President Biden’s most recent budget plan includes proposals that would raise more than $5 trillion from high-income individuals and corporations over a decade. Like the budget plan he submitted to Congress last year, it would partly reverse the Trump tax cuts for corporations and high-income individuals, clamp down on corporate tax avoidance, and require the wealthiest individuals to pay taxes on their capital gains income just as they are required to for other types of income, among other reforms.
Federal Policy
ITEP’s federal policy resources provide quantitative and qualitative research and analysis on current tax policies, proposals and reform options. Its distributional analyses highlight how tax proposals will affect Americans in different income groups nationally and in all 50 states.
ITEP's Federal Policy Research Priorities
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report March 12, 2024 Revenue-Raising Proposals in President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Plan
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blog March 7, 2024 Tax Proposals Expected to be in President Biden’s Budget Plan
President Biden discussed multiple tax proposals during the State of the Union address to Congress. Several of these proposals appeared in the budget plan he submitted to Congress last year,… -
report February 29, 2024 Corporate Tax Avoidance in the First Five Years of the Trump Tax Law
The Trump tax law overhaul cut the federal corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, but during the first five years it has been in effect, most profitable corporations paid considerably less than that.
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blog February 16, 2024 IRS Commissioner, New GAO Report Highlight Importance of Proper IRS Funding
A new GAO report and Commissioner Werfel’s testimony highlight the value and necessity of a well-funded and functioning IRS. Most families and businesses do their best to pay taxes accurately and on time. The nation benefits from a modern revenue agency that can make this process as easy and simple as possible and identify complex tax schemes that deprive the country of revenues.
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report February 6, 2024 Tax Policy to Reduce Racial Retirement Wealth Inequality
Historic and ongoing discrimination have created stark racial disparities in the US, and the racial retirement wealth gap is one such example.
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brief February 2, 2024 House SALT Proposal is Expensive, Unneeded, and Poorly Designed
The SALT Marriage Penalty Elimination Act passed by the House Rules Committee on February 1 is costly, decreasing tax revenue by about $8 billion in 2023.
It also mostly only helps taxpayers who are already well off. -
brief February 2, 2024 Impacts of the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act
The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act passed by the House of Representatives on January 31 is a compromise between lawmakers who want to address child poverty and… -
blog January 29, 2024 What Do We Mean By “The Rich” — and Does it Matter?
It doesn’t matter if someone with a family income of $800,000 per year thinks they aren’t rich because they can’t quit their jobs and retire to a luxury home on the beach in Malibu. They can call themselves what they want. The point is that they are richer than 99 percent of the population and can afford to pay more.
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blog January 26, 2024 Three Things to Know This Tax Filing Season
Millions of American families have now received their W-2s for 2023, signaling the start to a new tax filing season. The IRS has set January 29 as the first date… -
report January 17, 2024 Ongoing Use of Offshore Tax Havens Demonstrates the Need for the Global Minimum Tax
Key Findings To avoid taxation, American corporations use accounting gimmicks that make profits appear to be earned in foreign jurisdictions which tax corporate profits very lightly or not at all.… -
brief January 16, 2024 Proposed Tax Deal Would Help Millions of Kids with Child Tax Credit Expansion While Extending Damaging Corporate Tax Breaks
On January 16, Congressional tax writers officially announced the details of a tax policy agreement. The deal includes expansions of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) to improve access for low-… -
blog December 21, 2023 Everything You Need to Know About Proposals to Better Tax Billionaires
Tax policy may not be on the minds of most Americans during the final weeks of 2023, but billionaires with an eye on their own tax bills have been riveted by developments in D.C.
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report December 7, 2023 The Estate Tax is Irrelevant to More Than 99 Percent of Americans
The federal estate tax has reached historic lows. In 2019, only 8 of every 10,000 people who died left an estate large enough to trigger the tax. Legislative changes under presidents of both parties have increased the basic exemption from the estate tax over the past 20 years. This has cut the share of adults leaving behind taxable estates down from more than 2 percent to well under 1 percent.
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blog December 1, 2023 With the Moore vs. United States Case, the Supreme Court Could Unleash Chaos on Our Tax System
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will begin hearing oral arguments in Moore vs. United States, which could become the most important tax case in a century. A broad ruling could destabilize our tax system, enrich many profitable corporations, and widen existing economic and racial inequalities.
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blog November 13, 2023 The Latest Convoluted Arguments in Favor of Rich People Not Paying Taxes
Two Senate hearings last week focused on how the richest Americans are avoiding and evading taxes in ways that ordinary Americans could hardly imagine. All the experts brought in to… -
blog November 8, 2023 Year-End Tax Package Must Prioritize Children and Families Over Corporations and Private Equity
While Congress considers extending expired tax provisions, it should first and foremost focus on expanding the Child Tax Credit, a policy with a proven track record of helping families and children.
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blog October 31, 2023 Power to the People: How Workers Can Fight Tax Inequity
Workers of all races and ethnicities are confronting a tax code that puts them at a disadvantage relative to those with immense wealth, and people of color and women are among those most likely to be negatively impacted by this injustice.
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blog October 30, 2023 Free Tax Filing Option from the IRS Would Benefit People of Color, Contrary to Corporate Warnings
There’s a patchwork of programs and preparers for people of color to turn to when filing taxes, and most come from corporations that profit from providing a service that the government could provide more effectively and efficiently for free. The Direct File program can change that and is a great step forward in the IRS’ work addressing racism in the tax code.
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blog October 25, 2023 On Corporate Tax Avoidance, Critics Take Aim at ITEP – and Miss
In identifying companies that avoid taxes, ITEP presented evidence that our federal corporate income tax was not working the way most Americans think it should work. The public and lawmakers paid attention, including President Biden who then made the case that this demonstrated the need for reform. As a result, Congress enacted the corporate minimum tax, to make the tax system a bit closer to what most Americans want it to be. If you look closely at this, you might just see an example of democracy working.
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blog October 24, 2023 Intuit Receives Millions in Federal Subsidies While Arguing IRS Direct File Would Be Too Costly
The tax preparation industry has for years lobbied to prevent the IRS from providing a tool that would allow Americans to file their taxes online for free. Recent public disclosures… -
blog October 17, 2023 Large and Growing Tax Gap Underscores the Need to Adequately Fund the IRS
New figures released show the difference between what Americans paid and owed in taxes grew to $688 billion in 2021, a significant jump from previous estimates. This new data underscores that last year’s boost to IRS funding under the Inflation Reduction Act was absolutely necessary and should be protected by lawmakers.
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blog October 17, 2023 The Moore Case Before the U.S. Supreme Court Could Widen the Racial Wealth Gap
Moore v. United States, already a cause for concern for tax lawyers, could create more barriers for racial equity advocates working to reverse the economic plight of many households of color.
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blog October 6, 2023 The Campaign by Democratic Former Officials to Stop Taxes on the Wealthy
One of the most attention-grabbing anti-tax campaigns at work today is called SAFE, which stands for Saving America’s Family Enterprises. But it might as well mean Saving Aristocrats From Everything… -
blog September 29, 2023 The IRS Shouldn’t Be Lawmakers’ Sacrificial Lamb
Last year, Congress reversed decades of funding cuts to the IRS to help the agency improve taxpayer services and crack down on wealthy tax cheats through the Inflation Reduction Act.… -
blog September 27, 2023 Government Shutdown is Rooted in Hypocrisy, Dysfunction, and, As Always, Tax Cuts for the Rich
The priorities in this shutdown drama couldn’t be clearer. House Republicans once again threaten the financial security of the millions of Americans to exact cuts to programs like Head Start, the Social Security Administration, and the EPA – all while seeking unaffordable tax cuts for multinational corporations, the wealthy, and foreign investors.