Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

Select Media Mentions

The Lever: Will Biden End An Illegal $50 Billion Tax Giveaway?

November 23, 2022

The IRS is sanctioning state laws allowing rich Americans to bypass the SALT cap and avoid billions in taxes, but a new Biden nominee could end the scheme. Read more.

Route 50: How Tax Credits Could Help States Reduce Child Poverty by 25%

November 23, 2022

Child poverty in the U.S. hit a record low last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, in part due to the American Rescue Plan Act’s expansion of the federal child tax credit. While the initiative expires at the end of 2021, states could continue the trend with their own child tax credit policies, a new […]

Jacobin: In Massachusetts, Unions Beat Billionaires to Pass a Tax on the Rich

November 23, 2022

Voters in Massachusetts just ratified the Fair Share Amendment, which taxes income above $1 million to fund public services. A broad coalition of labor and community groups took on billionaire money and won. Read more.

CNBC: As a Key Deadline Looms to Claim 2021 Tax Credits, Republicans Complain of ‘Suspicious Timing’ of IRS Letters

November 23, 2022

Certain tax credits were made temporarily more generous in 2021. For certain people, there still may be time to claim the money, which may add up to thousands of dollars — but some politicians aren’t happy the IRS just reminded Americans about the cash. Read more.

Policy for the People Podcast: Our Labor, Their Fortunes: Billionaires Capture Oregon’s Wealth

November 11, 2022

Wealth inequality is at mind-boggling levels in Oregon and elsewhere. Listen to Research Director Carl Davis talk about the trends here.

Washington Post: Tax-cut Guru Still Says He’s Right About Trump, Truss and Trickle-down

November 2, 2022

The mess in England doesn’t mean he’s wrong. Arthur Laffer, the chief cheerleader for supply-side economics since the days of Ronald Reagan, wants to make that clear. Read more.

Route Fifty: In One State, a Fight Over How Tax Hikes are Passed at the Ballot Box

November 1, 2022

In Arizona, Republican legislators are asking residents to make it tougher for voters to pass ballot measures that would raise taxes. Supporters say the proposal, which will be decided in next week’s election, is intended to rein in ballot initiatives that threaten the state’s economy and that are often backed by groups from outside of […]

Palm Beach Post: As Gas Tax Holiday Ends, Did Florida Drivers Save?

November 1, 2022

Florida reinstituted its per-gallon tax on gasoline sales today after a monthlong reprieve in October implemented by Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers. The savings from the 25.3-cent break on each gallon of gasoline last month appears to have been less obviously impactful to drivers, thanks to another sharp rise in oil prices at the start of October. […]

New York Times: She’s Inheriting Millions of Euros. She Wants Her Wealth Taxed Away.

October 21, 2022

By the time her extraordinarily wealthy grandmother died last month, Marlene Engelhorn already knew who she wanted to be the ultimate beneficiary of the enormous inheritance coming her way: the tax man. Read more.

Convergence: People-Side Economics: Steps to Tax Justice and a Green Economy

October 16, 2022

Gloom shrouds the news on the economy. Workers get blamed for inflation and the common solutions on offer bring more pain. But when we center the interests of workers and communities, we get a different picture of the causes and cures for our economic woes. Read more.

Insider: These Are the Wealthiest US States, According to a New Report — and a Wealth Tax on the Country’s Richest Would Raise $415 Billion

October 13, 2022

Wealth inequality has been on the rise over the last few decades, and some states have residents sitting on a whole lot of cash. A new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy finds that 30% of American wealth is held by households that have over $30 million in their coffers. That 0.25% of […]

The Progressive: The Government Is Actually Doing a Good Job

October 8, 2022

You wouldn’t know it from watching the news, but American children are doing better than they were at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, at least when it comes to having their basic needs met. That’s according to newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Even as the country suffered through a pandemic, global […]

Bloomberg: How Legal Weed Has Changed the US

October 7, 2022

Turn an illicit product into a highly taxed and regulated one and you have a classic business experiment. Do it with a little-studied psychoactive substance that has both medical promise and addictive potential and you have a public health trial, too. That’s what the US has done with cannabis, otherwise known as marijuana, pot or […]

Financial Times: Wall Street Finds a Tax Silver Lining in Down Market

October 7, 2022

Wall Street banks have found a silver lining in this year’s market rout: making money by helping wealthy clients sell some investments at a loss to lighten their tax bills. Read more.

Houston Chronicle: Middle-Class Texans Lap Up the Low Taxes Lie

October 7, 2022

Texas is a low-tax state only if you make a lot of money. If you don’t, then you’re better off in California. The biggest lie Texas politicians have ever told — and both parties have perpetuated it — is the lack of an income tax is an absence of taxation. But Texas doesn’t collect much […]

Mother Jones: How One Man Helped Make America a Global Tax Haven

September 30, 2022

During the mid-1990s, trust and estate lawyer Jonathan Blattmachr had an innovative idea that would come to revolutionize the American trust industry. Blattmachr is a veteran of the wealth management field, cutting his teeth at the famous white shoe law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, wealth managers to the Rockefellers and other dynastically wealthy […]

Center for Public Integrity: How State Taxes Make Inequality Worse

September 14, 2022

All but a handful of states make poor residents contribute a greater share of their income to taxes than wealthy people do. Economists call that upside-down approach “regressive.” Nationwide, the share the lowest-income earners pay to state and local taxes is 54% higher than what the top earners pay, according to the Institute on Taxation and […]

Yahoo: Handful of States Debate Whether to Tax Forgiven Student Loans

September 3, 2022

A handful of states could still end up taxing President Biden’s recently announced student loan forgiveness of up to $20,000. Read more.

Minnesota Reformer: Scott Jensen’s Proposal to Eliminate Income Tax Would Benefit Minnesota’s Wealthiest

August 29, 2022

Republican nominee for governor Scott Jensen wants to eliminate the state income tax, which would create a $15 billion hole in the state budget every year. Read more.

The New Republic: How Red States Use Regressive Grocery Taxes to Feed the Rich

August 23, 2022

Conservative state legislatures are using pandemic-era surpluses to give tax cuts for the wealthy while maintaining unfair flat taxes that punish the poor. Read more.

Newsweek: Stimulus Check Update: Child Tax Credit Bill Faces Uphill Battle

August 19, 2022

Conversations on reviving the expanded child tax credit—which the White House credited as the main driver behind bringing child poverty to record lows in 2021—might not be finished yet. Read more.

The Progressive: Finding Cash for Kids

August 18, 2022

Congress failed to extend the expanded Child Tax Credit, which cut childhood poverty by nearly a third. Now, states are adopting their own versions. Read more.

KALW’s ‘Your Call’: Senate Democrats Impose New Tax Rules on Corporations

August 15, 2022

ITEP’s Joe Hughes joined Your Call to discuss the tax provisions in the Democrats’ reconciliation bill, which passed the Senate on Sunday without one Republican vote. Listen here.

Marketwatch: Here’s How Private Equity Got Relief in Democrats’ Healthcare, Climate and Tax Package

August 15, 2022

The bipartisan duo of Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and John Thune helped private equity firms escape tens of billions of dollars in potential tax increases and instead walk away with relief from the new 15% corporate minimum tax in the Inflation Reduction Act. Read more.

Members of the media rely on ITEP for analysis and insight about how tax policies affect people. If you’re a reporter looking to talk to one of our experts, contact Jon Whiten at [email protected].