ITEP Work in Action
Center on Budget and Policy Proposals: Principles for the 2025 Tax Debate: End High-Income Tax Cuts, Raise Revenues to Finance Any Extensions or New Investments
September 26, 2024
Key provisions of the 2017 Trump tax law are scheduled to expire at the end of 2025. Given the law’s fundamental problems — its high cost, skew toward high-income people, and failure to produce the promised economic benefits — policymakers should take that opportunity to make a course correction in the nation’s revenue policies. This would mean adhering to three principles: ending the tax cuts for high-income households on schedule, raising more revenue, and making new investments that prioritize low- and moderate-income people and families.
Economic Opportunity Institute: Oregon and Washington: Different Tax Codes and Very Different Ballot Fights about Taxes this November
September 25, 2024
First, some background. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s definitive report on state tax systems lists Oregon as #42 – within the top ten – of least regressive tax codes in the country (D.C. and Minnesota are #51 and #50, respectively). In Oregon, the lowest 20% of households by income pay 12 percent of their income in state and local taxes, while the top 1% pay 10.4 percent. What contributes to this relatively fair system is that Oregon’s tax code does not have a sales tax and does have:
Invest in Louisiana: A Flat Tax Is Not the Answer
September 25, 2024
Louisiana’s economy works best when all of us have access to high-quality education and training, affordable health care and a strong public safety net that offers support during hard times.
Americans for Tax Fairness: Correcting Senator Crapo on Kamala Harris and the Expiring Trump Tax Law
September 24, 2024
Senate Finance Committee ranking member Mike Crapo (R-ID) recently published an op-ed challenging the stance of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on the expiring parts of the 2017 Trump-GOP tax law. It contained many errors and misleading statements both about Harris’s position on the law and about the law itself. ATF here sets straight some of Senator Crapo’s most glaring misstatements.
Media Matters for America: CNBC Failed to Rebut JD Vance’s Falsehoods About Immigrants During Interview
September 13, 2024
During the interview, Vance falsely claimed that so-called “illegal aliens” are “collecting Social Security and Medicare, sometimes fraudulently,” and that it “blows up the federal budget.” Individual anecdotes of crimes aside, this claim is contrary to the facts.
ITEP’s Brakeyshia Samms: How Property Tax Circuit Breakers Could Help Chicago
September 12, 2024
ITEP Policy Analyst Brakeyshia Samms discussed property tax circuit breakers at a meeting the city of Chicago’s Committee on Housing and Real Estate on September 11, 2024. You can check out her slides here, and watch the video here (starting around 42:40).
New Jersey Policy Perspective: Taxing “Super Luxury” Home Sales Could Make New Jersey Affordable for More Residents
September 10, 2024
As the cost of housing in New Jersey continues to soar, making it increasingly unaffordable for many residents, the market for “super luxury” homes – properties with exceptionally high price tags – continues to rise at a faster rate than all other homes. Applying a higher fee to the sale of these expensive homes could generate hundreds of millions in revenue, helping to make the state more affordable for low-income and middle-class residents. Crucially, this tax would be targeted exclusively to the wealthiest households.
The Center for American Progress Action Fund: Donald Trump Is Lying About Immigrants and Social Security/Medicare
September 9, 2024
Contrary to Donald Trump’s claims, an earned path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants strengthens Social Security and Medicare. Read more.
Pew Charitable Trusts: How a Pandemic-Era Surge in Tax Collections Drove a Revenue Wave—and What It Means for Future State Budgets
September 5, 2024
When the COVID-19 pandemic ground the economy to a near-halt in spring 2020, states scrambled to adjust to an anticipated multiyear decline with drastic spending cuts and revised revenue projections. But fears of a debilitating recession were short-lived thanks, in part, to billions of dollars in aid from the federal government. Instead of extended shortfalls, from mid-2020 through the end of 2022, states experienced an unprecedented revenue wave. Collections recovered faster and at a sharper rate than states had projected in 2020 and continued to grow at historic rates, and lawmakers in many states have used the new revenue to…
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Untargeted Property Tax Cuts and Limits Shortchange Schools and Local Economies
September 5, 2024
More than 50 million K-12 public school students are returning to classes for the start of a new academic year. At the same time, some states are cutting a major source of funding for public education: property taxes.
Democratic National Committee: VP Harris Backs U.S. Manufacturing, While Trump Oversaw Increased Offshoring of American Jobs
September 5, 2024
The Trump-GOP tax law enacted in December 2017 creates clear incentives for American-based corporations to move operations and jobs abroad, including a zero percent tax rate on many profits generated offshore.
American University Center for Latin American & Latino Studies: Mass Deportations Could Create a US Recession
August 27, 2024
Irregular immigration is one of the most important issues in the presidential campaigns of the candidates, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris. On the one hand, the Biden administration, of which Vice President Harris is part, restricted the number of asylum seekers entering the country, and on the other hand, Republicans are promising the “largest mass deportation program in US history” if they win the White House this fall.
ITEP’s Carl Davis: Pyramids, Cascades, and the Taxation of Business Inputs
August 26, 2024
ITEP Research Director Carl Davis gave this presentation to the New Mexico Revenue Stabilization and Tax Policy Committee on August 23, 2024. View the slides here.
America’s Voice: Immigrants Contribute a Lot – Just Ask the Researchers
August 13, 2024
Recent research from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) reveals that undocumented immigrants contributed an astounding $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022. Six of the most immigrant-populous states accounted for a combined $21.1 billion of these contributions, with California leading the way at $8.5 billion in tax revenue. The research further showed that these workers pay into programs that they’re barred from accessing, and in most areas pay higher state and local tax rates than their wealthiest neighbors.
Every Texan: Undocumented Texans Paid $4.9 billion in State and Local Taxes in 2022.
August 8, 2024
Undocumented immigrants are essential contributors to Texas’ economy and robust job growth. Regardless of their citizenship or immigration status, immigrant families pay state and local taxes to support vital public services that benefit all of us, such as schools and colleges, roads, parks, and libraries. A new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) confirms in 2022 1.9 million undocumented Texans paid a hefty $4.9 billion in state and local taxes.
Florida Policy Institute: Florida Should Welcome Immigrants
August 1, 2024
New research confirms that immigrants without a documented status still contribute economically, despite most not being eligible for any public services or benefits. Many immigrants without a documented status pay taxes — primarily via sales and excise taxes on purchases.[1] The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s (ITEP’s) latest report details the state and local taxes immigrants without a documented status contribute throughout the United States. Nationwide, ITEP finds that for every 1 million undocumented immigrant residents, revenue for public services increases by $8.9 billion.
Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice: How Hawaiʻi’s Hardworking Undocumented Immigrants Support Our Economy and Communities
August 1, 2024
Undocumented immigrants work hard in Hawaiʻi and play a vital role in our economy, boosting both our general excise and individual income tax revenue. This is despite the fact that it is more difficult for them to file taxes than for other Hawaiʻi residents. A new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) lifts up the significant tax contributions that these immigrants make to our federal, state and local governments through the taxes they pay each year.
Immigration Research Initiative: People Who Are Undocumented: Occupations, Taxes Paid, and Long-Term Economic Benefits
July 30, 2024
As a July 2024 report from the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows, people who are undocumented paid $97 billion in taxes in 2022. A total of $34 billion comes from payroll taxes to cover programs that exclude people who are undocumented from getting benefits: $25.6 billion paid to Social Security, $6.4 billion to Medicare, and, through contributions of their employers, $1.8 billion to unemployment insurance (which is a joint federal and state program). In other words, workers who are undocumented have wages withheld or employers are required to pay for programs that benefit other Americans, but which…
The Volcker Alliance: Benefit or Burden
July 3, 2024
The issue paper addresses how US states hand out massive tax breaks every year to advance policy goals, such as aiding low-income families, spurring business investment and job creation, or mirroring the federal tax code. Known broadly as tax expenditures, these exemptions, credits, abatements, and other measures reduce state revenues by an estimated $1 trillion a year, almost three times their 2021 total state expenditures on education. Such tax expenditures, which often suffer from lax government oversight, may be leaving states short on revenue at time when the effects of climate change and the cost of deferred maintenance means that…
U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Labor, Education, and Pensions: By the Wealthy, for the Wealthy: The Coordinated Attacks on Public Education in the United States
June 26, 2024
Public education is the cornerstone of opportunity in the United States. No matter who they are, where they live, or how much money their parents make, every child in this nation has a fundamental right to a public education. But in America today, the public education system—one of the cornerstones of democracy—is under attack.
Americans for Tax Fairness: Engine of Inequality: A Flood of Corporate Profits Is Enriching Wealthy Shareholders Through Stock Buybacks and Dividends, At The Expense of Workers and The Public
June 26, 2024
All but a handful of 280 large, profitable corporations spent more money making their wealthy shareholders richer through dividends and stock buybacks than they paid in federal income taxes in the five years after the enactment of the Trump-GOP tax law, according to a new analysis by Americans for Tax Fairness. And it wasn’t even close: altogether the stockholder payouts outstripped tax payments by 7-to-1, $4.4 trillion vs. $608 billion. This heavy bias towards shareholder payments for wealthy investors over tax payments for public services exacerbates economic inequality and promotes political instability, as increasingly frustrated American workers struggle to get by while…
The Hamilton Project: The Austere US Safety Net for Poor, Non-Elderly Adults Who Are Not Raising Children and Do Not Receive Disability Benefits
June 20, 2024
The U.S. safety net has grown significantly stronger for children and elderly adults over the past half century. However, the story is starkly different for non-elderly adults who are not raising children and do not receive Supplemental Security Income disability benefits or Social Security benefits, Robert Greenstein argues in his Hamilton Project paper. In 2017, this group numbered nearly 106 million people, or nearly 33 percent of the U.S. noninstitutionalized population.
Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families: The Definition of Regressive
June 20, 2024
Today the Legislature, in a special session called by the Governor, begins discussion of Senate Bill 1. According to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, this bill will eliminate at least $450 million in tax revenue every year from general revenue. This revenue is essential for services important to all Arkansans, such as education and health services. What’s more, this tax giveaway prevents strategic investment in our state to help all Arkansans thrive. We deserve investment from our elected officials, not a race to the bottom.
Roosevelt Institute: When Tax Policy Discriminates: The TCJA’s Impact on Black Taxpayers
June 18, 2024
We found that black taxpayers who looked like their white counterparts in terms of these and other demographic factors paid higher taxes because the IRC favors certain behaviors and benefits that are closed to black people. For example, black people were then (and are now) less likely to receive valuable employer-provided tax benefits such as the opportunity to save for retirement tax-free, up to $50,000 of tax-free life insurance, and reimbursement for employee business expenses. A long history of federal government actions created and sustained redlining, making black people less likely to own homes and thus barred from receiving the…
Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice: Hawaiʻi’s Elected Leaders Again Buy-In to Costly “Trickle-Down” Myth
June 14, 2024
When it comes to tax policy, Hawaiʻi’s 2024 legislative session was largely defined by a single bill—House Bill 2404. Signed into law as Act 046 by Governor Green on June 3, the bill enacts sweeping tax cuts for people of all income levels, but most of the benefit goes to those at the top of the income scale.
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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