ITEP Work in Action
Demos: Taxes Explained: A Fair and Just Tax Code Is Critical for Improving Economic Power for the People
February 11, 2025
This year will be a pivotal year for tax policy and will have far-reaching consequences for our economy and democracy. It is important that the people understand what is at stake. This Tax Justice and Racial Equity Explainer Series will cover key elements of the tax code that Congress will be debating this year and their real-world significance for communities of color. The following four pieces will cover corporate taxation, the difference between wealth and income taxes, and an overview of tax credits and deductions.
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Another Income Tax Cut Will Dig the Hole Deeper
February 10, 2025
Kentucky lawmakers are expected to vote early in the legislative session on another half-point cut to the individual income tax rate, a drop from 4% to 3.5%. This cut is expected to pass despite a projected decline in tax revenues due to the income tax reductions of the last couple of years. With this next drop, the state will get closer to the level of tax cuts Kansas put in place in 2013 and was forced to reverse just five years later because the state wasn’t bringing in enough money to meet its obligations.
Video: ITEP’s Kamolika Das on Revenue and Fines & Fees Reform
February 5, 2025
ITEP Local Policy Director Kamolika Das discussed revenue and the reform of fines and fees at this webinar hosted by the Fines & Fees Justice Center.
New Jersey Policy Perspective: Extending Trump Tax Cuts Would Benefit the Wealthiest New Jerseyans
February 3, 2025
Fair tax policy depends on prioritizing the well-being of all households, not just the wealthiest. New Jersey, and the nation as a whole, cannot afford to hand special tax breaks to the most affluent residents by slashing essential services such as health insurance for working families. New analysis of the Trump administration’s plan to make tax breaks from the 2017 tax law permanent shows that the proposal would do just that. It would make the wealthiest New Jerseyans even richer while cutting programs and support for families who need help affording basic necessities like food and health care.
Roosevelt Institute: Taxing Excessive Profits: Designing a Pro-Competition Corporate Tax System
February 1, 2025
This brief—originally presented as a discussion guide to the October 2024 convening “Promoting Equity and Efficiency: Rethinking Corporate Taxation to Address Market Power,” hosted by the Institute for Macroeconomic & Policy Analysis and the Roosevelt Institute—establishes a groundwork for developing a truly pro-competition corporate income tax system, focusing in particular on the economic case for […]
Center for Law and Social Policy: The Earned Income Tax Credit Should be Expanded for Workers Without Children
February 1, 2025
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a federal tax credit for workers with low and moderate incomes. The EITC helps to bolster their incomes and offset taxes owed; it is effective at reducing poverty and has traditionally received bipartisan support. But the EITC available to workers without dependent children in the household is small […]
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: President Trump, Congressional Republican Proposals Would Shift Large Costs to States, Inflict Widespread Harm
January 31, 2025
Emerging proposals from the Trump Administration and key congressional Republicans could wreak havoc on essential public services, leaving millions of people worse off through lost health coverage, less money for groceries, weakened access to a quality public education, and other harms.[1]
Florida Policy Institute: Deferring Dreams: The Costly Plan to Repeal Tuition Fairness for Florida Dreamers
January 31, 2025
Legislation[1] was introduced during the January 2025 special legislative session that would repeal Florida’s tuition fairness law.[2] This law, which passed with bipartisan support in 2014, requires that colleges, universities, and postsecondary institutions waive out-of-state tuition for certain undocumented students who graduated high school in the state.
Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy: House Bill 40 Further Cuts the Income Tax, Disproportionately Benefiting Wealthy Idahoans
January 31, 2025
Every year, Idaho spends millions of tax dollars to make sure families receive a good education, live in safe homes and communities, and enjoy good health. However, over the last several years, the state has passed deep and costly tax rate cuts that make our tax system more regressive- disproportionately burdening Idahoans with the lowest incomes. House Bill 40 continues to perpetuate this trend by providing relief disproportionately to wealthy households.
Every Texan: Current Border Militarization Operations Are a Wasteful Attempt at Deterrence
January 31, 2025
There is little return to show on past border militarization investments. Beginning in 2021, the Governor launched a multi-year campaign called Operation Lone Star that, in part, allowed his Trusteed Programs office to distribute billions of dollars in grants to once resource-starved border communities. SB 1 prepares to double down on this failed investment with […]
Alabama Rise: 56 Alabama Groups Urge Congress to Reject Tax Cuts for the Wealthy
January 30, 2025
Congress should oppose efforts to increase tax breaks for wealthy Americans and highly profitable corporations this year, 56 organizations across Alabama wrote in a letter sent to Alabama’s congressional delegation Wednesday. Lawmakers instead should seek to boost tax credits that expand opportunities for working people and families, the letter said.
Oregon Center for Public Policy: Groups Call on Oregon Congressional Delegation to Reject More Tax Breaks for the Wealthy
January 30, 2025
A dozen Oregon organizations sent a letter to the state’s congressional delegation today calling on them to oppose tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals and corporations as part of the upcoming federal tax debate in 2025.
Oklahoma Policy Institute: FACT CHECK: How Would the Governor’s Proposal to Cut, Eliminate Personal Income Tax Affect Oklahoma?
January 30, 2025
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has estimated how much these proposed tax cuts would impact Oklahomans, by income level:
Public Citizen: DOGE Delusions: A Real-World Plan To Crack Down on Corporate Handouts, Tax the Rich and Invest for the Future
January 23, 2025
On November 12, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced that billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would co-chair a new entity, called the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE). “Together,” Trump asserted, “these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal Agencies – Essential to the ’Save America’ Movement. … It will become, potentially, the ’Manhattan project’ of our time.”
Accountable.US and Americans for Tax Fairness: The Price of Big Business: The Corporate Tax Ten
January 22, 2025
With portions of the Trump 2017 corporate tax giveaways set to expire in 2025, government watchdog Accountable.US and Americans for Tax Fairness today released a damning new report revealing how a small number of top corporations—including familiar names like Apple, Microsoft, and JP Morgan—bring in a huge amount of national profits while paying shockingly little in taxes. […]
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis: Fiscal Progressivity of the U.S. Federal and State Governments
January 18, 2025
Combining a variety of survey and administrative data, this paper measures the progressivity of taxes and transfers at the U.S. federal level and separately for each state. Read more.
Center for American Progress: Scott Bessent’s 3 Percent Deficit Target Would Require Massive Cuts to Anti-Poverty Programs and Middle-Class Tax Increases
January 16, 2025
Basic arithmetic suggests that the fiscal goals of President-elect Donald Trump’s treasury pick would slash health care and food security for working- and middle-class families while renewing tax cuts tilted to the wealthy. Read more.
ITEP’s Kamolika Das’ Testimony to the Philadelphia Tax Reform Commission
January 11, 2025
ITEP’s Kamolika Das testified in front of the Philadelphia Tax Reform Commission on January 9, 2025. The commission has been charged to examine the city’s overall tax system and propose ways to make it more inclusive, equitable, and growth oriented, and it has been considering changes to the city’s net profits tax and business income […]
2024 Economic Report of the President
January 10, 2025
The Economic Report of the President (ERP) is an annual report produced by the Council of Economic Advisers. An important vehicle for presenting the Administration’s domestic and international economic policies, it provides an overview of the nation’s economic progress with text and extensive data appendices. The 2024 report cites a 2021 blog written by ITEP’s […]
Brookings Institution: Scaling Up Prenatal and Infant Cash Prescriptions to Eradicate Deep Infant Poverty in the United States
December 22, 2024
The United States is exceptional among wealthy nations in its high rate of child poverty. Even more so, the U.S. is known for its high level of deep child poverty—children in families with incomes less than half the poverty line. Read more.
Georgia Budget & Policy Institute: From Barriers to Bridges: How Fines and Fees Reform Can Help Boost Economic Security
December 22, 2024
Excessive local government reliance on fines and fees is tied to persistent barriers to economic security. Policies that lift these barriers could open gateways for more Georgians to achieve workforce mobility free from criminal legal system entanglement. Read more.
Hawai’i Appleseed: How a Second Trump Presidency Could Impact the Pocket Books of Hawaiʻi’s Working Families
December 22, 2024
With President-elect Trump preparing to return to the White House in 2025, it’s worth examining how his proposed policies could impact Hawaiʻi’s economy, tax system and the household budgets of local working families. Read more.
Accountable.US: Trump IRS Pick Billy Long Took $248,500 From 17 Top Tax-Avoiders
December 19, 2024
Accountable.US has found that Long’s Congressional campaign committees took $248,500 from 17 top tax-avoiding corporations. These 17 companies paid an astonishing average effective tax rate of -0.4% on over $289 billion in collective profits they made in the first five years of the 2017 Trump tax cuts—which Long voted for. Read more.
Gov. Jay Inslee: Gov. Inslee Releases Future-Focused Budget Proposal
December 18, 2024
Today, Gov. Jay Inslee released a balanced budget proposal that protects progress on the programs and services that working families and businesses depend on — public safety, education, early learning, housing and behavioral health. Read more.
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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