate Tax Plan Creates Big Budget Hole, Shifts Tax Load Onto Working Families (Updated)

March 31, 2017

Last Wednesday, the Senate passed Senate Bill 409 that makes sweeping changes to the state’s tax system that decrease personal income and severance taxes while increasing sales taxes.  Similar to previous Senate tax proposals,  SB 409 shifts the tax load onto working families to pay for tax cuts for wealthier West Virginians. On top of […]

Evidence Counts: Tax Reform Might Improve WV’s Business Tax Climate, Sound Familiar?

March 29, 2017

Today, the House will vote on HB 2933, the latest version of “tax reform” in the state. HB 2933 would broaden the sales tax base, lower the sales tax rate to 5%, and create a flat 5.1% income tax rate. The bill would drastically increase West Virginia’s already regressive tax system. The vast majority of […]

Evidence Counts: House and Senate Tax Proposals Shift Tax Load Onto Working Families (Updated)

March 26, 2017

The House and the Senate have advanced two similar tax bills that make substantial changes to the state’s personal income and sales tax, which account for over 75 percent of state general revenue fund collections. Both of these bills will shift the tax load from the wealthy onto working families. It is unclear how either […]

Evidence Counts: Wealthiest 1% of West Virginians Gain from Tax Cuts in Health Care Repeal

March 20, 2017

The House proposal to repeal the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) and replace it with the American Health Care Act (AHCA), provides only a tiny fraction of very wealthy West Virginians tax cuts while reducing the number of Americans with health coverage by an estimated 24 million. The two big tax cuts included in the […]

Evidence Counts: A Marriage Not Made in Heaven: A State EITC Without an Income Tax

February 28, 2017

Last Friday, the Senate Select Committee on Tax Reform explored the idea of amending SB 335 to include a version of a refundable state Earned Income Tax Credit. As noted previously, SB 335 would replace the personal and corporate income tax, along with the sales and use tax, with a general consumption tax of 8 […]

Evidence Count: Governor Justice’s Tax Plan: Who Pays?

February 21, 2017

Governor Jim Justice has not introduced any tax measures yet, but in his State of the State Address and his executive budget  there are plans to enact several tax increases to close the Fiscal Year 2018 budget gap of $500 million and address the state’s declining road fund that pays for highway construction, maintenance, and road […]

West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy: Income Tax Elimination is a Poor Growth Strategy

February 20, 2017

Unfazed by a $600 million looming budget deficit, plans by some lawmakers to reduce or eliminate West Virginia’s state income tax  — which would mostly benefit the wealthiest residents — and replace it with a sales tax hike are unlikely to produce the economic growth supporter’s claim.  Instead it would dramatically shift tax responsibilities from […]