ITEP Work in Action
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.
American Society of Civil Engineers: America’s Infrastructure Scores a C
March 25, 2025
The 2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure demonstrates that recent federal investments have positively affected many of the infrastructure sectors Americans rely on every day.
ITEP’s Who Pays? Cited in Washington Bill Creating Financial Intangibles Tax
March 24, 2025
Senate Democratic leaders in Washington state have introduced a series of bills aimed at making the state’s tax code more balanced. In the bill text for a new financial intangibles tax, ITEP’s Who Pays? report is cited: “Washington’s tax system remains the second most regressive in the nation as it asks those with the least […]
Hawai’i Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice: Hawai’i Should Close Tax Loopholes for Multinational Corporations
March 20, 2025
Multinational corporations make huge profits from the business activity they conduct in Hawaiʻi, while dodging the taxes they should be paying to support our state. These huge corporations do this by moving the profits earned within Hawaiʻi to their tax havens in foreign countries that levy almost no corporate taxes.
Oregon Center for Public Policy: Renew and Expand the Oregon Earned Income Tax Credit
March 20, 2025
The EITC is one of the most effective ways to address rising costs for hard-working families in Oregon.
Massachusetts Budget & Policy Center: By Taxing GILTI Profits, Massachusetts Can Reclaim Millions in Revenue Lost to Corporate Offshore Tax Dodging
March 20, 2025
Massachusetts loses out on hundreds of millions of tax dollars each year due to “profit-shifting”, a practice common among large, multinational corporations. International profit-shifting involves complex accounting maneuvers that make a corporation’s U.S. profits appear instead on the books of related companies located in offshore tax havens. It is an abusive form of tax avoidance that many multinational corporations use to lower their federal and state tax payments.
Every Texan: Texas Taxes Are Upside-Down. Big Tax Cuts Don’t Help.
March 18, 2025
Texas’ tax system is upside-down. When it comes to funding our public services, schools, and state and local governments, Texans with lower incomes are expected to pay more than their fair share. Read more.
Washington State Budget & Policy Center: The Truth About Washington’s Revenue Shortfall
March 14, 2025
During the 2025 legislative session, Washington state lawmakers face a budget shortfall that threatens funding for the public programs we all rely on. Read more.
Minnesota Budget Project: Trump’s 2025 Tax Plans Would Hurt Everyday Americans
March 12, 2025
Trump tax plans – like extending most provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) that are set to expire, special tax breaks for people who earn some kinds of income, or new corporate tax cuts – would provide the largest tax cuts to higher-income households and profitable corporations. Because the Trump tax plans are also very costly, they could add hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit every year and put health care, food support, and other public services that low- and middle-income people benefit from on the chopping block to pay for those tax cuts.1
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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ITEP is a non-profit, non-partisan tax policy organization. We conduct rigorous analyses of tax and economic proposals and provide data-driven recommendations to shape equitable and sustainable tax systems.
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