Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

Citations

ITEP's Citations Research Priorities

Seattle Weekly: Seattle City Council Passes Reduced Head Tax

May 14, 2018

This comes on the heels of a 2015 Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy report that showed Washington has the most regressive tax system in the country because of its high reliance on sales taxes. Read more

News & Observer: Arizona Income Tax story

May 12, 2018

Meg Wiehe, deputy director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said the public could be more likely to support income tax hikes since federal tax debate in the fall. “People understand the consequences,” she said. “They’re starting to connect the dots of what does it mean when there’s less revenue to spend.” The […]

Valdosta Daily Times: T-SPLOST: Good for our community

May 12, 2018

According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the fuel tax in Georgia actually increased .3 cents on gasoline and .4 cents on diesel in 2017. The fuel tax is indexed to the consumer price index and is adjusted annually. So basically there was no real increase in revenue to fund additional projects with […]

Associated Press: Arizona Voters May Be Asked Whether They Want to Tax High Earners to Fund Education

May 11, 2018

Ballot initiatives to hike taxes on the rich are rare but not unheard of. A measure in Washington state in 2010 to adopt an income tax for individuals who make more than $200,000 was overwhelmingly voted down. Meg Wiehe, deputy director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said the public could be more […]

This guide provides a brief summary of proposed tax changes put forth by the candidates. Estimates of the distributional impact on Idaho taxpayers and state revenue and provided by the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy.

Marketplace: Tax cuts: Have they benefited Indiana’s economy?

May 11, 2018

As for the potential long-term consequences, the richest Indiana taxpayers will receive the largest average tax cuts in 2027 (with an average cut of $4,840), while taxes would go up slightly for the poorest 20 percent (with an average increase of $160), according to an analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more

Working Life Podcast: A shift in the air on tax cuts?; Arizona uprising update; Inequality is worse than you think

May 9, 2018

The teachers’ uprisings around the nation have challenged the bankrupt ideology of supply-side tax cutting—and maybe marks a shift in the public’s view of taxes and public spending. Jonathan Tasini talks about that with Meg Wiehe, deputy director of the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more 

CNN: North Carolina teachers will be the next to walk out. Here’s what they want

May 8, 2018

An analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy finds North Carolina would have $3.5 billion more in annual revenue if lawmakers had not changed the tax system that was in place in 2013. Read more

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: How Seattle’s Amazon avoids paying taxes

May 8, 2018

Amazon effectively paid no U.S. income taxes in 2017, according to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Meanwhile, the company reported a staggering $1.9 billion in profits in the fourth quarter of 2017. “At a time when states all want to see HQ2 coming to them, but they don’t necessarily have the cash […]

Bloomberg BNA: Federal Tax Law May Spur Business Relocations Among States

May 8, 2018

Such migration concerns are “overblown,” Carl Davis, research director at the liberal-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, told Bloomberg Tax. “High-income earners tend to move less often than everyone else because they are already living comfortably,” Davis said. “There is no need for them to uproot their lives in search of a tax savings […]

Washington Post: Iowa Republicans pitch ‘crisis-proof’ tax cuts. Democrats see another Kansas in the making.

May 8, 2018

"The trigger is a politically expedient way for lawmakers to claim they’ve cut your taxes without having to do anything immediately to make up for the consequences of reducing revenue," said Meg Wiehe, of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank.

Quartz: The obscure tax rule that’s stopping US states from paying teachers more

May 5, 2018

When lawmakers do gather enough votes to raise tax revenues, it is usually for “low hanging fruit” like cigarette taxes or a sales tax, said Meg Wielhe, the deputy director for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a tax research group. These increases “definitely fall more heavily on low-income families,” she said, which can means […]

Iowa Fiscal Partnership: Tax Plan Facts vs. Spin

May 5, 2018 • By ITEP Staff

As Iowa lawmakers consider the agreed-upon tax plan developed by Republican leadership and Governor Reynolds, sharp differences are clear from earlier proposals by the Governor and the House Ways and Means Committee.

Politico: Trump Store Collecting Online Sales Tax after Criticism

May 4, 2018

The research director of the liberal-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Carl Davis, said in a blog post Thursday that “the Trump Organization quietly updated TrumpStore.com’s sales tax information page this week to indicate that the company will now collect sales tax in New York.” Read more

Business Insider: The Trump Org Just Quietly Announced It Is Collecting Sales Tax in a New State

May 4, 2018

New York’s addition to the list of states where TrumpStore.com collects sales tax, which previously included Louisiana, Florida, and Virginia, was first spotted Thursday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan think tank. “Refusing to collect sales tax in New York was a risky move, and it’s not surprising that they’ve reversed course,” […]

Politico Morning Tax: Yeah, That’s a Nexus

May 4, 2018

The Trump Store has started collecting sales tax on online purchases from customers in New York, a state where it most certainly seemed to have the physical presence required for collection — a Manhattan flagship store. The liberal Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy noted that update on the store’s website. In all, the store […]

Politifact: Bernie Sanders Says Amazon Paid no Federal Income Tax in 2017. He’s Right

May 3, 2018

The trick for companies? They get to write off the value at which the stock was later traded, not the original price for which they sold their stock to employees. “Even if the grant was pennies on the dollar, the companies get to write off the full market value,” said Matt Gardner, senior fellow at […]

Washington Post: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is sending 671,000 families an election-year check

May 3, 2018

Tax experts said the only similar recent tax break that came to mind was in 2014, when New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) pushed through a more targeted, three-year tax package aimed at middle-class families ahead of his reelection bid, according to Meg Wiehe, a tax expert at the Institute on Taxation and Economic […]

Bloomberg BNA: Higher Gas Prices May Mean Paying States More in Taxes

May 1, 2018

As a result, a few states will see revenue gains from higher prices because their tax rates are tied to the price of fuel, rather than its volume, Carl Davis, research director for the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, told Bloomberg Tax. Those states include California, Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, New […]

Education Week: Want to Support Schools? Stop Cutting Taxes

April 30, 2018

In fact, a 2013 Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy study found that states with high tax rates are outperforming no-tax states, particularly in per capita gross state product: 8.2 percent per capita growth in gross state product compared with 5.2 percent in no-tax states. Read more

The Arizona Republic: Will #RedforEd teachers support soaking the rich to better fund Arizona schools?

April 30, 2018

Lujan says it’s is all about balancing an out-of-whack tax structure that is too dependent on sales taxes – one that has left low-income Arizonans paying far more in taxes as a percentage of their income than the wealthy. Indeed, 40 percent of Arizona taxpayers – those who earn an average of $28,300 a year […]

According to the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, Illinois ranks as the fifth-most-regressive state and local tax system in the country — and the most regressive in the Midwest. In Illinois, the top one percent of income earners pay just 4.6 percent of their income in state and local taxes, while the middle 20 percent of workers pay more than double that, coming in at 10.8 percent of income, and the bottom 20 percent of earners have almost three times the tax burden of the wealthiest, coming in at 13.2 percent.

In one week, Democratic and Republican voters will choose their candidates for the November election. That includes the selections for governor, the job coming open after eight years with John Kasich. The governor has his achievements, most notably, the Medicaid expansion. His tenure also frames a worthy debate for this campaign. Fortunately, Innovation Ohio and Policy Matters Ohio, two think tanks, highlighted that discussion last week in unveiling their report “A Winning Economic Agenda for Ohio’s Working Families.”

Detroit Free Press: Trump’s Tax Law Saves These Companies Millions

April 29, 2018

For example, embattled Wells Fargo saved $662 million off its tax bill during the first three months of 2018. Those tax savings promise to quickly wipe out the $1-billion fine the bank agreed this month to pay to settle mortgage and auto loan violations against its customers. And Google’s parent company saved as much as $1 billion […]

Iowa Fiscal Partnership: IFP’s Tax Policy Kit

April 29, 2018 • By ITEP Staff

IFP's Tax Policy Kit offers resources for the public, advocates and policy makers who want to better understand the stakes — and sort away the spin — on state tax debates.