
February 17, 2022
State lawmakers are also pointing to substantial, but temporary, budget surpluses to justify tax cuts, but these surpluses are “deceptive and fleeting,” says Neva Butkus of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a Washington think tank. Twenty-three states lowered their revenue estimates compared to pre-pandemic levels, and 19 states counted delayed fiscal year […]
February 16, 2022
More than 1 in 3 young adults – or more than 5 million people – would benefit from this change in the earned income tax credit, seeing an average of benefit $820, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a progressive think tank, which is advocating for a permanent change in the age restrictions. […]
February 15, 2022 • By ITEP Staff
The West Virginia Legislature has introduced a bill to cut and eventually eliminate the state’s personal income tax. The House Finance Committee voted to advance that bill to the House floor with no discussion or questions asked. Like previous attempts to eliminate the state’s income tax, HB 4007 would lead to major revenue losses for the […]
February 14, 2022 • By ITEP Staff
Oklahoma can effectively eliminate the state and local sales tax on groceries for most low-income families by strengthening the Sales Tax Relief Credit. At a time when many Oklahomans are struggling to put food on the table and are at risk of eviction, a more robust Sales Tax Relief Credit can help put money back into the pockets […]
February 10, 2022
Meanwhile, a new report found Amazon was able to dodge over $5 billion in federal income taxes in 2021. Amazon reported record revenue of $35 billion last year but benefited from a federal income tax rate of just 6%, thanks to corporate tax breaks. The report was issued by the Institute on Taxation and Economic […]
February 10, 2022
For the 37% of workers 19 to 24 who are now eligible to receive the credit, the expansion will mean an average boost of $820, according to a study from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. If an individual has no other tax liability, that money will be sent to them in their refund […]
February 10, 2022 • By ITEP Staff
Iowa lawmakers have repeatedly cut taxes over the last three decades in ways that provide the greatest benefits to the highest-income taxpayers while ratcheting down investments that historically made the state attractive to raise a family or do business — including public schools and public health. Now, within months of passing tax cuts that when […]
February 7, 2022 • By ITEP Staff
The tax cuts proposed in HB 436 would benefit wealthy Idahoans the most. The bill would also collapse the state’s five tax brackets to four, and would lower the income tax rate on the wealthiest tax bracket from 6.5% to 6%. Read more
February 7, 2022 • By ITEP Staff
From housing to child care, hard-working Idaho families face high costs in our growing state. Since 2018, Idaho’s tax code has supported families through the state Child Tax Credit (CTC). In the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), Congress approved a temporary change to expand the definition of “child” to include 17-year-olds in tax year 2021. […]
February 7, 2022 • By ITEP Staff
Hawai’i’s working families continue to struggle with the nation’s highest gap between median earnings and the cost of living, and this difficult reality has only been made harsher by the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, more than a third of Hawai’i households had at least some difficulty paying for their monthly expenses in December of 2021. […]
February 7, 2022 • By ITEP Staff
The likely proposal for the long-discussed special session seems to have settled, and its main feature would be to cut the top personal and corporate income tax rates. This disproportionately benefits the wealthy, and the corporate income tax cut will largely be captured by out-of-state shareholders, meaning the revenue will leave the state economy entirely. […]
February 7, 2022 • By ITEP Staff
Last month, an influential group of lobbyists released a proposal to raise Wisconsin’s sales tax to 8%, making it the highest state sales tax in the country, and eliminate the state individual income tax, Wisconsin’s biggest source of revenue. The plan would result in the largest tax cuts going to white households, with households of color […]
February 7, 2022 • By ITEP Staff
The Youngkin administration’s tax plan would leave out nearly 80 percent of the over 800,000 taxpayers in Virginia who have incomes below $24,000. Gov. Youngkin’s proposed changes would also sharply reduce state General Fund revenues — the portion of the state budget over which lawmakers have the most discretion and which primarily goes toward funding […]
February 7, 2022 • By ITEP Staff
House Bill 531 would eliminate the state individual income tax. Eliminating the income tax is bad for Mississippi, especially the state’s working families, communities of color, and retirees. While some lawmakers are suggesting that Mississippi’s revenue system is sound enough to support this tax cut, due to the current surplus, this couldn’t be further from […]
February 7, 2022 • By ITEP Staff
Two bills in the 2022 regular session would end the state grocery tax while protecting school funding. The graph below shows how millions of Alabamians would benefit. Untaxing groceries quickly and responsibly would boost economic and food security for all Alabamians. That means replacing revenue for public schools in a way that doesn’t harm struggling […]
February 4, 2022
The following is an excerpt of an opEd by Aidan Davis, ITEP senior policy analyst, and Neva Butkus, policy analyst, published on Feb. 4 in Newsweek: One report after another in recent months revealed that the nation’s richest individuals gained wealth during the pandemic while ordinary families financially stood still or faced impossible decisions—such as […]
February 4, 2022 • By ITEP Staff
Non-Nebraskans, corporations and wealthy residents would be big winners under the latest income tax cuts proposed in in LB 938 and LB 939. Meanwhile, the bills – which would ratchet the state’s top corporate and personal income tax rates to 5.84% over four and three years respectively – offer most Nebraskans little tax savings while depleting revenue needed […]
February 3, 2022
Meanwhile, the bigger credit comes at a welcome time for many Americans, as roaring inflation consumes most of low-wage workers’ pay gains. “While these folks without dependent children may not be faced with the cost of childcare, they’re definitely paying more for food, for gas, for rent. For these folks, these necessities may be out […]
February 1, 2022 • By ITEP Staff
Although Connecticut has the second highest level of per capita personal income in the US, making it exceptionally wealthy overall, many families consistently struggle because Connecticut also has the second highest level of income inequality and a substantial racial income gap, meaning a small, disproportionately white portion of the population primarily benefits from the state’s […]
January 25, 2022
If Kentucky were to cut its income tax rate to 4%, it would have to raise the sales tax rate from 6% to 7.4% to make up the lost revenue, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. That would give our state the highest state sales tax in the country. The bottom 60% […]
January 24, 2022
But those surpluses, points out Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy analyst Neva Butkus, reflect a set of special circumstances that range from billions in federal Covid aid to changes in tax-filing deadlines during the pandemic that have left many 2020 and 2021 tax payments getting collected in the same fiscal year. Using the surpluses these special […]
January 24, 2022
According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy: FedEx (FDX) – Get FedEx Corporation Report zeroed out its federal income tax on $1.2 billion of U.S. pretax income and received a rebate of $230 million, Nike (NKE) – Get NIKE, Inc. Class B Report paid no federal income tax on almost $2.9 billion of […]
January 20, 2022
Idaho’s corporate income tax rate is a single rate of 6.5%; the bill would lower it to 6%. Necochea called that “throwing money out of the state,” citing figures from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimating that 81% of the benefit from that cut would flow out of state. “Corporate owners can live […]
January 20, 2022
An analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit, nonpartisan tax policy organization based in Washington, D.C., found that the total tax benefits of the package for a person in the top 1% of Idaho income earners making $557,000 or more annually would benefit by $13,254. Read more
January 10, 2022
In addition, “sales taxes inevitably take a larger share of income from low- and middle-income families than from rich families because sales taxes are levied at a flat rate and spending as a share of income falls as income rises,” according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more