Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

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6,208 posts

Washington Post: As IRS audits waned, big businesses racked up unapproved tax breaks

July 14, 2021

One challenge for the IRS is that each company tends to interpret tax laws differently, says Matt Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning Washington nonprofit organization. Corporate accountants are “exercising their own judgment about what constitutes [an unrecognized tax benefit] and what is not,” Gardner said. Read […]

DC Fiscal Policy Institute: NEW VIDEOS: Why DC’s Wealthiest Should Pay their Fair Share

The highest income residents in DC pay less as a share of their income than the rest of us. At the same time, low-income Black and brown DC residents have been economically devastated by the pandemic. Watch videos

Washington State Budget & Policy Center: New Reforms Bring Balance and Equity to State’s Tax Code and Economy

People seeking a more equitable state tax code and stronger supports for parents scored major victories earlier this year in Washington state, after more than a decade of hard work and focused advocacy by community leaders. By enacting a new excise tax on extraordinary stock profits (capital gains) and an expansive new tax credit for […]

Napa Valley Register: California’s progressive tax system proved its worth during the pandemic

July 8, 2021

In fact, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reports that California’s tax system does the most of any state to alleviate inequality — while taxes in most states serve to widen the gap between rich and poor. Read more

Politico: As Bezos called for tax hikes, Amazon lobbied to keep its tax bill low

July 8, 2021

“It’s very likely they’re getting hundreds of millions of dollars a year in R&D tax credits,” said Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, who’s studied the tax habits of Amazon and other big companies. Amazon declined to comment. The tax breaks themselves aren’t at risk, but the deduction […]

New York Post: Jeff Bezos openly embraces tax hikes, but Amazon lobbied against them

July 8, 2021

Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, who’s studied the tax habits of Amazon and other big companies, told Politico that Amazon is likely “getting hundreds of millions of dollars a year in R&D tax credits.” Read more

Yahoo! Finance: Biden’s tax plan would cost richest Americans an extra $1.5M next year, analysis finds

July 6, 2021

In all, the changes proposed by the Biden administration would generate about $88.4 billion in new tax revenue, according to a separate analysis conducted by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more

CNN.com: States are so flush with funds, many are cutting taxes

July 1, 2021

This means that the state’s wealthiest 5% of taxpayers will receive nearly 60% of the benefits, while the bottom 80% will get only 23%, according to an analysis for Policy Matters Ohio by the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more

Center for Migration Studies: Innovating Inclusion: A New Wave of State Activism to Include Immigrants in Social Safety Nets

States across the country are tackling an equity issue in the tax code by breaking from federal eligibility standards for their state Earned Income Tax Credits (EITCs). Specifically, states are taking it upon themselves to end the exclusion of taxpayers who file their taxes with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). ITINs are personal tax […]

Policy Matters Ohio: Ohio Tax Cuts Would Go Mostly to the Very Affluent

Instead of using Ohio’s public resources to build strong, resilient communities, the General Assembly approved income-tax cuts that would favor the very wealthiest Ohioans, while providing only modest benefits for moderate-income Ohioans and nothing at all to the state’s poorest. Benefiting especially from the elimination of the top bracket of the tax, the most affluent […]

Policy Matters Ohio: ­Ohio Income-tax Cuts Would Reward the Wealthiest

Income-tax cuts approved by the General Assembly in the budget bill would favor the very wealthiest Ohioans, while providing only modest benefits for moderate-income Ohioans and nothing at all to the state’s poorest. Benefiting especially from the elimination of the top bracket of the tax, the most affluent 1% of Ohioans would see an average […]

NBC News: Billionaire investor Peter Thiel has $5B in his tax-free retirement account, report finds

June 25, 2021

“It’s a wildly inappropriate use of the Roth IRA, even if it’s legal,” said Steve Wamhoff, the director of federal tax policy at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and a former tax policy analyst for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. “Lawmakers said that they were trying to encourage retirement savings and make it easier […]

Oregon State Legislature: House Committee On Revenue 06/24/2021

Oregon lawmakers discuss a SALT-cap workaround provision. ITEP analysis found that in Oregon more than 91 percent of the tax cut benefits of repealing the SALT cap would go to those earning more than $200,000, and four of five households that benefit are white-led households. Watch here

North Carolina Justice Center: Five Takeaways from the Senate’s Budget Proposal

The Senate’s budget plan would bring the state’s investments to a new low while committing the state to untold losses in the form of revenue reductions by eliminating income taxes for profitable corporations by 2028 and lowering the already flat (read: regressive) personal income tax rate. Read more

The Rockefeller Foundation: The Untold Benefits of State EITCs on Child Welfare

With the passing of the American Rescue Plan in March, more than 5 million children are projected to be lifted out of poverty this year, cutting child poverty by more than half, through Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) expansions. But what about state tax codes? What can states do to […]

The Hill: Even Jeff Bezos should pay income taxes

June 15, 2021

According to the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, 55 of the largest corporations in America — including Archer Daniels Midland, FedEx and Nike — paid no federal income taxes last year, despite racking up almost $41 billion in pre-tax profits. At 21 percent, their total tax bill would have been $12 billion. Instead, […]

VOA News: IRS Data Leak Reveals How Little America’s Wealthiest Pay in Taxes

June 11, 2021

“I think it’s a big wake-up call,” said Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington. “It tells us things that tax experts have already known for a long time. But it’s the amount of detail, the specific names, that we don’t normally see,” Wamhoff said. […]

Sacramento Bee: White, Asian families have most to gain if Congress restores tax break Trump capped, report says

June 10, 2021

“Outright repeal of the SALT cap without an adequate replacement would exacerbate racial inequities in this country,” said a study from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s Carl Davis and Jessica Schieder. The report noted that property taxes tend to be a big component of state and local taxes, which could “disproportionately benefit home-owning […]

Politico: How much companies that paid no corporate income tax spent on lobbying

June 10, 2021

ProPublica’s bombshell report on Tuesday showing that some of the wealthiest Americans routinely pay little or no taxes, a new report from watchdog group Public Citizen today dives into the lobbying expenditures of 55 corporations that paid no federal corporate income tax in 2020, according to an analysis from the liberal Institute on Taxation and […]

Market Watch: How would Biden’s tax hikes hit the wealth of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and other billionaires? First, they’d have to die, experts say

June 10, 2021

“The whole exposé is really an argument for the Biden proposal to tax unrealized capital gains at death,” said Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, speaking about the ProPublica investigation. “I do think if you tax gains at death, it would be a huge step […]

Fortune: Biden’s plan will stop Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk from avoiding billions in taxes

June 9, 2021

Following is an excerpt of an opEd by Steve Wamhoff published in Fortune: It is no surprise that billionaires pay little in federal taxes relative to their incomes, but the level of detail provided by ProPublica Tuesday about how 25 billionaires pulled this off is astonishing. It is also an argument for one of President […]

Fortune: Biden’s plan will stop Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk from avoiding billions in taxes

June 9, 2021

FORTUNE: COMMENTARY | TAXES BY STEVE WAMHOFF It is no surprise that billionaires pay little in federal taxes relative to their incomes, but the level of detail provided by ProPublica Tuesday about how 25 billionaires pulled this off is astonishing. It is also an argument for one of President Joe Biden’s key tax proposals—taxing so-called unrealized capital gains […]

New York Times: Investors Fret as Biden Takes Aim at a 100-Year-Old Tax Loophole

June 8, 2021

In this congressional session, Democrats appear to be placing enormous emphasis on creating a fairer tax code along with investing in infrastructure and social programs, said Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit group in Washington that advocates equitable revenue-raising measures. Read more

Marketplace: Why are some states experiencing a tax revenue surplus?

June 8, 2021

But according to Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, no one is swimming in cash. “A lot of states were just barely trying to get back to where they were before the last recession,” he said. Read more

Washington Post: Plans for a Global Minimum Tax Revolution, Explained

June 8, 2021

Many big corporations do. At least 55 large U.S. companies, including Nike Inc. and FedEx Corp., reported paying no U.S. federal income taxes in 2020 even though they were profitable, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. And some nations benefit by attracting businesses with low rates. Read more