New Jersey’s fundamental strength lies in the rich tapestry of people who call the Garden State home, reflecting a diverse range of cultures and backgrounds. Nearly one in four residents (2.2 million) are immigrants,[i] who play a pivotal role in shaping the state’s identity. Immigrants bring a wealth of skills and talents that enrich New Jersey’s arts, cuisine, and entertainment, add to the intellectual achievements across various fields, and play essential roles in the private and public sectors. Across the state, immigrants make significant contributions to their local communities and the broader economy through their labor, entrepreneurial endeavors, and tax contributions.
ITEP Work in Action
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 Work in Action April 15, 2024 New Jersey Policy Perspective: New Immigrants Drive Economic Growth in New Jersey
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ITEP Work in Action April 15, 2024 Maine Center for Economic Policy: Tax Fairness — an Explainer
Taxes help pay for things that benefit everyone, like good schools, clean air and water, and safe roads. Businesses also need these things to succeed, along with a healthy, housed, and educated workforce, modern infrastructure, and affordable energy. Fair taxes mean everyone pitches in according to their means, so those who have less pay less, and those who have more pay more. Unfortunately, the vast majority of states still have upside-down tax structures, meaning that families with wealth pay a smaller portion of their income in taxes than families with low income. That’s not fair.
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ITEP Work in Action April 12, 2024 Audio: ITEP’s Joe Hughes on the Need for a Well-Funded IRS
ITEP Federal Policy Analyst Joe Hughes appeared on the Oregon Center for Public Policy’s “Policy for the People” podcast, discussing IRS funding and Direct File. -
ITEP Work in Action April 10, 2024 Oregon Center for Public Policy: Complete Reporting Would Make It Hard for Corporations to Hide Profits Overseas
Oregon can clamp down on multinational corporations shifting profits overseas, create a more level playing field for Oregon businesses, and raise millions in revenue by enacting “Complete Reporting” by large… -
ITEP Work in Action April 9, 2024 ITEP’s Miles Trinidad Testifies Against Weakening Hawai’i’s Estate Tax
HB 2653 would only exacerbate the regressive nature of Hawai’i’s state and local tax system and compound the preferential treatment of income derived from wealth.
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ITEP Work in Action April 8, 2024 Occidental College Urban & Environmental Policy Institute: Measuring LA’s Mansion Tax
In November 2022, 58% of Los Angeles City voters approved Measure ULA to increase the City’s existing real estate transfer tax on property sales over $5 million. The law went into effect on April 1, 2023. In its first year, Measure ULA is on track to raise hundreds of millions of dollars and spend the funds to build more affordable housing, provide emergency rental assistance, protect tenants from eviction, and prevent homelessness. This is all despite efforts by the real estate industry to undermine the new law and a significant shortage of Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD) staff to carry out the unprecedented program. Measure ULA has nevertheless proven itself effective in improving housing conditions in Los Angeles, and the city has now joined 16 other cities and counties across the nation that have enacted progressive taxes on high-price real estate sales (i.e. “mansion taxes”).
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ITEP Work in Action April 1, 2024 Video: President Biden Cites ITEP’s Data on Corporate Tax Avoidance at the State of the Union
From the State of the Union on March 7, 2024 -
ITEP Work in Action April 1, 2024 Video: Rep. David Trone Discusses Corporate Tax Avoidance at House Budget Committee Hearing
His remarks were at a March 21, 2024 House Budget Committee hearing on President Biden’s proposed budget. -
ITEP Work in Action April 1, 2024 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: States Can Fight Corporate Tax Avoidance by Requiring Worldwide Combined Reporting
To reduce their federal corporate income taxes, every year large multinational corporations shift hundreds of billions of dollars in profits earned in the United States onto the books of subsidiaries formed in foreign tax havens like Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, and Ireland. Because nearly all state corporate taxes are based on the taxable profits a corporation reports on its federal return, each year states lose at least $10 billion — and perhaps as much as $15 billion — of revenue due to this profit-shifting, estimates suggest. This is substantial revenue states could be using to provide K-12 teachers with better pay and smaller class sizes, low-income college students with more adequate financial aid, uninsured individuals with health coverage, residents and businesses with better road maintenance, and other critical services.
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ITEP Work in Action April 1, 2024 Open Sky Policy Institute: Why Proposed Tax Shift is Wrong for Nebraska
The tax package designed to lower property taxes paid to local political subdivisions would increase the tax burden on low- and middle-income working families and make it increasingly difficult for cities, counties and schools to provide the services that Nebraskans expect.
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ITEP Work in Action April 1, 2024 Open Sky Policy Institute: How the Tax Package Impacts Nebraskans
The proposal to lower property taxes paid to fund local government services will reduce property taxes paid by property owners, but it’s important to understand how the package that raises the state sales tax rate impacts all consumers and the effect of plans to “front load” the existing tax credit for taxes paid to public schools.
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ITEP Work in Action March 20, 2024 Montana Budget & Policy Center: The Great Tax Shift
The taxes paid by Montana residents and businesses have created and continue to fund an equitable educational system, roads and bridges, and services that keep our communities safe. Unfortunately, over… -
ITEP Work in Action March 18, 2024 The Volcker Alliance: State Tax Cuts After the Pandemic
The Issue Paper by Can Chen and Alex Hathaway, State Tax Cuts After the Pandemic: Strategies to Sustain Fiscal Health, is the latest in a series of Alliance issue papers on state… -
ITEP Work in Action March 14, 2024 Vermont Lt. Gov David Zuckerman: Fair Share
Today, I have an exceptionally important topic to talk about: taxes! Taxes have become a dirty word, and in many ways for good reason. Since the 1980’s there has been… -
ITEP Work in Action March 13, 2024 Video: Sen. Warren Slams Republicans Pushing Corporate Handouts While Fighting Child Tax Credit Expansion
Senator Warren’s exchange at a March 12, 2024 Senate Finance Committee hearing entitled: American Made: Growing U.S. Manufacturing Through the Tax Code -
ITEP Work in Action March 13, 2024 Institute for Policy Studies: More for Them, Less for Us
Corporate tax dodging and executive pay packages have both gotten so far out of control that a significant number of major U.S. corporations are paying their top executives more than they’re paying Uncle Sam in federal income taxes.
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ITEP Work in Action March 13, 2024 Maine Center for Economic Policy: The Case for Corporate Transparency
Mainers work hard to support themselves and their communities. They pay taxes to fund the services communities need to thrive, like education, health care, and infrastructure. But it is increasingly clear that big corporations aren’t holding up their end of the bargain by contributing their fair share. They deploy complicated tax loopholes and accounting schemes to avoid paying what they owe, using their money and power to ensure laws in place don’t expose the tricks they’re playing.
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ITEP Work in Action March 11, 2024 ITEP’s Marco Guzman Testifies in Favor of Tax Fairness Bills in Connecticut
Good afternoon, Senator Fonfara, Representative Horn, and members of the Committee, and thank you for this opportunity to testify. My name is Marco Guzman and I’m a senior policy analyst with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, or ITEP, and we’re a nonprofit research organization that focuses on state, local, and federal tax policy issues.
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ITEP Work in Action March 7, 2024 The White House Fact Sheet: President Biden Is Fighting to Reduce the Deficit, Cut Taxes for Working Families, and Invest in America by Making Big Corporations and the Wealthy Pay Their Fair Share
President Biden is fighting to make the tax system fairer while Republicans continue to push tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations. The President’s plan delivers tax cuts for… -
ITEP Work in Action March 6, 2024 Common Good Iowa: Killing Democracy by Superminority
Iowa’s tax structure has long favored the wealthiest Iowans and corporations, and tax cuts passed in 2022 are making inequities worse. The average millionaire will see a cut of $62,000 a year. In the middle, Iowans earning $40,000 to $60,000 will see an average cut of $300, or about $6 a week. Most with incomes under $40,000 will see no cut at all.
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ITEP Work in Action March 4, 2024 ITEP’s Kamolika Das Testifies on Pennsylvania’s Upside-Down Tax Code
Below is written testimony delivered by ITEP Local Policy Director Kamolika Das before the Pennsylvania House Finance Subcommittee on Tax Modernization & Reform on March 1, 2024. Good afternoon and… -
ITEP Work in Action March 4, 2024 Colorado Department of Revenue: Property Tax Circuit Breaker Programs
Because property taxes are based upon property values, they are not as strongly connected to an ability to pay as the income tax. This can be particularly burdensome when income changes as a result of job loss, divorce, illness, or retirement. As a result, property taxes tend to be regressive.
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ITEP Work in Action March 4, 2024 Massachusetts Budget & Policy Center: Ending the Tax Penalty Against Working Immigrants
In recent years, lawmakers have enacted some important legislation helping Massachusetts residents, regardless of their immigration status, to take full part in commerce and civic life. Laws providing access to drivers’ licenses and in-state tuition, for instance, have opened opportunities that support employment and advance economic growth. Yet tens of thousands of workers, and their families, who pay taxes in Massachusetts are prevented from receiving the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) because they are ineligible for a Social Security Number. Extending eligibility to all workers filing taxes, regardless of their immigration status, would increase the impact of Massachusetts’ EITC, help expand economic opportunity, and support low- and moderate-income families struggling to afford Massachusetts’ high cost of living.
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ITEP Work in Action February 27, 2024 Movement for Black Lives (M4BL): Economic Justice
We demand economic justice for all and a reconstruction of the economy to ensure Black communities have collective ownership, not merely access.
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ITEP Work in Action February 14, 2024 Better Wyoming: Somehow, Some Way, Wyoming Property Tax Relief is Coming
Buying a home is a goal for most hard-working Wyoming families, and achieving it is a cause to celebrate. But many homeowners in recent years have opened their annual property tax bills and been jolted by huge increases. In fact, residential property tax bills in Wyoming have gone up by an average of more than 80 percent over the past six years.