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.
News Releases
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news release November 14, 2018 New 50-State Analysis: SALT Cap Repeal Would Be Costly, Mostly Benefit Top 1%
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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.
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news release April 24, 2018 Arizona and Other Teachers’ Strikes are Directly Connected to Tax-Cutting Fervor
Following is a statement by Meg Wiehe, deputy director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding the pending teachers’ strike in Arizona. “The Arizona teachers’ strike, like other… -
news release April 14, 2018 ITEP Resources for Tax Day 2018
Two recent Congressional Budget Office reports underscore why the nation needs progressive tax policies. The first, published in March, demonstrates that tax and other public policies have a measurable effect on income disparity. According to CBO data, tax policies (think Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit) and means-tested programs (Children’s Health Insurance Program, Medicaid, food assistance, etc.) have helped alleviate growing income inequality. The second CBO report, released this week, reveals that the national debt will soar to untenable levels in the coming years due in part to the recent Trump-GOP tax cuts.
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news release April 10, 2018 Same Old Same: 50-State Analysis Finds Extending the New Tax Law’s Temporary Provisions Would Mainly Benefit the Wealthy
While rhetoric may bill this tax law and proposed extension as a middle-class tax cut, the data tell the real story: the Trump-GOP tax law was and remains a giveaway to corporations and the wealthy.
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news release March 26, 2018 Amazon Maintains Sales Tax Advantage over Local Businesses
This report concludes that lack of consistent sales tax collection is contributing to an unlevel playing field for local businesses “because millions of shoppers are able to pay less tax if they choose to buy from out-of-state companies over the Internet rather than at local stores.” It recommends that states explore reforms to bring their sales tax policies into the digital age.
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news release February 12, 2018 Two Months after Top-Heavy Tax Cuts, Trump Budget Proposes “Savings” by Making Cuts to Safety Net Programs
“In case it was not apparent after the White House pushed for a tax plan that overwhelmingly benefits corporations and the rich, the White House budget proposal is clear on what and whom it prioritizes: wealth over work, corporate interest before the public good.”
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news release December 19, 2017 Congress Snubs the Will of the People, Appeases Wealthy Donors
The 2010 Citizens United decision shoved open already leaky floodgates that have allowed the well-heeled to dictate our nation’s electoral outcomes and public policies. Lawmakers have been clear that their ‘donors’ and ‘corporate CEOs’ are the driving force behind this tax overhaul, and they have been content to ignore opinion polling that indicates the public is against this legislation by a margin of 2-to-1.
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news release December 17, 2017 ITEP 50-State Distributional Analysis of Final House-Senate Tax Bill
Like the initial House and Senate tax bills, the final tax legislation reserves the greatest share of the benefit for the wealthy and foreign investors and would hike taxes for average taxpayers in the lowest-earning three-fifths of households.
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news release December 15, 2017 Corporations and the Rich Get Everything They Want in Pending Tax Bill, Working People, Not So Much
Nearly 30 years ago, Trump was well connected enough that he was able to go to Congress and testify about how tax changes affected his business. Ordinary working people are rarely lucky enough to talk about their personal experiences in front of a congressional committee. So if they want to make their views known about the catastrophe of 2017, it will have to be in election of 2018.
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news release December 13, 2017 ITEP Statement on Alabama’s Special Election
What voters want—the people who put elected officials in office—matters. Members of Congress should take pause before proceeding with their profoundly unpopular tax bill that the vast majority of voters have said lawmakers should not pass.
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news release December 2, 2017 Senate Okays Unpopular Plan to Widen Income Inequality, Make the Rich Richer
But so far, Republican leaders have demonstrated that, for them, the only voices that matter in this debate are those that fund their campaigns.
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news release November 18, 2017 New 50-State Analysis: Senate Tax Plan Would Increase Taxes on at Least 29 Percent by 2027
Poorest 20 percent would receive the biggest tax hike A 50-state analysis of the tax plan that passed the Senate Finance Committee finds that the bottom 60 percent of households… -
news release November 16, 2017 House Passes Tax Cuts for the Rich and Corporations as a False Cure for Working People’s Economic Anxiety
For months, Speaker Paul Ryan has cited working people’s “economic anxiety” as a reason to push through tax reform. While the speaker has correctly diagnosed a defining social issue of our time, he and other Republican leaders continue to focus on a top-down remedy that will only make this problem worse.