Select Media Mentions
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.
NBC: Right-Wing Outcry Over IRS Funding Builds as Agency Workers Describe Shortages of Staff and Printer Paper
August 14, 2022
Inside the Internal Revenue Service, which is on the brink of a major funding infusion that Democrats and agency workers say is badly needed to boost efficiency and revenues, staffers describe bringing their own office supplies and working extensive overtime in understaffed divisions. Read more.
Insider: The Inflation Reduction Act’s Tax on Stock Buybacks Isn’t a Perfect Solution to Close the Wealth Gap — But It’s a Step in the Right Direction
August 14, 2022
One last-minute addition to the IRA received relatively little attention, and it could stand to be one of the most transformative policies in the bill. Read more.
Common Dreams: ‘Biggest Win for Tax Fairness’ in Decades: Progressives Cheer Reforms in IRA, Demand More
August 14, 2022
Following House Democrats’ passage of the Inflation Reduction Act on Friday, progressives applauded the most significant changes to the federal tax code since 2017, when Republicans’ highly regressive and deeply unpopular Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was enthusiastically welcomed by corporations and the wealthy. Read more.
Washington Post: With Sinema’s Help, Private Equity Firms Win Relief from Proposed Tax Hikes
August 11, 2022
Senate Democrats agreed Sunday to protect firms owned by the private equity industry from a new minimum tax on billion-dollar corporations, bowing to pressure from Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who insisted on making the change to the Democrats’ sprawling climate, health-care and tax package. Read more.
Time: Some of America’s Largest Corporations Pay Zero Taxes. Here’s How Congressional Democrats Aim to Change That
August 11, 2022
Progressive Democrats have been grousing for what seems like eons about the fact that some of the nation’s wealthiest corporations avoid paying their fair share in taxes. This weekend, the Senate inched a step closer to a fix when it approved a historic $370 billion climate and healthcare spending package that would be paid for almost […]
Los Angeles Times: Tax Provisions May Be Democrats’ Most Unexpected Victory in the Inflation Bill
August 11, 2022
The budget reconciliation bill just passed by the Senate and heading for final congressional approval offers dramatic improvements in American policies aimed at fighting global warming and improving healthcare. Read more.
Washington Post: The Corporate Minimum Tax Could Hit These Ultra-Profitable Companies
August 11, 2022
The House is expected to approve the Inflation Reduction Act on Friday that includes a minimum tax rate of 15 percent on highly profitable companies — a levy that could hit Amazon, Verizon and others. The tax would help pay for large investments across climate and health care. Read more.
U.S. News: What the Inflation Reduction Act Means for You
August 11, 2022
The Inflation Reduction Act requires certain large corporations to pay a minimum income tax of 15% and a 1% tax on stock buybacks. The bill also allocates an additional $80 billion in funding to the Internal Revenue Service for enforcement efforts like conducting audits and uncovering instances of tax fraud. Read more.
Bloomberg Tax Op-Ed: Manchin-Schumer Deal Takes Sensible Aim at Corporate Tax Dodging
August 2, 2022
Revenue-raising provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act would bring long-overdue fairness to a tax system that for decades has been eroded by special breaks for the powerful and well-connected, says Steve Wamhoff of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more.
The Washington Post: How the Schumer-Manchin Climate Bill Might Impact You and Change the U.S.
July 28, 2022
“This would certainly be the biggest corporate tax increase in decades,” said Steve Wamhoff, a tax expert at Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “We’ve had decades of tax policy benefiting the rich, but this is really the first attempt to raise revenue in a progressive way that would begin to combat wealth and income […]
Reuters: Biden Pledge to Tax Wealthy, Companies Revived with Manchin-Led Bill
July 28, 2022
Biden said during a speech on Thursday that the deal would “for the first time in a long time begin to restore fairness to the tax code – begin to restore fairness by making the largest corporations in America pay their fair share without any new taxes on people making under $400,000 a year.” The […]
CNBC: Millions of Calif. families to get ‘inflation relief’ stimulus checks of up to $1,050
July 5, 2022
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic legislative leaders agreed on a $17 billion relief package that includes $9.5 billion in inflation relief funds. Those estimated 23 million California taxpayers will receive between $200 and $1,050 by early next year. California has more flexibility to send these kinds of payments because its budget is one of the […]
Bloomberg Tax: Flat Income Tax Revival Draws Sharply Mixed Reviews (Podcast)
June 14, 2022
With cash cushions plump with federal pandemic relief dollars and a surge in tax revenues, state legislatures across the country have cut taxes aggressively this year. But several states went further, converting their tiered income tax structures to flat-rate systems. Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, and Mississippi have committed to the flat tax in recent weeks, and […]
TheStreet.com: Amazon’s Biggest Rival Isn’t Walmart, It’s Congress
June 2, 2022
Over that period the company paid $1.9 billion in U.S. corporate income taxes, according to a 2021 analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Those payments gave Amazon an effective tax rate of just 4.3%, about a fifth of the 21% statutory U.S. corporate income tax rate. Read more
Wall Street Journal: States Help Business Owners Save Billions in Federal Taxes
June 2, 2022
“That’s logical from any individual state’s perspective, but in the big national scheme of things, it’s hard to see how this is a good thing,” said Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a progressive group. Read more
Bloomberg: Some States Are Offering Sales Tax Holidays for Shoppers in 2022
June 2, 2022
Last year, sales tax holidays cost states and local governments more than $550 million in lost revenue—that’s according to an Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) survey of cost estimates from state tax expenditure reports, fiscal notes, revenue departments, and academic studies. Those numbers are up from an estimated $300 million in 2020. Read […]
The New York Times: State Lawmakers, Step Up and Govern
May 17, 2022
Below is an excerpt of a letter to the editor by Aidan Davis: The overarching theme that ties most of them together is that they are a default reaction among leaders who lack an ambitious, positive vision for the role of government. Read more
The Hill: Biden, Bezos Feud Escalates
May 17, 2022
Between 2014 and 2018, Bezos reported $4.22 billion income and paid $973 million in taxes. In that period, the Amazon founder and then-CEO’s wealth grew by $99 billion, according to the report. “I think he doesn’t want the public talking about the fact that wealthy people should pay taxes on their earnings, just like middle-class […]
MarketWatch: Jeff Bezos accuses Biden of ‘misdirection’ over inflation causes and solutions
May 16, 2022
A report earlier this year said Amazon avoided paying about $5.2 billion in corporate income taxes in 2021 as it reported record profits. The report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that Amazon paid about $2.1 billion in federal taxes, an effective tax rate of about 6%. Read more
CNN: Fact-checking the Biden vs. Rick Scott argument over Scott’s tax proposal
May 10, 2022
Another analysis, from the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy think tank, tested a different hypothetical policy that would satisfy Scott’s proposal to have all Americans pay some income tax. Under that policy, the institute found that the poorest fifth of Americans would face an average tax hike of just over $1,000. Read more
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