Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

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6,231 posts

Advancing Racial Equity With State Tax Policy

• By ITEP Staff

States and localities could do more to help undo the harmful legacies of past racism and the damage caused by continuing racial bias and discrimination. If state budget and tax policies were better designed to address these harms and create more opportunities for people of color, state economies would be more equitable and likely also would be stronger, which in turn could benefit many state residents of all backgrounds.

The Governor’s Proposed Personal Income Tax Cut: Who Wins and Who Loses?

• By ITEP Staff

Governor Asa Hutchinson proposed a personal income tax cut as part of his balanced budget plan for the 2019 legislative session, released on November 14.

Oregon Center for Public Policy: Oregon Can Raise $376 Million by Clamping Down on Offshore Corporate Tax Avoidance

• By ITEP Staff

Oregon can clamp down on multinational corporations shifting profits overseas, create a more level playing field for Oregon businesses, and raise millions in revenue by enacting “complete reporting” by large corporations. That law would make it difficult for multinational corporations to avoid Oregon corporate income taxes by artificially shifting profits earned in Oregon to subsidiaries located abroad.

Louisiana Budget Project: Tax Code Is Holding Louisiana Back

• By ITEP Staff

Years of efforts to reform Louisiana’s regressive and overly complicated tax code have run aground in the state Legislature. The result: Louisianans pay the second-highest sales taxes in the nation, while the tax code is riddled with costly exemptions and deductions. The state’s broken tax structure is a major reason why the state lurched from budget crisis to budget crisis over the last decade and has struggled to fund critical programs and services like higher…

CBS News: Can New York Make Back Its Amazon Investment

November 14, 2018

Opponents of corporate subsidies said Amazon’s choices prove taxpayer incentives matter much less than advertised. “[A]ccess to an educated workforce and high-quality public amenities are what drive business location decisions — not the presence of low or regressive taxes,” the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said in a statement. “These cross-state bidding wars are […]

Real News Network: Even for Local Taxes, the Rich Pay Far Less Than the Poor

November 14, 2018

  Dylan Grundman, an ITEP senior policy analyst, discusses Who Pays.

Yahoo! Finance: How Trump’s Tax Cuts Hurt the GOP in America’s Wealthy Suburbs

November 12, 2018

Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, told Yahoo Finance that the same story has been playing out across the country. “I think Californians and New Yorkers are right to feel that they didn’t get an especially good deal out of that tax overhaul,” Davis said. “Their tax cuts, relative […]

Tax Proposals Target Benefits to Those at the Top, Corporations

• By ITEP Staff

The Arkansas Legislative Tax Reform and Relief Task Force’s recommendations would make the state’s tax system even more regressive than it already is. According to a new analysis by Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and the Institute on Tax and Economic Policy, the net overall impact of the combined recommendations would actually raise taxes on the neediest Arkansans. At the same time, it would target a bigger share of the decrease to those with…

Louisiana Budget Project: Race Equity and Taxes in Louisiana

• By ITEP Staff

Louisiana’s upside-down tax structure means the highest income-earners pay less than the poorest families, when measured as a percentage of income. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s  “Who Pays” report lays this out in careful detail, and the latest edition breaks down the tax distribution by race. The conclusion: Black households pay a higher percentage of their income in state and local taxes than white households. Louisiana has work to do to make the tax structure…

Washington Post: In blow to liberal efforts, voters across the country reject tax increases. (California is the exception.)

November 7, 2018

North Carolina voters, for instance, approved a change to their state constitution bringing down the maximum allowable tax rate from 10 percent to 7 percent. That will effectively only spare the rich from higher taxes, because no tax increases in that neighborhood are on the table for the middle class, but the average voter may […]

Governing: Voters Lower Cap on Income Tax in North Carolina

November 6, 2018

Still, many worry that locking down North Carolina’s income tax rates will hamstring future policymakers’ ability to raise revenue. North Carolina is one of a handful of states that has prioritized tax cuts over restoring education funding since the recession ended in 2009. It also is among states that saw teacher protests this spring over […]

Washington Post: Threat of Arizona Tax Measure Brings Together Liberals, Koch Brothers

November 6, 2018

(Meg Wiehe, a tax specialist at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, argued the sales tax is passed on to the consumers and that these businesses are not “double taxed.”) Gullett also said that the organization “has received enormous support from the Arizona Association of Realtors,” calling the group “consistent defenders of consumers.” … […]

Louisiana Budget Project: Louisiana’s Regressive Tax Structure

• By ITEP Staff

Poor and middle-income families in Louisiana pay state and local taxes at a higher rate than the wealthiest families. That’s the key takeaway from the latest state-by-state breakdown of tax distribution by income groups from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). Louisiana’s tax structure is the 14th most regressive in the nation.

The Hill: IRS Sparks New Fight Over School Donations

November 4, 2018

However, other groups at the hearing, including representatives of public schools and the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), defended the application of the IRS guidance to the tax-credit scholarship programs. They argued that there is evidence that these programs had been advertised as tax shelters before the 2017 tax law. “This regulation […]

Idaho Press: Economic Study Finds That Poor Idahoans Pay More State and Local Taxes Than Rich Ones

• By ITEP Staff

The biggest drivers of the inequality in Idaho are the sales and property taxes. In every bracket of income measured by the Institute’s report, the amount that families paid in state and excise taxes went down as their total income increased. The lowest-earning 20 percent spent twice as much of their annual income on property taxes as the highest 20 percent, with an average of 3.3 percent paid on their property compared to 1.6 percent.

The New Orleans Advocate: James Gill: Louisiana’s Tax System Isn’t the Most Unfair in the Nation, But It’s not for Lack of Trying

November 3, 2018

According to a study just released by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington, Washington State sets the regressive standard, while we rank 14th. If your income is $17,100 or less in Louisiana, you'll pay 11.9 percent of it in taxes. That number shrinks the further you go up on the income scale and is roughly halved by the time you reach fat-cat territory. Sales and excise taxes take 9.2 percent from the…

The New Yorker: If Jeff Bezos Makes Washington the Second Headquarters of Amazon

November 3, 2018

 Earlier this year, Seattle’s city council passed a tax on large corporations aimed at raising an estimated forty-seven million dollars a year for affordable-housing initiatives. But after about a month the city council repealed the tax—in response to a ballot challenge funded in part by Amazon, which threatened to leave Seattle if the tax was implemented. Matthew Gardner, a tax-policy analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, told the Washington Post, “Nobody on Seattle’s…

Kansas Center for Economic Growth: Kansans of Color Often Pay More Than Their Fair Share of Taxes

• By ITEP Staff

Kansans believe in fairness. However, a recent study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and the Kansas Center for Economic Growth finds that the lowest-income Kansans are contributing a higher share of their income to fund our priorities. Without an equitable tax structure, we will struggle to make necessary investments in great […]

New Mexico Voices for Children: The Next Governor Should Improve Our Tax System and Increase Wages

• By ITEP Staff

When it comes to fairness, New Mexico’s tax system is backwards. Those who earn the smallest incomes pay the highest rates in state and local taxes, according to a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The responsibility for taxes should not fall hardest on those with the least ability to pay, but it does. There are several ways we can make our tax system fairer.

Oregon Center for Public Policy: It’s Time to Fix Oregon’s Regressive Tax Structure

• By ITEP Staff

Oregon’s poorest families pay more in taxes as a share of income than any group of taxpayers in the state, while the richest Oregonians pay the smallest share of any group. That is the conclusion of a new report by the Washington, D.C.-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP).

Cherokee Tribune & Ledger-News: Financial Watchdog: Pritzker’s Spending Promises Would Raise Taxes on Middle Class

• By ITEP Staff

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy says Illinois has one of the most regressive taxes in the nation, largely due to its flat income tax. In its annual “Who pays?” report, the institute said the poorest 20 percent of Illinois households pay 14 percent of their income in taxes because of the flat tax in addition to high sales and property taxes.

Inside Higher Ed: Democratic Contenders Get Ambitious With Equity Proposals

October 30, 2018

The Harris tax credit bill, called the LIFT the Middle Class Act, could also have implications for higher ed access -- although the legislation wouldn’t have the same focus on assisting students from the poorest families. The proposal would function like a beefed-up version of the earned income tax credit and phase in quickly for individuals and married couples who work. It would offer substantial immediate benefits. Families earning up to $60,000 could receive up…

Common Dreams: Time for a Tax on Billionaire Wealth Dynasties

• By ITEP Staff

The public should also rally to levy a modest tax on wealth over $20 million. A direct tax on wealth paid by the wealthiest one tenth of one percent could generate significant revenue to be reinvested in creating and restoring opportunities for low wealth households to prosper. A 1 percent annual tax on the wealthiest 0.1 percent of households, those with wealth over $20 million, would generate an estimated $1.899 trillion in revenue over the…

Voices for Illinois Children: Who Pays In Illinois? Mostly The Poor And Middle Class

• By ITEP Staff

A new report from the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows the poorest 20 percent of Illinois households pay nearly twice as much in state and local taxes as the richest one percent. As a result, ITEP ranks Illinois as the eighth most regressive tax system in the country.

NJ Spotlight: GOP Leaders Call on NJ Democrats to Reconsider Middle-class Tax Cuts

October 29, 2018

The related tax-cut bills — and another that would shield most retirement-savings contributions from state income taxes — were introduced at the start of the year but have not been posted for votes by the Democratic leaders who control the Assembly’s agenda. Bucco suggested a report released earlier this month by the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that found middle-income taxpayers in New Jersey pay a higher effective tax rate than any other group —…