ITEP Work in Action
Freedom from Religion Foundation: FFRF Warns of Constitutional Threats in Congressional Reconciliation Bill
May 16, 2025
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is sounding the alarm on the deeply troubling federal reconciliation bill making its way through Congress that would funnel billions of public dollars into religious education, erode secular public institutions, and give unprecedented power to the executive branch to target tax-exempt nonprofits — potentially including FFRF itself.
Invest in Louisiana: The Many Benefits of Working Family Tax Credits
May 9, 2025
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s Neva Butkus explains how state-level EITCs supports families and workers by offsetting regressive state tax systems:
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Broad Property Tax Cuts Won’t Provide Relief to Those Most Impacted by High Housing Costs: Renters With Low Incomes
May 8, 2025
State and local policymakers have an important role to play in increasing housing affordability by advancing policies that address the root cause of the housing crisis: bringing down the costs of housing and increasing people’s incomes to help them afford it. Investment in rental assistance is a key solution.
Brookings: How a Federal Tax-Credit Scholarship Plan would Benefit the Wealthy and Underserve Rural America
May 7, 2025
We explain how this type of program could work, and we explore some of its implications, especially for rural communities. In doing so, we focus our analysis on the bill currently before Congress: the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) of 2025.
ITEP Testimony: Miles Trinidad on Rhode Island’s High-Earner Income Tax Surcharge
May 6, 2025
This written testimony was submitted to the Rhode Island House Finance Committee on May 6, 2025. Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony in support of H-5473, a bill to create a 3 percent surcharge on those earning over $625,000 a year. My name is Miles Trinidad. I am an analyst at the Institute […]
Florida Policy Institute: Florida Budget Proposals in Brief (FY 2025-26): Tax and Revenue
May 3, 2025
The Legislature is at a standstill, with two seemingly competing visions for the future of taxes in Florida. On the one hand, the House of Representatives advanced House Bill (HB) 7033 with various changes to the state’s general sales tax, as well as changes to local tourist development taxes. Read more.
Media Matters for America: Fox News’ Many Justifications for Extending Trump’s Tax Cut for the Wealthy
April 30, 2025
Fox News personalities have gone all in supporting President Donald Trump’s plan to extend his unpopular 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, offering a hodgepodge of justifications for why it’s necessary to keep taxes low for rich people and businesses as Congress moves to slash billions in social safety net programs.
Video: ITEP’s Amy Hanauer Discusses Billionaires, Taxes, and More at FP Solutions Summit
April 25, 2025
On April 24, 2025 ITEP Executive Director Amy Hanauer spoke on the panel “The Billionaire Tax Debate: Rethinking Fiscal Responsibility Around the World,” at the FP Solutions Summit. Video is embedded below (the relevant panel begins around the 38:30 mark).
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Immigrants Contribute Greatly to the Social Security Trust Fund’s Solvency
April 25, 2025
Immigrants are a critical part of the U.S. workforce and play a key role in strengthening Social Security’s finances. Like all other workers, immigrants contribute to the trust fund through payroll taxes. Even if they themselves will not become eligible to receive benefits in their lifetimes, immigrants improve the solvency of a program that provides almost all workers with a foundation of income for their retirement.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Mississippi Moves to Eliminate Income Tax, Deepening Inequality and Threatening Public Services
April 25, 2025
Mississippi policymakers have taken one of the most extreme steps in state tax policy in recent years: enacting a law that will gradually phase out the state’s personal income tax. Signed by Gov. Tate Reeves in March, the move begins the final stage of a years-long push to dismantle a key pillar of the state’s tax system, which has long helped fund education, health care, infrastructure, and other core services.
George W. Bush Presidential Center: The Policy Implications of the IRS-ICE Data Sharing Agreement
April 23, 2025
There may be substantial policy implications, too. While ICE maintains that it will only be used in narrow circumstances to aid criminal investigations, a policy like this could still discourage people with an ITIN from filing their taxes out of fear that a tax return might make them a target for deportation.
North Carolina Budget & Tax Center: Faced with pausing tax cuts for the rich or lowering state spending, NC Senate budget sides with the wealthy few
April 23, 2025
They will risk recurring budget deficits. They will risk an inability to protect North Carolinians from federal Medicaid and food assistance cuts. To deliver these tax cuts, they will cut funding for the state’s public K-12 students and community college students.
Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility: Redefining Purpose: The Effect of the 2019 Business Roundtable Statement on Corporate Tax Strategies
April 23, 2025
Business Roundtable (BRT) firms have faced intense scrutiny from investors, media, and the public following their 2019 “Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation,” which marked a shift from shareholder-centric governance to a stakeholder-focused approach. This shift has sparked debate over whether BRT firms are genuinely committed to social responsibility or merely using it as […]
America’s Voice: On Tax Day, A Reminder That Immigration is Good for America
April 15, 2025
Tax Day 2025 is almost here, meaning millions of workers across the country have either already filed their state and federal returns or are sitting down to finish them up. This includes millions of immigrants, whose immense annual contributions help sustain vital federal programs like Medicare and Social Security, fund our public schools, libraries, and fire departments, and boost our overall economy.
Rep. Andreas Salinas: There’s a False Choice — and Then There’s the Right Choice — on Trump’s Tax Cuts
April 15, 2025
Rarely has Congress faced such an important decision on tax policy as it does right now: whether and how to extend the massive tax cuts enacted in 2017 during the first Trump administration — tax cuts that have largely benefited the rich at the expense of working families. Read more.
Audio: ITEP’s Steve Wamhoff on What Federal Tax Policy Should – and Shouldn’t – Accomplish
April 10, 2025
ITEP Federal Policy Director Steve Wamhoff appeared on the Oregon Center for Public Policy’s “Policy for the People” podcast, discussing his recent report and the 2025 tax debate.
Groundwork Collaborative: Tax Giveaways for Gouging: How the Trump Tax Law Fueled Corporate Profiteering
April 9, 2025
We find that since Trump’s first tax giveaway, these companies have raked in nearly $500 billion in profits and enriched their shareholders by $463 billion while paying just $140 billion in federal income taxes. Compared to the two years before the TCJA was passed, these companies’ profits have more than doubled while their effective tax rates fell by 39 percent.
Peterson Foundation: Here’s How No Tax on Overtime Would Affect Federal Revenues and Tax Fairness
April 9, 2025
As part of a group of tax proposals, Republican leaders recently called for eliminating taxes on overtime pay. Excluding overtime compensation from federal taxes would create a new tax expenditure — also known as a tax break — that would reduce federal revenues and make the U.S. tax system more complex. Here, we review how much no tax on overtime could impact federal tax receipts and deficits, as well as its effect on fairness within the federal tax system.
Economic Policy Institute: Missouri Republican State Lawmakers Are Pushing a Radical Anti-Worker Tax Plan
April 9, 2025
Conservative lawmakers’ preference to cut taxes is nothing new, but Missouri state lawmakers are currently considering a tax measure that would privilege the state’s wealthiest individuals in ways no other state with an income tax has done—by fully exempting all capital gains income from taxation. This change would exacerbate an already regressive state tax system, forcing low- and middle-income Missourians to shoulder a larger share of financing for state public services.
Immigration Impact: Ahead of Tax Day, Fear of Filing Taxes Rises Among Undocumented Immigrants
April 2, 2025
Tax Day is approaching, but the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts may make many undocumented immigrants hesitant to file taxes. Some worry that providing personal information to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) could be used against them.
Maine Center for Economic Policy: Expanding the Dependent Exemption Tax Credit is an Investment in Maine’s Future
April 2, 2025
Maine’s Dependent Exemption Tax Credit (DETC) is a vital investment in the state’s future. As Maine’s version of the child tax credit, it helps families with children or dependent adults afford essentials like food, rent, and childcare, especially in rural areas.
Policy Matters Ohio: Flat Income Tax Would Gut Ohio’s Budget
March 27, 2025
Ohio’s House Ways and Means Committee today holds its first hearing on HB 30, a bill that would tax the income of everyday Ohioans at the same rate as the state’s wealthiest households. The bill would eliminate the state’s top income-tax bracket of 3.5% on income above $100,000. By tax year 2026, Ohio would be left with a single rate of 2.75% on income above $27,350.
America’s Voice: In Seeking To Turn the IRS Into ICE, Trump Finally Admits that Undocumented Workers Actually Do Pay Taxes
March 27, 2025
The Trump administration is seeking to turn the IRS into another immigrant-hunting apparatus of the federal government, by seeking the confidential information of taxpayers who are even just suspected of being undocumented.
Oklahoma Policy Institute: Lawmakers Should Choose Targeted Relief Amidst Budget Uncertainty
March 25, 2025
State-level budget and tax policy matters deeply for Oklahomans because it directly affects how the state can meet its obligations to our fellow residents. This includes shared services like public safety, education, transportation construction, workforce development, and other programs that help all Oklahomans thrive.
Oregon Center for Public Policy: Worldwide Combined Reporting: How Oregon Can Make It Hard for Corporations to Profit from Offshore Tax Avoidance
March 25, 2025
Worldwide combined reporting is a smart, effective way Oregon can make corporations pay their fair share to support schools and essential services.
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.
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