Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

Select Media Mentions

The Daily Northwestern: Advocates Against Income Inequality Reassess After the Fair Tax Act’s Failure

January 20, 2021

The Fair Tax Amendment would have introduced a progressive income tax to Illinois. The state currently mandates a flat income tax of 4.95 percent. Illinois ranks eighth in the country for tax inequality, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Throughout the state, the lowest-income 20 percent contribute over 14.4 percent of total […]

Yahoo!Money: Here’s Who Gets a Payment under Biden’s $1,400 Stimulus Check Proposal

January 16, 2021

The $2,000 stimulus checks would also mean a big increase in income for America’s poorest families. The 20% of households with the lowest incomes would see their annual income increase by 29% if Congress passed the Democrats’ $2,000 stimulus check proposal, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) found. The effect of Biden’s plan […]

WWD: Execs Flag ‘Concerns’ Over Corporate Taxes Amid Rising Inequality

January 14, 2021

“The lack of accessible child care, climate change, inequality…all these things are pretty basic existential threats for American workers, families and America as a nation,” said Gardner. “And the only way they can be meaningfully solved is through government spending and intervention, and an effective government requires an effective tax system.” Corporate income tax revenues […]

Business Insider: The poorest quintile of Americans will get a 29% income boost if $2,000 stimulus checks become a reality, a new report finds

January 12, 2021

Low-income Americans can expect to see a significant income boost if the Caring for Americans with Supplemental Help Act passes in the Senate. The House passed the CASH Act on Dec. 28, which would increase stimulus payments from $600 to $2,000, among other measures. According to a report published last week by the Institute on […]

Yahoo! Finance: $2,000 stimulus checks would be a massive boost for America’s poorest

January 12, 2021

America’s poorest families would see their incomes grow by more than quarter if the $2,000 stimulus check proposal that President-elect Joe Biden supports passes, according to a new analysis. The 20% of households with the lowest incomes would see their annual income increase by 29% if Congress passes the provision under the CASH Act, the Institute on […]

Newsweek: $2,000 Stimulus Checks Would ‘Significantly’ Help 60% With Lowest Income: Report

January 12, 2021

A $2,000 payment would give a 60 percent majority of Americans, those with annual incomes under $65,000, an average income boost of 11 percent, according to a reportreleased last week by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The bottom 20 percent, those with incomes below $21,300 per year, would see a substantial average income […]

Robesonian: Tax Debates Feature Many Myths

January 12, 2021

On the other hand, our federal tax code, even after the Bush-era and Trump-era tax changes, is rather progressive. It taxes the wealthy at much higher rates than the nonwealthy. If you combine the effects of all taxes — and you should because we all pay taxes at multiple levels and because lots of federal […]

Jacobin: Joe Manchin and Mitch McConnell’s Case Against $2,000 Checks Is Complete Garbage

January 12, 2021

In all, the bottom 60 percent of income earners — who made less than $65,000 in 2020 — “would see an average income increase of 11 percent by a $2,000 payment,” according to the report from the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). That compares with just a 3 percent increase with only the […]

MarketWatch: Already Spent Your $600 Stimulus Check? Another May Be on the Way

January 12, 2021

If passed, the CASH Act — in combination with the latest round of $600 stimulus checks — would boost the incomes of the poorest 20% of Americans by an estimated 28.7%, according to research published by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank. These Americans had projected incomes of less than […]

The Business Times: The Wealth Tax Is Going Global

January 9, 2021

There’s no income tax in Washington state, home to some of the world’s richest people: Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos; his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott; and Microsoft founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer. That’s led to a system that is the most regressive in the US, according to the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic […]

Law360: ITEP Says Incomes Of Poorest Would Rise 29% With $2K Checks

January 8, 2021

ncreasing economic payments to $2,000 from $600 as part of a coronavirus stimulus bill would have a “significant impact” on the households of lowest-income Americans, a report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has found.The study, published Wednesday, found that the poorest 60% of households — those with incomes of less than $65,000 […]

The Hill: Democrats vow to deliver $2K checks with control of Senate

January 8, 2021

But Democrats argue that the more-direct assistance to Americans is needed at a time when many are struggling to cover basic expenses. According to an analysis released Thursday by the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, people in the bottom 60 percent of income would on average see their income rise by 11 percent […]

The Wall Street Journal: Biden Tax-Increase Agenda Revived as Democrats Win Senate

January 7, 2021

Now, some of Mr. Biden’s ideas are much more likely to become law, said Steve Wamhoff of the progressive Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, who said that the president-elect’s plans are less far-reaching than some Democratic alternatives and are broadly popular with the public. “The issue was always, could Democrats get something on the […]

Austin American Statesman: GOP creates ‘socialism for rich’ and bupkis for the rest of us

January 7, 2021

A study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reported on the first year following the passage of the GOP tax cuts and found that 91 of the Fortune 500 companies effectively paid no federal taxes in 2018, and some even got refunds. Here are two examples from that list. In 2018, Amazon (whose founder […]

Bloomberg: The Wealth Tax Is Going Global

January 6, 2021

There’s no income tax in Washington state, home to some of the world’s richest people: Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos; his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott; and Microsoft founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer. That’s led to a system that is the most regressive in the U.S., according to the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy: […]

Bloomberg Tax: Taxing Tech Giants on Cash-Strapped States’ Agendas in New Year

December 28, 2020

The spate of proposals could mean higher tax bills for tech titans Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Netflix, in addition to the millions of consumers using their services. Agencies will next year push more to tax tech companies “in ways that achieve parity with the traditional goods and services economy,” said Carl Davis, director […]

Feet to the Fire: Taxes in the Time of COVID

December 28, 2020

ITEP Executive Director Amy Hanauer joined Jim Lardner’s Feet to the Fire podcast to speak about how we can seize this moment to promote higher taxes on corporations and the wealthiest to pay for the America we need. Feet to the Fire is a podcast dedicated to helping the Biden Administration and the Democratic Party […]

Delaware Business Times: Congress Approves $900 Billion Stimulus

December 22, 2020

The stimulus, approved as part of a large end-of-year catchall package including traditional spending measures, also allocates $82 billion in support to school systems and higher education institutions, $10 billion for childcare assistance, $13 billion to assist people facing hunger, and $13 billion to support farmers who have suffered losses during the pandemic. According to […]

Newsweek: Millions of Americans Who Missed Out on Stimulus Checks Will Qualify Under New Deal

December 21, 2020

Democrats, along with immigration groups, would have preferred to also include millions of ITIN immigrant taxpayers, who makeup a large portion of essential workers. The left-leaning Institute On Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that 4.3 million adults and 3.5 million children—7.8 million people—were excluded from the direct payments in the CARES Act because ITIN filers were ineligible. Read more

The American Prospect: Can Corporate Tax Incentives Revive a Pandemic Economy? New Jersey Thinks They Can.

December 18, 2020

“New Jersey has really been an exemplar this year in positive progressive tax policies, with their millionaire’s tax and extension of the Earned Income Tax Credit—which are really the best ways of raising money from the people who are making money right now and delivering aid to the people who need aid right now,” said […]

The American Prospect: The Day One Agenda for Corporate Taxes

December 16, 2020

Even without Congress, President-elect Biden’s regulatory agencies can fix a lot of problems with the corporate tax code. BY STEVE WAMHOFF, MATTHEW GARDNER The public has long told pollsters that corporate taxes should be increased, not decreased. President-elect Biden won his election after campaigning on a promise to raise taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations. […]

Bloomberg: Musk Flees California. He Now Faces a Battle to Escape Its Taxes

December 10, 2020

Fear of rich people moving for tax reasons is overblown, says Carl Davis, research director at the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, or ITEP. Studies show the wealthy actually move less often than other Americans. “A billionaire can obviously afford to live wherever they want,” Davis said. “There’s no reason on Earth that […]

Barrons: Elon Musk Shrugs at Tesla’s $5 Billion Stock Issuance. ‘It’s an Entry in a Database.’

December 9, 2020

Musk has another good reason for moving to Texas: taxes. His 170 million shares of Tesla are worth $110 billion. And he could pay billions of dollars if he were to be taxed at California rates instead of Texas, which doesn’t have a state income tax. Indeed, the top 1% of California taxpayers pay an […]

Newsweek: Will Republicans Show They Can Reach Across the Aisle on Tax Policy?

December 4, 2020

Following is an excerpt of an opinion piece by Steve Wamhoff published in Newsweek: During his campaign, President-elect Joe Biden talked about raising taxes on rich people more than any candidate in recent memory—and he won. Beating an incumbent president is rare, but Biden pulled it off and appears to be the first presidential incumbent-challenger […]

The New York Times: In Blue States and Red, Pandemic Upends Public Services and Jobs

December 4, 2020

Meg Wiehe, deputy executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said Wyoming at least was dealing with the painful reality. “The bigger kind of cuts that will resonate with people are all going to come to a head in the early part of next year,” Ms. Wiehe said. “We’re staring down some […]

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].