News Releases
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news release June 11, 2019 Treasury Regulations Address Long-Standing Tax Loophole
Following is a statement by Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding Department of Treasury regulations released today to address state policies that allow… -
news release May 22, 2019 Five Recent Federal Tax Credit Proposals Target Benefits to Bottom 60 Percent of Taxpayers
Five tax proposals announced this year are a radical departure from the top-heavy 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, targeting their benefits instead to low- and moderate income families while providing no or nominal tax cuts to the highest-earning households, a new Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy analysis of each of the five plans reveals.
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news release April 17, 2019 New 50-State Analysis: State Child Tax Credits Would Lift 2.1 to 4.5 Million Children out of Poverty
Expanding the Child Tax Credit (CTC) at the state level could lift millions of children out of poverty and help families who benefited little or not at all from the 2017 federal expansion of the CTC, according to a 50-state report released today by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University.
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news release April 11, 2019 60 Fortune 500 Companies Avoided All Federal Income Tax in 2018 Under New Tax Law
Media Contact An in-depth analysis of Fortune 500 companies’ financial filings finds that at least 60 of the nation’s biggest corporations didn’t pay a dime in federal income taxes in… -
news release March 11, 2019 White House Budget Fails to Acknowledge Role of Tax Cuts in the Deficit while Calling for Draconian Spending Cuts
As expected, the president’s budget would enshrine top-heavy tax cuts into law and finance them by slashing domestic programs. It is time for a course correction.
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news release March 7, 2019 Gov. Pritzker’s Tax Proposal Is a Huge Step Toward Fairer Taxes
Gov. Pritzker’s Fair Tax proposal reflects a necessary and strong commitment to reforming Illinois’s tax system in a fair way that will help the state raise the revenue it needs to stabilize its finances and improve quality of life for all its residents. The state’s financial crisis spans several years and getting the state back on firm fiscal footing requires bold solutions and—yes—tax increases.
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news release February 28, 2019 Education Department Tax Credit Proposal Would Undermine Public Schools
The Education Department today announced a proposed new federal tax credit for so-called school choice. The $5 billion proposal would give those who donate to private school voucher programs a tax credit. Following is a statement by Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
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news release February 5, 2019 New Report Outlines Seven Progressive Revenue-Raising Options
ITEP today released a report that charts a path for Congress to enact progressive, revenue-raising tax policies that would target high-income households and reverse the damage from TCJA and prior rounds of tax cuts that disproportionately benefited the well-off.
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news release January 23, 2019 New Report Makes the Case for a Wealth Tax; Analysis Finds Such a Tax Could Raise More Than $1 Trillion Over a Decade
A federal wealth tax on the top 0.1 percent of households could raise significant tax revenue, curb growing economic inequality and help make the tax system fairer, a new report released today by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) finds.
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news release January 23, 2019 Five Years in, Cannabis Tax Haul Rivals or Exceeds Alcohol Taxes in Many States
A first-of-its-kind look at state excise taxes on legal cannabis sales finds that taxing the substance can be a meaningful source of state revenue but cautions that achieving sustainable revenues over time will be difficult under the price-based tax structures adopted in most states thus far.
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news release January 15, 2019 Gov. Cuomo Has the Right Idea on How to Tax Recreational Cannabis
Following is a statement by Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding the cannabis tax structure unveiled by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
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news release December 6, 2018 2017 Tax Law Leaves More Wealthy Heirs with Tax-Free Inheritances
Media contact A tiny fraction of estates will be subject to the tax in 2018 The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act drastically reduced the number of estates that are subject… -
news release November 14, 2018 New 50-State Analysis: SALT Cap Repeal Would Be Costly, Mostly Benefit Top 1%
Repealing the 2017 tax law’s cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions without replacing it with a different type of limit would pile one bad policy on top of the other, annually add $88 billion to the deficit-financed tax law, and mostly benefit the wealthy, a new 50-state analysis released today by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reveals.
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news release October 17, 2018 Poorest 20 Percent Pays a 50 Percent Higher Effective State and Local Tax Rate than the Top 1 Percent
A comprehensive 50-state study released today by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) finds that most state and local tax systems tax low- and middle-income households at significantly higher rates than wealthy taxpayers, with the lowest-income households paying an average of 50 percent more of their income in taxes than the very rich.
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news release October 2, 2018 NYT Expose on Trump Family Tax Avoidance Demonstrates There’s a Different Set of Rules for the Rich and Powerful
Following is a statement by Alan Essig, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding an expose in today’s New York Times that reveals Donald Trump’s family engaged in complex schemes to avoid taxes.
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news release September 28, 2018 U.S. House Advances More Unpopular Tax Cuts That Primarily Benefit the Wealthy
The U.S. House this week voted on so-called Tax Cuts 2.0, a package of three tax bills that, among other things, would make permanent temporary provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Alan Essig, ITEP’s executive director, said the following: “While top-heavy tax cuts and their inevitable effect of decimating public investments may seem peripheral to today’s news cycle, they are emblematic of the governing philosophy of those in power today.”
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news release September 10, 2018 More of the Same: Tax Cuts 2.0 Will Benefit the Rich
Media Contact Following is a statement from Alan Essig, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding the tax bill introduced today by House GOP leadership. “Once… -
news release August 23, 2018 Proposed IRS Regulations Would End SALT Workarounds and Rightly Tamp Down on School Voucher Tax Shelters
The main difference between states that recently passed SALT workaround legislation and states that provide overly generous credits for donations to private schools are their political leanings. Private school supporters were hoping for a special carve out that would allow their tax shelter to remain intact, but the IRS was correct not to pick winners and losers.
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news release July 24, 2018 House Republicans’ Not-So-New Tax Plan: Crumbs for Working People 2.0
Media Contact Rep. Kevin Brady, the top tax-writer in the House of Representatives, today called on his colleagues to make permanent the temporary provisions that were enacted as part of… -
news release July 12, 2018 A Practical Case Against Sales Tax Holidays
The lack of investment in public school systems is a problem in jurisdictions throughout the country. So, at this time of year when many states across the country are temporarily suspending sales taxes to provide a break to taxpayers who have to purchase back-to-school supplies, it’s worth examining whether this is the most effective use of resources.
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news release July 11, 2018 65 Percent of Federal Tax Cuts Since 2000 Have Gone to Richest 20 Percent
Since 2000, Congress has passed several rounds of tax cuts that have increased the federal deficit by nearly $6 trillion and disproportionately benefited the top 20 percent of households, which received nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of the value of all tax changes.
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news release July 5, 2018 New Report Highlights Growing Tax Breaks for Wealthy Real Estate Investors Like Donald Trump
Following is a statement by Steve Wamhoff, the director of federal tax policy at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding the report released today by Democrats on the… -
news release June 21, 2018 South Dakota v. Wayfair Decision Brings Overdue Fairness to Retail Sales Tax
Following is a statement by Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding the Supreme Court’s decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair. Mr. Davis has authored numerous policy briefs regarding how online retailers that fail to collect sales taxes deprive states of necessary sales tax revenue and maintain an unfair advantage over bricks and mortar retailers.
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news release May 23, 2018 State Efforts to Shield Taxpayers From SALT Cap Expose Deeper Flaws with Tax Incentives for Charitable Contributions
Long before the tax law passed, some states abused the idea of charitable giving to funnel public money to various activities, such as private K-12 education, by reimbursing up to 100 percent of their taxpayers’ donations with tax credits. The flimsy, hastily-written SALT deduction cap enacted last year made this type of gaming even easier than before, and it was entirely predictable that states would respond by enacting more tax credits of this type.
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news release May 11, 2018 Millionaires Average Annual Tax Cut in North Carolina Is Comparable to Average Teacher’s Salary
North Carolina lawmakers’ misplaced priorities are evident: The recent rounds of tax cuts will provide the state’s millionaires with an average annual tax break of more than $45,000, which is nearly as much as the average teacher’s annual salary of about $50,000.