News Releases

Time for COVID relief is dwindling. A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a $908 billion COVID relief package on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is floating a relief proposal and Sen. Mitch McConnell is circulating a wholly inadequate package. The best chance for legislation may be to include it in an omnibus appropriations bill, which Congress must pass this month. Following is a statement from Amy Hanauer, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding congressional negotiations over another round of economic relief.

A state-by-state analysis of President-elect Joe Biden’s proposal to raise taxes for filers with income of more than $400,000 finds that in 2022, just 1.9 percent of all taxpayers would face a direct tax increase. This would vary only slightly by state. For example, in West Virginia, 0.6 percent of taxpayers would see an increase, and in Connecticut, 3.7 percent of taxpayers’ taxes would increase.

Media contact Following is a statement by Amy Hanauer, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding the COVID-19 relief bill that the U.S. House is expected to vote on this week. “The revised House COVID-19 relief bill, a significant compromise from House Democrats’ initial HEROES act passed in May, is sorely […]

"The New York Times revelation of Trump’s years of dodging taxes confirms something we already know. There are two tax systems: one that most of us follow, and another far more generous one for the very rich."

A new study finds that over the last 20 years, Illinois’s tax system has effectively sapped $4 billion more from Black and Hispanic communities than it would have under a graduated income tax while also allowing the state’s highest-income (mostly white) households to pay $27 billion less in taxes, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) said today.

"Nearly one in eight households don't have enough to eat. Millions are at risk of eviction. State and local governments are facing revenue shortfalls of well more than $500 billion, leading to inevitable layoffs and cuts to critical services. Knowing that, the Republican Senate put forth a so-called skinny COVID relief package that failed to address these concerns. Too skimpy for this crisis, the bill failed as it should have."

Media contact Following is a statement by Steve Wamhoff, federal policy director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding President Trump’s executive order that would suspend the employee side of the federal payroll tax from Sept. 1 through the end of the year.   Read Wamhoff’s recent blog that outlines the policy and logistical […]

Media contact Following is a statement by Amy Hanauer, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), regarding the pending Republican plan for phase IV COVID-19 relief. Details are emerging about the plan, which Senate leadership has not formally released. “Republicans are struggling to agree on the next round of COVID relief […]

Media contact Temporarily eliminating all federal payroll taxes through the end of the year would cost $336 billion, deliver 64 percent of its benefits to the richest 20 percent of households and fail to provide help to unemployed workers who are struggling most due to the economic downturn, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy […]

Following is a statement by Amy Hanauer, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding White House Advisor Larry Kudlow’s statement on priorities for the next economic relief package.

Following is a statement by Amy Hanauer, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding the Trump administration’s musings to respond to the COVID-19 health and economic crisis with tax cuts.

Following is a statement by Meg Wiehe, deputy executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s press release on “blue state bailouts” and suggestion that states facing budgetary shortfalls should seek bankruptcy protection.

Media contact Following is a statement by Amy Hanauer, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding the Senate bill on small business relief. “State budgets have already taken an enormous hit due to the necessary halting of economic activity to curb the COVID-19 public health crisis. The initial $150 billion in […]

“Public trust and the broad agreement that families and communities needed immediate relief from the economic crisis allowed the $2.2 trillion economic relief package to move quickly through Congress. Yet during a crisis in which thousands have lost their lives and millions are losing their jobs, their health care and their retirement security, some of our lawmakers snuck in tax benefits for the nation’s richest families."

Following is a statement by Amy Hanauer, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding the $2 trillion relief package expected to be enacted today. ITEP’s distributional analysis of how the rebate checks will affect individuals and families is here and here.  “Crisis and unprecedented are overused words at a time like […]

The Senate agreed to a compromise stimulus bill last night that improves on flaws in its initial bill but still fails to go as far as other proposals and leaves out immigrants who file taxes via Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN), the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said today.

Media Contact The revised GOP stimulus proposal still fails to do enough for struggling families while providing a no-strings-attached bailout to corporations, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said today. ITEP today released an analysis of the revised plan. Among its key findings: The revised proposal could leave 7.5 million households without access to […]

Media Contact The economic stimulus bill released by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Thursday night would leave behind millions of adults and children and do little to help struggling families weather this current public health and economic crisis, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) said today. ITEP has released a new analysis that […]

Following is a statement by Amy Hanauer, ITEP’s executive director, regarding the GOP aid plan introduced today by the Senate:

A White House proposal to follow Trump’s massive corporate tax cuts with a minimum corporate tax would be like shooting a person on Fifth Avenue and then offering them a band aid.

The budget proposal reinforces the Trump Administration’s commitment to maintaining trillions in tax cuts for the rich and corporations, even if it requires cutting support for food assistance, cutting funding support for education, harming our environment or taking away health care from millions of Americans.

A comprehensive examination of Fortune 500 companies’ financial filings in 2018, the first year of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, finds that the law did nothing to curb corporate tax avoidance, with 91 companies paying $0 in taxes on U.S. income in 2018 and profitable companies overall paying a collective effective tax rate of 11.3 percent, which is barely more than half the 21 percent rate established by the tax law, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) said today.

Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) Boards of Directors announced today the appointment of Amy Hanauer as Executive Director to lead the organizations’ tax justice work. Hanauer, founder of Policy Matters Ohio, will assume responsibilities mid-January 2020, joined by long-time ITEP-CTJ team member Meg Wiehe in her expanded role as Deputy Executive Director. Together the pair will lead the organizations in transforming tax policies to better meet the country’s needs.

Following is a statement from Alan Essig, executive director for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, on the paper released today by the Senate Finance Committee’s ranking Democrat, Ron Wyden, calling for anti-deferral accounting, which could dramatically reform the way the U.S. taxes capital gains.

Media contact Report outlines policy options for Chicago Resilient Families Initiative Task Force Recommendations A new report reveals that a city-level, Chicago Earned Income Tax Credit would boost the economic security of 546,000 to 1 million of the city’s working families, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and Economic Security for Illinois said today. […]