Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

Citations

ITEP's Citations Research Priorities

WV Metro News: How the federal financial relief package could aid West Virginia citizens and businesses

March 25, 2020

In West Virginia, the average rebate for households is $1,830, according to an analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more

American Prospect: Avoid Taxes, Receive Federal Bailouts

March 25, 2020

On that haul, they paid an average effective federal income tax rate of 2.3 percent. According to Matthew Gardner at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, that rate is actually inflated by Southwest Airlines, which accounts for the overwhelming majority of the income taxes paid by this group. “The other six—Delta, American, United, Alaska […]

Labor Notes: $1,200 per Adult, $500 per Child: Stimulus Bill Nears Passage

March 25, 2020

Below is an excerpt from an op-ed by Amy Hanauer, ITEP’s executive director, published in Labor Notes.  The economic catastrophe made this middle-of-the-night package urgent. Unemployment is spiking in ways never before seen and without it, a starkly unequal nation with a badly frayed safety net faces possible Depression-era pain. Today’s bill, while not perfect, […]

Investment News: Recession could hit Social Security financial outlook

March 25, 2020

Trump has proposed eliminating payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare beginning through the end of the year. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan think tank, estimates the proposed payroll tax holiday would cost $843 billion and 65% of its benefits would go to the richest 20% of taxpayers. Read more

Politico: Who’s Looking Ahead to Phase 4

March 25, 2020

For instance, the House bill would expand the Earned Income Tax Credit in ways Democrats have sought for awhile — like making the incentive larger for childless workers, and making more of them eligible. The liberal Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said the more robust refundable credits could give families an extra half-trillion dollars […]

Los Angeles Times: A Payroll Tax Cut Would Overwhelmingly Benefit the Rich

March 19, 2020

Read more

CNBC: A tale of two coronavirus relief efforts: One for the rich, one for the poor

March 19, 2020

Two financial-relief measures the Trump administration is weighing to fight the economic scourge of the coronavirus would have drastically different impacts on the rich and poor, according to a new analysis. A payroll tax cut would overwhelmingly benefit the richest Americans, and would do little to prop up the economy, according to the Institute on […]

Foreign Policy: Trump’s Big Turnaround: Cash Payments Instead of a Payroll Tax Cut

March 17, 2020

First, a payroll tax cut only offers benefits to those with a job, and, as the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has extensively documented, it heavily favors higher-income workers—not the unemployed or the retired. So a payroll tax cut would do little or nothing for people who would be among the most vulnerable during […]

Talking Points Memo: Why The Checks-For-Everyone Idea To Ward Off A Recession Is Gaining Steam

March 17, 2020

An analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that the top 20 percent of income earners would reap two-third of the benefit of a payroll tax cut, while the bottom fifth of income earners would receive only 2 percent of the benefit. A direct cash transfer, particularly one phased out at higher […]

Bloomberg Tax: Virus Panic Prompts Trump Call for Tax Relief

March 12, 2020

A payroll tax cut, something the administration has floated, would be an ineffective stimulus measure to combat the virus’s economic fallout, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Cutting the payroll tax—a levy imposed on employees, employers, and self-employed individuals to fund Social Security—would primarily benefit higher earners, according to an analysis from […]

New York Times: Trump’s Payroll Tax Cut Would Dwarf the 2008 Bank Bailout

March 12, 2020

The largest gains in dollar figures would go to households earning more than $123,000 a year, according to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington. Read more

Washington Examiner: In cutting payroll taxes to spur the economy, Trump would be following in Obama’s footsteps

March 12, 2020

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-of-center nonpartisan tax policy organization, found that Obama’s payroll tax cut didn’t benefit the lower and middle class very well. The study showed that the portion of the payroll tax cut that went to the richest 20% of households was 47% in 2011 and 46% in 2012. […]

The Sacramento Bee: Trump has big plans for California highway repair, but no plan to pay for it

March 12, 2020

While there’s no way to know how much states increases would be curbed if federal taxes were higher, if at all, Carl Davis, research director at Washington, D.C., Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, saw two reasons for the state increases. One is that the cost of asphalt, concrete, machine and labor has gone up. […]

Politico: That’s a lot of tax relief

March 11, 2020

Just looking at sales and excise taxes, the eight states where recreational pot was legal in 2019 raised close to $2 billion in revenue, according to Carl Davis of the liberal Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. That adds up to an increase of around a third, or nearly a half-billion dollars. Why the big […]

Washington Post: Virginia General Assembly approves higher gas tax, speed cameras and cellphone ban

March 8, 2020

Virginia joins 31 states that have raised their gas taxes or changed formulas for them in the past decade, responding to declines in revenue, according to the nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Twenty-two states have variable-rate taxes to guard against inflation. Read more

Market Watch: This is how much American workers saved during the first year after Trump tax overhaul

March 4, 2020

Focusing on personal taxes didn’t tell the whole story, according to Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the progressive Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, or ITEP. “The parts of the Trump tax cuts that really benefit the rich are not the personal-income-tax cuts but the corporate-income-tax cuts and estate-tax cuts,” according to […]

Connecticut Mirror: After one alarming tax fairness study, CT is wary of launching a second

March 3, 2020

Gasoline distributors shift the entire cost of Connecticut’s 8.1% wholesale fuel tax onto local filling stations, which then pass it all onto motorists — who also pay a 25-cents-per-gallon retail tax. Meg Wiehe, deputy executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said Connecticut already is a land of “stagnating working-class incomes” and […]

West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy: House Income Tax Plan Benefits Wealthy and Could Punch Large Holes in State Budget

March 2, 2020 • By ITEP Staff

Once the fund reaches “an amount equal to or exceeding 2.5 times the total net reduction in personal income tax revenue collections that would have been received in that fiscal year if the income tax rates for that fiscal year had been reduced by 0.25 percent” it triggers a reduction in the state’s personal income […]

Chicago Resilient Families Task Force: EITC Expansion and Modernization

February 28, 2020 • By ITEP Staff

Expanding and modernizing the Earned Income Tax Credit will put more money back in the pockets of the people who need it most. Recent polling suggests such policies would be popular, with 70% of respondents supporting a modernized EITC statewide and 80% supporting such an effort in Chicago. Read more

MSNBC: Team Trump wants even more corporate tax breaks in a second term

February 28, 2020

For another, corporations clearly don’t need a lower rate since so many of them aren’t even paying taxes at the current rate. Late last year, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released the results of a detailed study that found of the Fortune 500 companies, about 400 paid an average tax rate of about […]

The Chicago Tribune: Recreational marijuana sales in Illinois generated more than $10 million in tax revenue in January

February 25, 2020

Many dispensaries continue to sell recreational marijuana only on certain days of the week or for restricted hours. Though greater volumes of product continue to filter into the market from Illinois growers, the statewide shortage is expected to last for a year or more. Facilities that grow weed are expanding, and dozens of dispensaries are […]

The Hill: Financial trade tax gains traction with 2020 Democrats

February 25, 2020

Democratic presidential candidates across the ideological spectrum are calling for taxes on financial trades, breathing new life into an idea that for many years was promoted primarily in progressive circles. “It’s moving more into the mainstream,” said Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more

Anchorage Press: The Pocketbook Reasons Most Alaskans Should Prefer an Income Tax to a Statewide Sales Tax

February 24, 2020

An analysis in 2017 by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) produced similar results. All people in households who make less than $73,000 per year—and some in higher-earning households—would do better financially under a state income tax than a statewide sales tax, according to this study. A statewide sales tax would hit both […]

Commonwealth Institute: State Funding Proposals Include Regressive Tax Increases – Many without Offsets

February 21, 2020 • By ITEP Staff

Although many significant state (Virginia) tax policy bills filed for this year did not move beyond the committee level, several proposals remain under consideration. A large transportation funding package (HB 1414 and SB 890) and several standalone regional transportation funding bills have advanced from their respective chambers in the Virginia General Assembly. In addition, proposed […]

Hawai’i Budget and Policy Center: Hawai’i’s Earned Income Tax Credit: Next Steps

February 20, 2020 • By ITEP Staff

In 2017, Hawaiʻi passed legislation to create a state EITC.11 The new law allowed qualified taxpayers to claim a state tax credit beginning in 2018. The state tax credit amounts to 20 percent of the federal EITC but, unlike its federal counterpart, Hawaiʻi’s tax credit is not refundable. That is, if the filer owes less […]