States
The Atlantic: The Truth About Undocumented Immigrants and Taxes
September 13, 2016
“As rhetoric about illegal immigration dominates this election cycle, it’s hard to argue that undocumented immigrants drain the system. It’s true that not all undocumented workers pay federal income and social security taxes; many are still paid in cash and never fill out W-2 forms, so it’s unclear how many of them independently file tax […]
CNBC: The $2.4 trillion companies are keeping in overseas tax havens
September 8, 2016
“Matt Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a partner organization to CTJ, has done the work of searching through corporate filings for the tax information. The limited disclosure in 10-K filings that is now available requires public companies to list their overseas subsidiaries and how much of their cash has […]
Seattle PI: Labor Day union support for Sound Transit 3
September 8, 2016
“A study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that the lowest 20 percent, those with family incomes under $21,000, pay 16.8 percent of their incomes in state taxes. The next 20 percent, with incomes of $21,000 to $40,000, pay 11.7 percent in state taxes.” Read more
Casper Star Tribune: Sales tax takes the spotlight as Legislature explores new revenue options
September 8, 2016
“Given that most states use income taxes to help fund state government, Wyoming’s strong reliance on sales tax is unusual. It also puts a disproportionate tax burden on working-class Wyomingites who are likely to spend a higher share of their income on taxed consumption, said Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and […]
Fast Company: For All We Know, Undocumented Immigrants Pay A Higher Tax Rate Than Donald Trump
September 8, 2016
“We don’t know how much tax Donald Trump pays because he won’t release his returns. But we do know how much undocumented immigrants contribute annually. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s 50 state study, America’s “11 million” pay $11.64 billion a year in state and local taxes.” Read more
Bloomberg Government: Tax-Break Bidding Wars Can Make New Jobs Expensive
September 2, 2016
“Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy report: ‘Tax Incentives: Costly for States, Drag on the Nation.'” Read more
City-Journal: Undocumented-and Unmeasured
September 2, 2016
“In a similar vein, city council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito commissioned her finance division to weigh the economic impact on New York City if unlawful residents departed. Citing the liberal Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the analysis concludes that illegal immigrants pay $793 million in state and city taxes. However, the source data reveal that […]
CNN: What you need to know about immigration economics
August 31, 2016
“However, evidence challenges that stigma, showing that undocumented workers do pay taxes. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that undocumented immigrants pay nearly $12 billion a year in state and local taxes. California alone pulls in more than $3 billion in tax revenue from its estimated 3 million undocumented immigrants.” Read more
News Release: U.S. Should Take a Page from European Commission’s Book And Crack Down on Corporate Tax Avoidance
August 30, 2016 • By ITEP Staff
Following is a statement by Matt Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy regarding the European Commission’s ruling today that the Apple Corporation must pay as much as €13 billion ($14.5 billion) in back taxes due to an illegal tax break granted by the Irish government. “The European Commission action is a chastening […]
Des Moines Register: Undocumented immigrants pay billions in taxes
August 30, 2016
“An analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, updated in February, found that the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States collectively pay $11.64 billion in state and local taxes annually. This includes more than $6.9 billion in sales and excise taxes, $3.6 billion in property taxes, and more than […]
Governing: Back-to-School Tax Holidays Losing Popularity Among Lawmakers
August 30, 2016
“[Tax holidays] don’t help lower-income people much either, according to the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP).” Read more
Chron: This is where immigrants in Texas are moving to
August 30, 2016
“‘The 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States collectively paid $11.64 billion in state and local taxes,’ explains the website for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.” Read more
How State Tax Changes Affect Your Federal Taxes: A Primer on the “Federal Offset”
August 22, 2016 • By Dylan Grundman O'Neill
Read this brief in PDF here. State lawmakers frequently make claims about how proposed tax changes would affect taxpayers at different income levels. Yet too many lawmakers routinely ignore one important consequence of their tax reform proposals: the effect of state tax changes on their constituents’ federal income tax bills. Wealthier taxpayers in particular can […]
Indexing Income Taxes for Inflation: Why It Matters
August 22, 2016 • By Dylan Grundman O'Neill
Read brief in PDF here. All of us experience the effects of inflation as the price of the goods and services we buy gradually goes up over time. Fortunately, as the cost of living goes up, our incomes often tend to rise as well in order to keep pace. But many state tax systems are […]
The Folly of State Capital Gains Tax Cuts
August 17, 2016 • By Dylan Grundman O'Neill, Meg Wiehe
Read the brief in a PDF here. The federal tax system treats income from capital gains more favorably than income from work. A number of state tax systems do as well, offering tax breaks for profits realized from local investments and, in some instances, from investments around the world. As states struggle to cope with […]
Why Sales Taxes Should Apply to Services
July 27, 2016 • By Carl Davis
Read this Policy Brief in PDF here. General sales taxes are an important revenue source for state governments, accounting for close to one-third of state tax collections nationwide. But most state sales taxes have a damaging structural flaw: they typically apply to most sales of goods, such as books and computers, but exempt most services […]
Sales Tax Holidays: An Ineffective Alternative to Real Sales Tax Reform
July 11, 2016 • By Meg Wiehe
This brief was updated July 2018 Read this Policy Brief in PDF here. Sales taxes are an important revenue source, composing close to half of all state tax revenues.[1] But sales taxes are also inherently regressive because the lower a family’s income, the more the family must spend on goods and services subject to the […]
State Corporate Tax Disclosure: Why It’s Needed
June 29, 2016 • By Lisa Christensen Gee
Few state tax trends are as striking as the rapid decline of state corporate income tax revenues. As recently as 1986, state corporate income taxes equaled 0.5 percent of nationwide Gross State Product (GSP) (a measure of statewide economic activity). But in fiscal year 2013 (the last year for which data are available), state and local corporate income taxes were just 0.33 percent of nationwide GSP--representing a decline of over 30 percent.
How Long Has it Been Since Your State Raised Its Gas Tax?
June 28, 2016 • By Carl Davis
An updated version of this report has been published with data through July 1, 2017. Read this Policy Brief in PDF form Many states’ transportation budgets are in disarray, in part because they are trying to cover the rising cost of asphalt, machinery, and other construction materials with a gasoline tax rate that is rarely […]
State Treatment of Itemized Deductions
June 2, 2016 • By Dylan Grundman O'Neill, Meg Wiehe
Read this Policy Brief in PDF Form Map of State Treatment of Itemized Deductions Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia allow a group of income tax breaks known as “itemized deductions.” [1] Itemized deductions are designed to help defray a wide variety of personal expenditures that affect a taxpayer’s ability to pay taxes, including charitable […]
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: A Fiscal Policy Agenda for Stronger State Economies
April 15, 2016
“With most state legislatures now in session, policymakers are making fiscal policy decisions that will profoundly affect future economic opportunities in communities across the country. States face a fundamental choice: they can provide the resources required for public investment in schools, transportation, health care, safe communities, and other building blocks of economic growth, or go […]
Policy Matters Ohio: Wealthy not paying fair share of state and local taxes
April 12, 2016
“State and local taxes support schools, fix potholes, keep the snow plowed, the justice system running and the water clean. Economic prosperity depends on these public services. The wealthiest families benefit amply from our communities and state. But are they paying their fair share for these benefits? New data says they are not.” Read more
North Carolina Budget and Tax Center: North Carolina’s “Tax Swap” Gives Biggest Breaks to the Wealthiest, Undermines Public Investments for All
April 11, 2016
“Efforts to rely more on the state sales tax and less on the income tax to support public services have shifted tax obligations to less affluent North Carolinians, while saving the wealthiest the most money, and reduced resources available for public investments that build a strong economy.” Read full report
Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center: PA Should Raise Needed Revenues in Fair Ways: Short- and Long-term Approaches to Fixing Pennsylvania’s Unfair Tax System
April 11, 2016
This briefing paper analyzes several options for raising revenue for the Pennsylvania state budget which would fall much less on middle- and low-income families than the existing Pennsylvania state and local tax system. We first analyze the income tax increase (from 3.07% to 3.4%) and expansion of income tax forgiveness and sales tax base […]
Center for American Progress: 4 Reasons Why States Suing to Stop Immigration Actions Stand to Lose Big
March 28, 2016
“Unauthorized immigrants contribute enormous sums to state and local coffers through taxes: $11.64 billion annually, according to a new report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Full implementation of the three deferred action initiatives would increase state and local tax contributions by unauthorized immigrants by an estimated $805 million each year.” Read full […]
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