Select Media Mentions
NPR: It’s Been 25 Years Since The Federal Gas Tax Went Up
October 5, 2018
Yet over those 25 years, the cost of building and maintaining roads, bridges and transit has shot up, leaving the highway trust fund, which pays the federal portion of highway and transit projects, running on empty. “The whole reason this tax exists is to keep our roads paved and to keep our bridges from falling down,” says Davis. “And to do that effectively, it needs to collect a sustainable amount of revenue over time to cover the cost of paving roads and maintaining bridges, and it can’t do that if it’s just not updated for decades at a time.”
Washington Post: How big developers like Trump benefit from web of tax breaks
October 4, 2018
[Real estate investors] can fall behind on their debts and still face fewer tax penalties for having the debt forgiven than other kinds of investors, according to Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Trump took advantage of that, Wamhoff says, when he couldn’t repay debts on his Atlantic City casinos in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Fiscal Times: What Trump’s Family Finances Tell Us About the Tax System
October 3, 2018
“The key takeaway,” said Alan Essig, director of the liberal Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, “is that the wealthy and powerful abide by a different set of rules than the rest of us. … During his presidential campaign, President Trump called for closing the types of loopholes that allow some wealthy people to get […]
The New Yorker: The Trump Family’s Tax Dodging Is Symptomatic of a Larger Problem
October 3, 2018
This experience points to an enduring scandal that goes well beyond the Trumps. “The key takeaway from the New York Times article . . . is that the wealthy and powerful abide by a different set of rules than the rest of us,” Alan Essig, the executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan […]
The Post and Courier: Some Valuable Downtown Charleston Land Now Comes with Tax Breaks
October 2, 2018
“Even if the tax breaks drive some new investment into low-income areas, this does not guarantee that these investments will ultimately benefit low-income families within the opportunity zones,” said the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “In fact, additional investment driven by opportunity zones could have the unintended effect of fueling higher real estate prices […]
Politico: Morning Tax
October 1, 2018
Today also marks 25 years since the last federal gas tax increase, which was raised to its current 18.3 cents per gallon in 1993. Plenty of people have talked about hiking the gas tax again over the last quarter-century — even potentially President Donald Trump — without much success, as Republicans have largely opposed the […]
NJ.com: Murphy Pushes Plan to Save Property Tax Breaks
September 26, 2018
Only residents of New York, Connecticut, and California deduct more from federal taxes than New Jerseyans, according the progressive Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Most of the states hit hardest send billions of dollars more to Washington than they get back in services. Read more
Law360: Permanent Tax Cuts Favor Richest in All But Three States
September 25, 2018
The second round of tax cuts passed Thursday and Friday by the U.S. House of Representatives would overwhelmingly favor the richest Americans, except for those in three high-tax states, according to… Read more
Bloomberg BNA: Understanding the Post-Tax Cuts Buybacks Surge: A Primer
September 21, 2018
But Matt Gardner, a senior fellow at the liberal-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said the anger over buybacks stems from the idea that, with the passage of the tax law (Pub. L. No. 115-97), Americans “were promised something else” by lawmakers and the administration. Real wage growth, he added, is “flat as a […]
Chicago Magazine: Illinois Is a Few Elections Away From a Graduated Income Tax
September 21, 2018
Illinois has one of the most regressive tax systems in the nation — and politicians are taking notice. Under our system, the burden of taxation falls disproportionately on those least able to pay it. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Illinois is one of the “Terrible Ten Most Regressive State & Local Tax Systems,” clocking in […]
The Free Press: Think Tank Releases Blueprint to Fully Fund Education, Medicaid & Lower Property Taxes
September 20, 2018
Tax cuts passed by the Maine Legislature and Gov. Paul LePage over the past eight years will cost the state $864 million in revenue in the next biennium, according to an analysis by the Maine Center for Economic Policy and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. At the same time the state continues to ignore its legal obligations to fully fund education, Medicaid expansion and revenue sharing.
The Inquisitor: Amazon Proposal to Cage Warehouse Workers Criticized
September 14, 2018
“For states contemplating tax incentives for Amazon, the salient question is: what do you give a tax avoider who already has everything?,” Matthew Gardner, senior fellow at Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, asked, after explaining how Amazon managed to make more than $5 billion in 2017, without paying a dime of federal income taxes. […]
Politico Morning Tax: Let’s Talk SALT
September 12, 2018
Cuomo is far from the only Democratic governor or lawmaker to unload on the SALT cap as, essentially, a broadside against progressive states. But at least one liberal think tank is calling for the limits to stay in place, even as it continues to denounce the TCJA as a giveaway to the wealthy. “Outright repeal […]
The Washington Post: GOP Pushes for New $2 Trillion Round of Tax Cuts
September 11, 2018
Democrats said the GOP’s second round of tax cuts would punish the poor and the middle class, arguing that they will provide a pretext for later spending cuts to entitlement programs that help the elderly. The richest 1 percent of Americans would see an average $24,130 cut from extending the individual tax cuts, compared with […]
Education Week: How a Proposed Tax Rule Could Hurt School Vouchers
September 11, 2018
Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed in 2017, wealthy residents in states such as New York and California face sizable increases in their federal tax bills because of a $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions they can make on their federal returns. Democratic lawmakers allege the so-called SALT-cap unfairly targets left-leaning […]
Seattle Times: Is a State Like Washington with No Income Tax Better or Worse?
September 11, 2018
These taxes place an unfair burden on the poor, according to research from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The reason is the lowest earners in the state devote the lion’s share of their take-home pay to buying things that are subject to sales taxes. The wealthy, who can save a chunk of their […]
The Journal News: Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Anti-Trump Tax Plan Crumbling in Face of IRS Regulations
September 11, 2018
Similar programs give state tax credits on 100 percent of the donations in states such as Alabama, Georgia, Arizona and South Carolina. It’s a system that has proved profitable for savvy taxpayers, said Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more
Politico: A SALT Shake up
September 6, 2018
So what happens now after this new clarification? “Under the right circumstances, some business owners are going to keep getting more back in tax cuts than they ever contributed to these tax credit programs,” said Carl Davis of the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “They’ll be stacking state tax credits and federal write-offs […]
WRAL: Meg Wiehe: Capping North Carolina’s top income tax rate isn’t good for our communities
September 4, 2018
ITEP Deputy Director Meg Wiehe writes for WRAL.com that it would be unwise to constitutionally cap the North Carolina state income tax rate, pointing out that school funding in the state is already down and faltering revenues in other states have led to teacher pay crises and strikes.
WRAL: Capping North Carolina’s Top Tax Rate Isn’t Good for Our Communities
September 4, 2018
Following is an excerpt from an op-ed written by ITEP deputy director Meg Wiehe: Earlier this year, teachers across the country staged walkouts or full-on strikes to protest low wages and lack of investment in education. North Carolina public school teachers and their allies participated too, calling for better pay and more overall school spending […]
Philadelphia Inquirer: Why It’s an Unhappy Labor Day for Some Workers
September 3, 2018
Meanwhile, President Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax cut — like previous massive tax cuts — has failed to trickle down to average workers in a meaningful way, and many of his policies are hurting American workers. Just 4 percent of workers at Fortune 500 companies received a bonus or wage increase as a result of the […]
Atlanta Journal Constitution: IRS Proposal Could Hurt Georgia Rural Hospital, School Tax Credits
August 25, 2018
The change will have no impact on many Georgians because they don’t itemize their deductions when they file their tax returns. “For about 90 percent of people who are just claiming the standard deduction, this (rule) isn’t going to have any impact at all,” said Carl Davis, the research director with the Institute on Taxation […]
The Montgomery Advertiser: IRS Proposes Regulations that Could Impact Alabama Accountability Act Donors
August 24, 2018
Carl Davis of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a non-profit, non-partisan research organization, said the regulations “make a lot of sense as far as what is charity and what isn’t.” The graphic shows how the donations to the Alabama Accountability Act benefit donors. The fundamental problem, he added, was that deductions exceeded the […]
CNBC: Cutting SALT–It Could Be the Last Day for This Tax Saving Strategy
August 24, 2018
There are 18 states with private school voucher tax credits, including programs in Arizona, Alabama and South Carolina. A number of them offer credits to contributing taxpayers on a dollar-for-dollar basis. “In a perverse situation, you donate $100 and you get back $137 in the form of state tax credits and deductions,” said Carl Davis, […]
Bloomberg: New Yorkers Have Four Days to Try to Beat SALT Cap
August 24, 2018
Residents of states that have had charitable tax break programs in effect for some time, such as Georgia and South Carolina, that benefit hospitals or schools, will probably have an easier time writing checks before the new rules go into effect, said Steve Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. “The reality […]
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