Publications
State-by-State Tax Expenditure Reports
• By ITEP Staff
Below is a list of tax expenditure reports published in the states.
Michigan Ballot Proposal Would Boost Public Education While Creating a Fairer Tax System
• By Miles Trinidad, Matthew Gardner
A new proposal in Michigan would create a 5-percentage point surcharge on top earners with taxable incomes over $1 million for joint filers and $500,000 for single filers. This would raise about $1.7 billion a year, which would be used for public education priorities.
Linking to Tipped and Overtime Income Deductions Would Worsen State Shortfalls, Do Little to Help Workers
• By Neva Butkus, Galen Hendricks
State deductions for tips and overtime are not only ineffective at supporting working-class people, it will come at a substantial cost to state budgets.
Local Vacancy Taxes: A Tool but Not a Panacea
• By Rita Jefferson
Vacancy taxes will not single-handedly solve problems in cities, but they are worth considering to address housing shortages, land use, and building thriving communities.
Sales Tax Holidays Miss the Mark When it Comes to Effective Sales Tax Reform
• By Miles Trinidad
Sales tax holidays are often marketed as relief for everyday families, but they do little to address the deeper inequities of regressive sales taxes. In 2025, 18 states offer these holidays at a collective cost of $1.3 billion.
Anti-Tax Revolts Backfire: What We’ve Learned from 50 Years of Property Tax Limits
• By Rita Jefferson
Across-the-board property tax cuts create less fair local tax systems in the long run. State legislators and local governments should prioritize the residents who can least afford their property taxes, not the residents and businesses who can.
Analysis of Tax Provisions in the Trump Megabill as Signed into Law: National and State Level Estimates
• By Steve Wamhoff, Carl Davis, Joe Hughes, Jessica Vela
President Trump has signed into law the tax and spending “megabill” that largely favors the richest taxpayers and provides working-class Americans with relatively small tax cuts that will in many cases be more than offset by Trump's tariffs.
Trump Megabill’s Deduction for Car Loan Interest Would Not Offset Tariff-Related Auto Price Increases for Most Buyers
• By Carl Davis, Sarah Austin
The auto loan interest deduction that recently passed the House is designed, at least in part, to mitigate the impact of tariff-induced price increases on vehicles assembled in America. But the deduction is incapable of offsetting even small-scale price increases, especially for working-class families and others with moderate incomes.
Analysis of Tax Provisions in the House Reconciliation Bill: National and State Level Estimates
• By Carl Davis, Jessica Vela, Joe Hughes, Steve Wamhoff
The poorest fifth of Americans would receive 1 percent of the House reconciliation bill's net tax cuts in 2026 while the richest fifth of Americans would receive two-thirds of the tax cuts. The richest 5 percent alone would receive a little less than half of the net tax cuts that year.
Trump 2025 Tax Law: Research and Resources
• By ITEP Staff
Want to know more about the tax and spending megabill that President Trump recently signed into law? We've got you covered.
Sharp Turn in Federal Policy Brings Significant Risks for State Tax Revenues
• By Carl Davis
Summary The new presidential administration and Congress have indicated that they intend to bring about a dramatic federal retreat in funding for health care, food assistance, education, and other services that will push more of the responsibility for providing these essential services to the states. Meeting these new obligations would be a challenging task for […]
Shelter Skelter: How the Educational Choice for Children Act Would Use Tax Avoidance to Fuel School Privatization
• By Carl Davis
The Educational Choice for Children Act of 2025 would ostensibly provide a tax break on charitable donations to organizations that give out private K-12 school vouchers. Most of the so-called “contributions,” however, would be made by wealthy people solely for the tax savings, as those savings would typically be larger than their contributions.
High-Rent, Low-Wealth: Addressing the Racial Wealth Gap through a Federal Renter Credit
• By Brakeyshia Samms, Emma Sifre, Joe Hughes
While the federal tax code has some policies focused on raising income of low earners, it contains fewer provisions designed specifically to address wealth inequality. A renter tax credit offers a simple, administratively practical means of reaching low-wealth populations through the federal tax code without requiring a comprehensive measurement of every household’s wealth.
The (Mostly Untapped) Power of Local Income Taxes
• By Rita Jefferson
Local income taxes can be an important progressive revenue raiser, as they ask more of higher-income households and are connected to ability to pay. They can raise substantial revenue to fund key public services to make cities and regions better off.
Trump’s Plan to Extend His 2017 Tax Provisions: Updated National and State-by-State Estimates
• By Steve Wamhoff
Trump’s plan to make most of the temporary provisions of his 2017 tax law permanent would disproportionately benefit the richest Americans. This includes all major provisions except the $10,000 cap on deductions for state and local taxes (SALT) paid.
The Pitfalls of Flat Income Taxes
• By Carl Davis, Eli Byerly-Duke
While most states have a graduated rate income tax, some state lawmakers have recently become enamored with the idea of moving toward flat rate taxes instead. What’s the difference? And are states well served by the transition? In short: A flat tax is one where each taxpayer pays the same percentage of their income whereas […]
Extending Temporary Provisions of the 2017 Trump Tax Law: Updated National and State-by-State Estimates
• By Steve Wamhoff
The TCJA Permanency Act would make permanent the provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 that are set to expire at the end of 2025. The legislation would disproportionately benefit the richest Americans. Below are graphics for each state that show the effects of making TCJA permanent across income groups. See ITEP’s […]
Sales Tax Holidays Miss the Mark When it Comes to Effective Sales Tax Reform
• By Marco Guzman
Nineteen states have sales tax holidays on the books in 2024. These suspensions combined will cost states and localities over $1.3 billion in lost revenue this year. Sales tax holidays are poorly targeted and too temporary to meaningfully change the regressive nature of a state’s tax system.
Tax Payments by Undocumented Immigrants
• By ITEP Staff
Undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022. Providing access to work authorization for undocumented immigrants would increase their tax contributions both because their wages would rise and because their rates of tax compliance would increase.
Improving Refundable Tax Credits by Making Them Immigrant-Inclusive
• By Emma Sifre, Marco Guzman
Undocumented immigrants who work and pay taxes but don't have a valid Social Security number for either themselves or their children are excluded from federal EITC and CTC benefits. Fortunately, several states have stepped in to ensure undocumented immigrants are not left behind by the gaps in the federal EITC and CTC. State lawmakers should continue to ensure that immigrants who are otherwise eligible for these tax credits receive them.
States Should Enact, Expand Mansion Taxes to Advance Fairness and Shared Prosperity
• By Carl Davis, Erika Frankel
The report was produced in partnership with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and co-authored by CBPP’s Deputy Director of State Policy Research Samantha Waxman.[1] Click here to use our State Mansion Tax Estimator A historically large share of the nation’s wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, a reality glaring in […]
Fairness Matters: A Chart Book on Who Pays State and Local Taxes
• By ITEP Staff
State and local tax codes can do a lot to reduce inequality. But they add to the nation’s growing income inequality problem when they capture a greater share of income from low- or moderate-income taxpayers. These regressive tax codes also result in higher tax rates on communities of color, further worsening racial income and wealth divides.
America Used to Have a Wealth Tax: The Forgotten History of the General Property Tax
• By Carl Davis, Eli Byerly-Duke
Over time, broad wealth taxes were whittled away to become the narrower property taxes we have today. These selective wealth taxes apply to the kinds of wealth that make up a large share of middle-class families’ net worth (like homes and cars), but usually exempt most of the net worth of the wealthy (like business equity, bonds, and pooled investment funds).The rationale for this pared-back approach to wealth taxation has grown weaker in recent decades…
Boosting Incomes, Improving Equity: State Earned Income Tax Credits in 2023
• By Aidan Davis, Neva Butkus
Nearly two-thirds of states (31 plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico) have an Earned Income Tax Credit, an effective tool that boosts low-paid workers’ incomes and helps lower-income families achieve greater economic security. This year, 12 states expanded and improved EITCs.
Sales Tax Holidays: An Ineffective Alternative to Real Sales Tax Reform
• By Marco Guzman
Nineteen states have sales tax holidays on the books in 2023, and these suspensions will cost nearly $1.6 billion in lost revenue this year. Sales tax holidays are poorly targeted and too temporary to meaningfully change the regressive nature of a state’s tax system. Overall, the benefits of sales tax holidays are minimal while their downsides are significant.
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