Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

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ITEP's Citations Research Priorities

If you live in a high-wealth and high-tax state like New Jersey, the news gets worse. For the first time in 100 years, taxpayers may no longer deduct their full state and local taxes (“SALT” for short) from the income on which federal taxes are owed. The deductible ceiling is set at $10,000, so if you pay more than that with property and income taxes combined, your taxable income will increase by a bit.

Boston Globe: The Tax Act Will Make It Tougher for Cities to Pay Their Bills

March 11, 2018

Roughly 80 percent of Massachusetts residents will see their tax bills shrink next year, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more

CNN.com: Washington, Save Partisan Fighting for Actual Partisan Issues

March 10, 2018

DACA-eligible immigrants pay $2 billion each year in state and local taxes, according to a report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. One study indicates that 97% of DACA recipients are in school or employed. Read more

And Georgia immigrants contribute significant state and local tax revenue, including $352 million a year by undocumented immigrants as a whole and $66 million by Dreamers in particular. Read more here

On March 1, Gov. Paul LePage’s Administration presented a tax bill to the Legislature designed to mirror at the state level some of the reforms enacted by passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act at the federal level. The proposal is framed as simple conformity with federal law but goes much further than routine […]

Governor Kim Reynolds’ tax proposal trades massive cuts in public services for small savings for lower-income taxpayers, larger savings for high-income taxpayers and few meaningful strides toward fairness in a system that already treats the poor poorly and raises too little revenue to avoid mid-year cuts.

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."

The Fiscal Times: How States Are Responding to the GOP Tax Overhaul

March 6, 2018

Concerned about the effects of the Republican tax overhaul on their local economies, some state legislatures are considering revamping their own tax systems to address everything from lost tax deductions to growing income inequality. Here’s a rundown some of those efforts, based on an analysis by the liberal-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy: Read […]

Louisiana Budget Project: On the Brink of Collapse

March 5, 2018 • By ITEP Staff

The backbiting and bitterness surrounding the revenue debate in Baton Rouge is wildly disproportionate to the effect on Louisiana families. As The Advocate’s Tyler Bridges reports, none of the tax bills would cost any Louisiana family more than 1 percent of their income per year. What’s really at stake in the tax debate – besides trying to fill a $1 billion hole in the budget – is whether to continue relying on a regressive sales tax, or if the burden should be shifted slightly to high-income taxpayers.

Atlanta Business Chronicle: General Assembly in Tax Cutting State of Mind

March 1, 2018

https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2018/03/01/general-assembly-in-tax-cutting-state-of-mind.html?ana=bbg

New Republic: Has Amazon Become Too Big to Tax

March 1, 2018

Earlier this week, Matthew Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reported that Amazon, which recorded $5.6 billion in profits in 2017, paid zero in federal taxes, thanks to “various tax credits and tax breaks for executive stock options.” That’s remarkable in isolation, but especially remarkable when you consider that Donald Trump’s corporate tax bill […]

Fiscal Times: New Tax Bill Takes Aim at US Companies Moving Overseas

February 28, 2018

Critics of the GOP tax overhaul say it rewards U.S. companies for moving jobs and profits offshore and may actually encourage outsourcing compared to the old rules. The liberal Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that the new international provisions will cost the Treasury an additional $14 billion in lost revenue over the next […]

Politico Morning Tax: Amazon/taxes

February 28, 2018

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s finding that Amazon won’t pay any federal taxes for 2017 gets picked up back in Seattle. Read more

A state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), like the recently proposed Missouri Working Families Credit, could benefit as many as 515,000 working families with modest wages, providing hardworking families the ability to achieve a better future and a pathway to the middle class. By making the credit refundable, like the federal EITC and most other […]

The top 1 percent of North Carolinians are getting about $21,780 in average tax breaks per year — 59 times the average break for people in the middle fifth of the income scale and 1,361 times the average break for people in the lowest fifth, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found in its analysis of the 2013 tax changes.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Amazon Paid No U.S. Income Tax

February 27, 2018

Matthew Gardner, senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, wrote about Amazon’s tax bill that won’t come due in a Feb. 13 blog post. Without being privy to the company’s tax return, no one can say exactly how CEO Jeff Bezos and Co. avoided what could have been more than $1.3 billion […]

Associated Press: GOP Tax Law Boosts Income Taxes, Budgets in Some States

February 26, 2018

The Republican tax overhaul is giving most Americans a break on their federal income taxes. But fallout from the same law means many people could actually see their state income taxes rise.  For some state governments, the prospect of getting more revenue without actively raising taxes is almost too good to be true, but it also […]

The Economist: The Spoils from American Corporate Tax Reform Are Unevenly Spread

February 23, 2018

Most are bonuses that amount to a small part of the total gains, leading sceptics to attribute the announcements to clever public relations. A few firms have gone further, announcing permanent wage increases or new investment projects. But these were probably in the pipeline anyway, given improving demand, says Matt Gardner, from the Institute on […]

Business Insider: Facebook Co-Founder Wants the Richest Americans to Fund a Basic Income for 90 Million People

February 22, 2018

“We know that when people get modest amounts of cash, they use it smartly, their kids stay in school longer, health outcomes improve, and they’re happier,” Hughes said on Reddit. “We have the power to rebalance our economic system and provide more opportunity to all — we just have to develop the political will to […]

Bill Analysis: House Bill 918 Substitute (LC 34 5383-ECS); Feb. 22, 2018 Georgia leaders are now rushing a massive tax package through the state’s General Assembly with limited debate and without a clear tally of the plan’s true cost. Gov. Nathan Deal and legislative leaders introduced a revised tax package Feb. 20, 2018, designed to […]

Bloomberg: Why Gas Taxes Aren’t Paying the Bills Anymore

February 20, 2018

A big part of the ups and downs in the above chart has to do with ups and downs in the price of gas, and this volatility is one reason why gas taxes generally aren’t levied as a percentage of the price. Many states switched to percentage taxes during the oil crises of the 1970s and early […]

New York Times: When Calling an Uber Can Pay off for Cities and States

February 20, 2018

The new fees and taxes are often part of broader regulatory measures as states and localities scramble to update tax codes and laws that have not kept up with the proliferation of app-based ride services. For instance, a Georgia state tax applies to rides in taxis but not ride-hailing cars even though they essentially do […]

Politico: EU Mulls Retaliation over Trump Tax Overhaul

February 20, 2018

European countries may fight back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tax overhaul by arguing that it breaches World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, finance ministers said Tuesday. Their tough rhetoric came after the ministers gathered in Brussels to discuss a response to the U.S. reform, which many Europeans say unfairly favors American trade interests over their […]

House Bill 463 would make substantial changes to Idaho’s tax code, in part as a response to recent federal tax cuts. The legislation would also cut Idaho’s state income tax rates for households and corporations, changing significantly the way the income tax load is carried by residents. The proposal also includes a nonrefundable state child tax credit, although this does not offset the tax increases for some Idaho families from full conformity.

The Oregon legislature should act prudently and refrain from hastily eliminating the state’s tax haven law. Otherwise, the legislature could be making it easier for multinational corporations to avoid paying Oregon corporate taxes, potentially costing the state millions.