ITEP Work in Action
ITEP’s Brakeyshia Samms on Race and the 2017 Trump Tax Law
October 28, 2024
On October 25, 2024, ITEP Policy Analyst Brakeyshia Samms discussed race and the 2017 Trump tax law on the webinar “The 2025 Sunsetting of Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA): Tax Justice on the Frontlines,” which was hosted by the American Bar Association’s Section of Civil Rights & Social Justice. Slides can be downloaded here […]
ITEP’s Eli Byerly-Duke on Oklahoma’s Sales Tax Relief Credit
October 28, 2024
On October 23, 2024, ITEP Policy Analyst Eli Byerly-Duke presented to an interim study in the Oklahoma House focused on modernizing the Sales Tax Relief Credit. Click here for slides Click here for video (his remarks begin around the 1:06:00 mark)
AFSCME: Trump’s Tax Plans Would Benefit the Rich, Harris’ Plan Would Benefit Everyone Else
October 24, 2024
Donald Trump’s tax plan would cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans, whereas Kamala Harris’ plan would cut taxes for everyone but the wealthy. That’s the takeaway from a new analysis of the two candidates’ tax plans. Read more.
Accountable.us: Top 15 Corporate Beneficiaries of Trump Tax Giveaway Law Have Since Spent $839B on Shareholder Handouts
October 23, 2024
The 15 largest corporate beneficiaries of the Trump tax law used their savings to collectively spend $839 billion on stock buybacks and shareholder dividends in the years following the law’s passage. Read more.
American Immigration Council: Mass Deportation: Devastating Costs to America, Its Budget and Economy
October 18, 2024
In recent months, leading politicians and policymakers have renewed calls for mass deportations of immigrants from the United States. While similar promises have been made in the past without coming to fruition—during the 2016 presidential campaign, for example, Donald Trump pledged to create a “deportation force” to round up undocumented immigrants —mass deportation now occupies a standing role in the rhetoric of leading immigration hawks. To cite just one example, former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director Tom Homan has promised “a historic deportation operation” should a hawkish administration return to power. While some plans have envisioned a one-time,…
Washington Center for Equitable Growth: The Promise of Equitable and Pro-Growth Tax Reform
October 16, 2024
The impending expiration of large portions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act at the end of 2025 presents federal policymakers with a significant opportunity to reform the federal tax code in the United States. Too often, political openings for pro-growth tax reform have instead been transformed into opportunities to introduce new tax cuts for those at the top of the income and wealth distribution. Proponents of these tax cuts usually defend their actions by invoking a now-widely discredited “trickle-down” theory of economic growth.
North Carolina Budget & Tax Center: North Carolinians Deserve the Credit
October 11, 2024
Despite strong state performance in job growth and employment, too many households in North Carolina are struggling to make ends meet and cope with the rising cost of living — especially those with young children. Widespread low incomes and elevated poverty rates are preventing families from meeting their needs, reaching their potential, and contributing their full talents to our communities. The prevalence of this financial hardship has direct consequences for the long-term well-being of children and our state’s economy.
Sen. Warren: Warren, Dean Press CocaCola, PepsiCo, and General Mills on “Shrinkflation” Price Gouging and Tax Dodging
October 9, 2024
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) wrote to the CEOs of Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and General Mills, pressing their executives on the companies’ pattern of profiteering off consumers, both through “shrinkflation” and dodging taxes on the profits they made from that price gouging.
Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy: Idaho’s Recent String of Income Tax Cuts Jeopardizes Investments in Public Services
October 4, 2024
Every year, Idaho tax dollars are spent to ensure families receive a good education, live in safe communities, experience good health, and drive on safe roads. However, over the past four years, lawmakers have passed deep and costly tax cuts and reforms. These cuts were made in response to temporary budget surpluses that were largely driven by federal pandemic relief, but they have long term consequences. The changes to Idaho’s tax code —which are permanent and tilted toward wealthy households and corporations — weaken state revenues by growing amounts over time, limiting the state’s ability to maintain support for schools…
Economic Policy Institute: The U.S. Benefits From Immigration but Policy Reforms Needed to Maximize Gains
October 4, 2024
Immigration has been a source of strength for the U.S. economy and has great potential to boost it even more, but the current U.S. immigration policy regime squanders too many of its potential benefits by depriving immigrants of their full rights as workers and granting employers too much power to manipulate the system. It is crystal clear that immigration expands U.S. gross domestic product and is good for growth. And immigration overall has led to better, not worse, wages and work opportunities for U.S.-born workers. Yet, it is also clear that when workers are denied full and equal labor and…
ITEP’s Neva Butkus Discusses Property Taxes in Indiana
October 3, 2024
On September 30, Policy Analyst Neva Butkus discussed Indiana property taxes and how Hoosiers could benefit from a circuit breaker policy at an event hosted by the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute and Prosperity Indiana. Check out her slides here, and an article on the panel here.
New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute: Federal Policymakers Will Consider Tax Changes Benefitting Higher-Income Granite Staters in 2025
October 2, 2024
Federal lawmakers will face several key fiscal policy deadlines in 2025. These deadlines include, but are not limited to, the federal government’s debt limit taking effect in January 2025; the end of the current spending caps on the federal government’s annual budget in September 2025; the sunsetting of enhanced health care marketplace subsidies, which provided an estimated $38.4 million to Granite Staters in 2023 to help them afford individual health coverage, at the end of 2025; and the expiration of key components of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) after December 2025.
Sen. Warren: Warren, Whitehouse, Casar, Lawmakers Slam 35 Companies for Paying Their Executives More Than They Pay in Federal Income Taxes
September 30, 2024
U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Representative Greg Casar (D-Texas) led their colleagues in slamming 35 major companies that have been paying their executives more than they pay in federal income taxes. The lawmakers point to this as an additional reason why Congress must reform the tax code in 2025 to […]
Policy Matters Ohio: The Great Ohio Tax Shift, 2024
September 27, 2024
Major tax policy changes enacted by Ohio lawmakers since Governor Taft’s 2005 State Budget Bill ask families with the lowest incomes to pay more, the wealthy to pay less, and the state to forgo the resources it needs to ensure the prosperity of its residents. Those are the conclusions of a new analysis conducted for Policy Matters by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP).
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.
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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