Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

ITEP Work in Action

Maine Center for Economic Policy: Trump Tax Plan Would Give Richest Maine Taxpayers an Average $53,000 Tax Cut and Trigger Deep Cuts to Federal Dollars for Maine 

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 helping middle-class taxpayers, showering three out of every five dollars of the total tax cut on the richest 1 percent nationwide. In Maine, the top 1 percent of the state’s residents would receive an average tax cut of $53,000 compared with an average tax cut of $400 for the bottom 60 percent of taxpayers in the state.

Maine Center for Economic Policy: What Happens When Those with the Most Pay the Least Taxes?

July 7, 2017

With the 3 percent surcharge repealed, the state’s tax code is out of balance. Those with the most are asked to pay the least. This means a middle-class family keeps 91 cents on average after state and local taxes for each dollar earned, versus 93 cents kept by the wealthiest in the state. This preferential tax treatment of wealthy Maine household also comes at a cost to roads, public health, and quality education that low and middle income Mainers rely on the most to succeed.

Wisconsin Budget Project: Missing Out: Recent Tax Cuts Slanted in Favor of those with Highest Incomes

June 27, 2017

Since 2011, Wisconsin state lawmakers have made it a high priority to cut taxes, particularly personal income and property taxes. The tax cuts they have passed have disproportionately gone to Wisconsin residents with the highest incomes. Middle-class residents received less than the wealthy, and residents with low incomes received the smallest tax cut. Read more […]

Minnesota Budget Project: DACA recipients make important tax contributions to Minnesota

June 22, 2017

Minnesota’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) recipients pay an estimated $15 million in state and local taxes, according to a report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). They are contributing to our communities and our economy, and the report shows they would contribute even more if given the opportunity to apply […]

Failed Tax-Cut Experiment (in North Carolina) Will Continue Under Final Budget Agreement, Pushes Fiscal Reckoning Down the Line

June 21, 2017

The final budget agreement from leaders of the House and Senate puts North Carolina on precarious fiscal footing, The tax changes that leaders agreed to—which were less a compromise and more of a decision to combine the tax cuts in both chambers’ proposals—make the cost of these tax cuts bigger than what either chamber proposed. Including the new tax cuts,approximately 80 percent of the net tax cut since 2013 will have gone to the top 20 percent.  More than half of the net tax cut will go to the top 1 percent.

Oregon Center for Public Policy: Reason to Hope for a Commercial Activities Tax (CAT) Accompanied by a CAT Fairness Credit

June 21, 2017

The CAT Fairness Credit would be a credit on personal income taxes based on family size and income. It would cost about the same as the combined impact of the personal income tax changes and EITC increase, and would target relief to low- and middle-income taxpayers.

Maine Center for Economic Policy: Senate Republican Vote Defies Will of Voters, Compromises Current and Future School Funding to Give Tax Cuts to Wealthy

June 13, 2017

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.

Oregon Center for Public Policy: Commercial Activities Tax Fairness Credit Would Strengthen the Tax Reform Package

June 9, 2017

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.

A Better Wyoming: Guess Which Sparsely Populated Mineral Rich State is Getting an Income Tax…

June 8, 2017

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.

Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Troubling Hints About Direction for Tax Reform

June 8, 2017

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.

A Better Wyoming: Everything You Know About Wyoming Taxes is Wrong

June 6, 2017

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.

The Cost Of Trickle-Down Economics For North Carolina

May 26, 2017

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 […]

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.

New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute: Revenue in Review: An Overview of New Hampshire’s Tax System and Major Revenue Sources

May 24, 2017

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.

Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Any Way You Slice It, A Shift To Consumption Taxes Will Hurt Kentucky

May 22, 2017

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 […]

Florida Policy Institute: New Report Finds Shortcomings in Florida’s Scholarship Tax Credit Program

May 19, 2017

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 […]

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 ( […]

Maryland’s Money Matters: ‘Dreamers’ Make Important Contributions to Maryland

May 5, 2017

It is unclear, as of now, whether the Trump administration will choose to end protections for young adults who came to the U.S. as children and have legal status through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. If the administration elects to end the program, thousands of Marylanders could lose their jobs and ability to attend college, many business could lose valued workers, and Maryland could lose nearly $14 million annually in state and local tax revenue.

The Progressive Pulse: Young Undocumented Immigrants’ Tax Contributions Would Drop by Nearly Half Without the Protection of the DACA Program

May 3, 2017

Young immigrants eligible for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals)  annually contribute $2 billion in state and local taxes, according to new analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The ITEP report finds that this number would drop by nearly half without DACA protection at a time when the Trump Administration has sent mixed signals on whether it intends to honor the DACA executive order in the long term.

Oklahoma Policy Institute: Itemized Deduction Reform is a Promising State Budget Solution

May 2, 2017

When Oklahomans filed their state income taxes in 2016, more than 70 percent of households used the standard deduction, which was $6,300 for individuals and $12,600 for married couples filing jointly. The remaining households itemized their deductions, adding up deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions, business expenses, and several other deductions allowed under federal and state tax laws. […]

Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center: The Evidence on Millionaire Migration and Taxes

April 27, 2017

Economists consistently find that a well-educated workforce and a high-quality transportation system are among the bedrock elements upon which a prosperous state economy is built. Providing everyone with access to the education and training they need to reach their full potential boosts the productivity of individual workers and strengthens the overall economy.

Oregon Center for Public Policy: State corporate income taxes continue to shrink

April 27, 2017

As Oregon lawmakers consider raising corporate taxes to prevent cuts to schools and other public services, a new report finds that many of the nation’s largest corporations are paying little or nothing in state income taxes across the country. Despite reporting large profits to shareholders, these corporations are paying less to states in income taxes […]

Fiscal Policy Institute: Immigrant Youth Add $140 Million to New York Tax Revenues

April 25, 2017

The report, conducted by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and co-released in New York by the Fiscal Policy Institute, focuses on the executive order known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. The executive order first went into effect in 2012, and in New York State, of the estimated 820,000 undocumented immigrants, about 76,000 are eligible for DACA.

New Jersey Policy Perspectives: DACA-Eligible New Jerseyans Pay $66 Million a Year in Taxes

April 25, 2017

New Jersey’s young immigrants eligible for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) contribute $66 million in state and local taxes each year, the seventh highest level of all the states. And those annual contributions would increase by $27 million – the sixth most of all states – under comprehensive immigration reform.

The Commonwealth Institute: Working, Paying Taxes, Hitting Barriers

April 24, 2017

Unauthorized immigrants in Virginia contribute more than $250 million each year in state and local taxes. That’s a lot of money. But they could contribute even more – nearly $100 million more – if they received lawful work permits and relief from fear of immigration enforcement, policy changes lawmakers could begin to address for the […]

Advocates and policymakers at the state and federal levels rely on ITEP’s analytic capabilities to inform their debates on proposed tax policy changes. In any given year, ITEP fields requests for analyses of policies in 25 or more states. ITEP also works with national partners to provide analyses of federal tax policy proposals. This section highlights reports that use ITEP analyses to make a compelling case for progressive tax reforms.