Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

Citations

ITEP's Citations Research Priorities

Salon: Apple CEO Tim Cook Thinks a Big Corporate Tax Cut is “What’s Good for America”

June 18, 2017

Earlier this year, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan liberal think tank, published research showing that few large profitable companies even come close to paying the 35 percent federal income tax rate on U.S. profits. The study, which looked at 258 large U.S. companies that reported annual U.S.-based profit from 2008 to 2015, […]

According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, repealing the citizen approved surcharge would give a $16,300 tax break on average to the top 1% of Maine households and cost the state over $300 million in school funding over current and future biennia.

Analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows that, all else being equal, a tax reform package with a CAT Fairness Credit would be more progressive than a tax reform package with an income tax rate reduction.

Alaska stopped collecting income taxes 35 years ago, and Wyoming has never remotely considered implementing one in the 82 years since it decided instead to charge state and local sales taxes. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) discovered recently that nearly 82 percent of Alaskans could expect to pay less under a progressive income tax than they would under a sales tax designed to generate an identical level of revenue.

The corporate tax cuts described above mean profitable businesses chip in less for the public services that help them succeed. And the result of less reliance on income and inheritance taxes is clear (see graph below): those at the top in Tennessee and Indiana pay an even smaller share of their income in state and local taxes than the wealthiest Kentuckians do, and their lowest-income residents pay an even higher share than the poorest Kentuckians.

PBS News Hour: How Much Do the Poor Actually Pay in Taxes? Probably More Than You Think.

June 8, 2017

“All told, those in the bottom fifth of earners pay almost a fifth of their income in taxes. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the lowest-income quintile — those making less than $19,000 a year — pay almost 11 percent of their income in state and local taxes. Working people, even if […]

Kansas City Star: Kansas Tax ‘Experiment’ Offers Lessons to the Nation, Analysts Say

June 7, 2017

“An analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found in 2015 that taxpayers in the bottom 40 percent saw an overall increase in their taxes under Brownback when the 2015 sales tax increase is included.” Read more

The Atlantic: Can America’s Farms Survive the Threat of Deportations?

June 6, 2017

“Pete points out that the undocumented community is a net contributor to taxes. It’s true: A recent report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that undocumented immigrants contribute billions of dollars to state and local taxes across the country. Deporting them, Pete added, will only hurt Americans. “If they just stopped contributing […]

Wrong. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a D.C. think tank that studies state tax policy, Wyoming’s wealthiest residents pay the lowest tax rate in the country. Meanwhile, people at the bottom 20 percent of Wyoming’s shaky economic ladder pay taxes at seven-times the rate that the top one percent of earners do. That’s the largest tax rate discrepancy between rich and poor in the United States.

Charleston Gazette-Mail: Senate Tax Plan is Upward Redistribution

June 3, 2017

“Some West Virginia Senators are singing a similar tune as Reagan with their tax plan. While they say their plan is a tax cut for everyone, the facts say otherwise. According to a recent analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the Senate tax plan would increase taxes for most West Virginia households […]

Politifact: Richest 1 Percent Pay Lowest Rate of State and Local Taxes in Wisconsin?

June 2, 2017

McCabe, who says he is not a member of any political party, cited a 50-state analysis of state and local taxes published in January 2015 by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning research organization based in Washington, D.C. Experts told us it is the only recent report of its kind on state […]

Bloomberg: Trump ‘Self-Help’ Infrastructure Plan Irks State, Local Leaders

June 1, 2017

Six states this year raised their gas taxes — joining 18 others that have raised or changed the tax since 2013 to generate more money for transportation work, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The federal gas tax hasn’t been increased since 1993. Read more

Chicago Magazine: What Can Illinois Learn from Other States’ Budget Disasters

June 1, 2017

In 2012, Kansas would go on to enact tax cuts that the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy called ”among the largest” enacted by any state. Under the leadership of recently elected Governor Sam Brownback, the state dropped the top income tax rate by one-fourth, nixed taxes on “pass through” business profits (business profits passed directly to the […]

The Boston Globe: Ax the Sales Tax (Also the Income Tax)

May 27, 2017

A constitutional amendment to eliminate the sales tax and replace the flat state income tax with a progressive scale based on income would be a bold solution. It would both alleviate the tax burden for low- and moderate-income families and generate enough revenue to right our budget ship before the next recession hits. A couple […]

Since 2013, state lawmakers have passed significant income tax cuts that largely benefit the state’s highest income earners and profitable corporations. These costly tax cuts have made the state’s tax system more upside-down by delivering the greatest income tax cuts to the state’s highest income taxpayers, while maintaining a heavier tax load on low- and […]

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.

New Hampshire’s revenue system is relatively unique in the United States, as it lacks broad-based income and sales taxes and instead relies on a diversity of more narrowly-based taxes, fees, and other revenue sources to fund public services. This system presents both advantages and disadvantages to stable, adequate, and sustainable revenue generation.

Bloomberg BNA: A New School Argument for an Old School Credit

May 23, 2017

Scholarship or tuition tax credits have a way of staying in the public spotlight. Over the last several years, battles surrounding these credits have been waged in courtrooms, on the floors of state legislatures and in the public consciousness. A new front has emerged in this old fight as evidenced by the report “Public Loss […]

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia’s Tax Credit Program Is Profitable for the Rich

May 22, 2017

The national School Superintendents Association, which opposes the tax-based tuition subsidies because they leave less money on the table for public schools, published the report Public Loss, Private Gain, with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. It describes the “double-dipping” tax benefits gained by those who donate to such programs in Georgia and eight […]

According to ITEP, replacing all of Kentucky’s income tax revenue with sales tax revenue would require an increase in our sales tax rate to 13.3 percent – more than double the current 6 percent rate and by far the highest state sales tax rate in the country (next highest is California at 7.5 percent). But […]

NPR: Leaked Education Budget Has Big Cuts

May 20, 2017

A bill now in Congress would expand tax-credit scholarships nationwide, creating a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit for individuals and corporations. That could “undermine public education,” according to a new report by The School Superintendents Association and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. It says that, as a result of tax-credit scholarships, more than a […]

State tax policies are undermining high-quality public education by redirecting public dollars for K-12 education toward private schools via tuition tax credits, according to a new report published by the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and the School Superintendents Association (AASA). In the case of Florida, the scholarship tax credit program failed to […]

CNNMoney: Becoming a Sanctuary State Could Help California Protect Its Economy Too

May 18, 2017

Not only do California’s undocumented workers fill jobs, but they pay taxes too. In 2014, almost $3.2 billion of California’s state and local taxes came from undocumented immigrants, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington D.C.-based research group. Read more

New York Times: In Some States, Donating to Private Schools Can Earn You a Profit

May 17, 2017

AASA and the liberal-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy examined programs in 17 states that send more than $1 billion a year to private schools via tuition tax credits, and concluded that private schools were benefiting from a “federally sanctioned voucher tax shelter” for wealthy taxpayers. The study called it a “get-rich scheme for […]

International Business Times: How Much Do Companies Really Pay When Settling With The Government? Warren Pushes Bill That Makes It Public

May 17, 2017

While is doesn’t strive for a reform in the tax system that allows those firms to write off huge chunks of their fines, the senators’ measure, which applies to settlement agreements with executive agencies worth at least $1 million, requires the agency in question to “make publicly available in a searchable format” a list of those […]