Tax Reform Options and Challenges
197 posts
Politifalse: A Fact-Checker Does Biden an Injustice on Taxes Paid by Billionaires
• By Michael Ettlinger
Most Americans pay more in Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes than they pay in federal personal income tax. So just looking at the personal income tax for comparison misses most of the taxes middle-income Americans pay. That is not true for billionaires because a much, much smaller proportion of their income is subject to the federal payroll taxes.
State of the Union Likely to Continue Progress on Tax Justice
• By Amy Hanauer
After decades of Presidents who ran away from taxes, it’s a sea change to have a chief executive who understands that the rich should pay their fair share, extremely profitable corporations should pay their fair share, and the public sector should have revenue to invest in problems – like climate change and healthcare – that will only be solved with pathbreaking public action.
“Fair Tax” Plan Would Abolish the IRS and Shift Federal Taxes from the Wealthy to the Rest of Us
• By Steve Wamhoff
The "Fair Tax" bill would impose a 30 percent federal sales tax on everything we buy – groceries, cars, homes, health care - and lead to a giant tax shift from the well-off to everyone else.
New House Rules: Low Taxes for the Wealthy on Cruise Control, Tax Credits for Working People Face Roadblock
• By Joe Hughes
Two new rules will hamper the new Congress’s ability to pass tax legislation in the next two years. One requires a supermajority for legislation that increases income tax rates, and the other requires cuts to mandatory spending programs—like Medicare, Social Security, veterans’ benefits or unemployment insurance—in exchange for changes to the Child Tax Credit or Earned Income Tax Credit that would mostly help low-income families.
Trump’s Tax Shenanigans Show Need for Real Reforms
• By Amy Hanauer
Congress should unite around a basic principle that Republican, Democratic, and independent voters support: the wealthiest, whether they are presidents, CEOs, or just rich heirs, should pay their fair share. Using Trump's tax maneuvering as a guidebook could make the tax code much fairer for all of us.
They Might Really Do It: The Senate Is About to Reform Our Tax Code
• By Steve Wamhoff
For now, the Senate is poised to reverse cuts to the IRS enforcement against wealthy tax evaders for the first time in a decade, crack down on tax-dodging by huge corporations for the first time since 1986, and finally address the method increasingly used by corporations to transfer income to shareholders to avoid federal taxes. The multi-decade winning streak of corporate lobbyists and special interests who have practically written many of our tax laws in…
The Tax Legislation Debated in Congress Would Reduce Inflation and Help Americans Deal with Rising Costs
• By Steve Wamhoff
Opposing a fully paid-for spending bill because of inflation concerns does not make any sense. Opposing a deficit-reducing bill because of inflation is absurd.
No Reason to Water Down the Tax Reforms in the Build Back Better Act
• By Steve Wamhoff
There is no justification for recently reported efforts to scale back the tax reforms in the Build Back Better Act, a bill passed by the House of Representatives in November that would raise significant revenue and make our tax code more progressive by enacting widely popular proposals. (See ITEP’s report on the BBBA.) Of course, […]
Public Problems Demand Public Solutions
• By Amy Hanauer
Long-term troubles for this country and this planet now demand our attention. Progressive tax policy would transform our ability to tackle them.
New ITEP Report Explains How the Biden Administration Can Act on Its Own to Fix Our Tax Code
• By Steve Wamhoff
The Biden administration should revise regulations from the TCJA to enforce the law as it was written and passed by Congress, not as big banks and multinational corporations have lobbied for it to be enforced.
What the Biden Administration Can Do on Its Own, Without Congress, to Fix the Tax Code
• By Steve Wamhoff
The Biden administration has several options to address tax reform even when Congress is unable or unwilling to help.
Women’s History Month is a Reminder that Sensible Tax Policy is Central to Women’s Economic Security
• By Brakeyshia Samms
Women’s History Month is a chance to remember what happens for women when tax policy becomes more progressive, boosts income, and helps make raising a family more affordable.
Key Reform in Build Back Better Act Would Close Loophole Used by the Rich To Avoid Funding Healthcare
• By Joe Hughes
The proposal in the Democrats’ Build Back Better proposal applies the 3.8 percent Net Investment Income Tax to all profit distributions from partnerships and S-corporations so that this income of wealthy pass-through business owners no longer escapes.
House Ways and Means Provisions to Raise Revenue Would Significantly Improve Our Tax System But Fall Short of the President’s Plan
• By Steve Wamhoff
High-income people and corporations would pay more than they do today, which is a monumental change. But some wealthy billionaires like Jeff Bezos would continue to pay an effective rate of zero percent on most of their income, and American corporations would still have some incentives to shift profits offshore.
The Child Tax Credit in Practice: What We Know About the Payoffs of Payments (Webinar)
• By ITEP Staff
Join us for a discussion on why tax credits like the Child Tax Credit (CTC) expansion are good economic policy. You’ll hear from anti-poverty experts on why Congress should extend the policy beyond 2021 and what we can learn from an initiative providing low-income mothers in Jackson, Miss., $1,000 cash on a monthly basis, no strings attached. From theory to practice and what it means for American families, this CTC webinar will provide a unique…
Congress Should Follow States’ Lead on Inclusive Economic Recovery
• By Meg Wiehe
President Joe Biden's American Families and Jobs plans intend to “build back better” and create a more inclusive economy. To fully live up to this ideal, the final plan must include undocumented people and their families.
When Tax Breaks for Retirement Savings Enrich the Already Rich
• By Steve Wamhoff
Members of Congress frequently claim they want to make it easier for working people to scrape together enough savings to have some financial security in retirement. But lawmakers’ preferred method to (ostensibly) achieve this goal is through tax breaks that have allowed the tech mogul Peter Thiel to avoid taxes on $5 billion. This is just one of the eye-popping revelations in the latest expose from ProPublica.
Income Tax Increases in the President’s American Families Plan
• By ITEP Staff, Matthew Gardner, Steve Wamhoff
President Biden’s American Families Plan includes revenue-raising proposals that would affect only very high-income taxpayers.[1] The two most prominent of these proposals would restore the top personal income tax rate to 39.6 percent and eliminate tax breaks related to capital gains for millionaires. As this report explains, these proposals would affect less than 1 percent of taxpayers and would be confined almost exclusively to the richest 1 percent of Americans. The plan includes other tax…
SALT Cap Repeal Would Worsen Racial Income and Wealth Divides
• By Carl Davis, ITEP Staff, Jessica Schieder
A bipartisan group of 32 House lawmakers banded together to form the “SALT Caucus,” demanding elimination of the SALT cap. None of their arguments in favor of repeal change the fact that it would primarily benefit the rich and, according to new research, exacerbate racial income and wealth disparities.
Biden’s Minimum Corporate Tax Proposal: Yes, Please Limit Amazon’s Tax Breaks
• By ITEP Staff, Matthew Gardner, Steve Wamhoff
A large majority of Americans want corporations to pay more taxes and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has several proposals to achieve that. The newest idea is to require corporations to pay a minimum tax equal to 15 percent of profits they report to shareholders and to the public if this is less than what they pay under regular corporate tax rules. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal quotes several critics of the…
New Analysis Compares HEROES Act and HEALS Act, Disaggregates Data by Race and Income
• By ITEP Staff, Jessica Schieder, Meg Wiehe, Steve Wamhoff
The Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools (HEALS) Act released by Senate Republicans Monday includes a tax rebate that is slightly more generous than the one provided under the March CARES Act, but fails to correct most of the earlier act’s problems. House Democrats addressed these shortcomings in the May HEROES Act, a better starting place for negotiations over the next round of COVID-19 relief. ITEP has analyzed both acts to provide a detailed…
Addressing the COVID-19 Economic Crisis: Advice for the Next Round
• By Steve Wamhoff
Americans need many things right now beyond tax cuts or cash payments. But for people whose incomes have declined or evaporated, money is the obvious, immediate need to prevent missed rent or mortgage payments, skipped hospital visits and other cascading catastrophes. So, what should Congress do next to get money to those who need it?
How the Tax Rebate in the Senate’s Bill Compares to Other Proposals
• By Steve Wamhoff
Congress is poised to pass a $2 trillion plan that includes $150 billion in fiscal aid to states, $150 billion in health care spending, large expansions of unemployment compensation and more. These measures are clearly needed as the economy teeters on the brink. As the Senate votes on its stimulus/COVID19 bill, one provision ITEP has deeper insights on is the payments to households in the form of tax rebates. ITEP has provided several analyses over…
Why the GOP Senate Bill Fails to Address the Crisis, and Why a Democratic Bill Looks More Promising
• By ITEP Staff, Meg Wiehe, Steve Wamhoff
National and state-by-state data available for download By Steve Wamhoff and Meg Wiehe On Thursday night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released a bill that reportedly cost more than $1 trillion, most of which would go toward breaks for corporations and other businesses. A provision in the bill to provide payments to families would cost […]
How Democratic Presidential Candidates Would Raise Revenue
• By Steve Wamhoff
One of the biggest problems with the U.S. tax code in terms of fairness is that investment income, which mostly flows to the rich, is taxed less than the earned income that makes up all or almost all of the income that working people live on.
In addition to distributional analyses of existing and proposed tax law, ITEP provides policy recommendations for lawmakers to build a more equitable tax code, from progressive revenue-raising options to corporate tax reform to establishing a model for a wealth tax.
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