ITEP Work in Action

Several states filed a legal brief last week urging the courts to side with plaintiffs who have sued the Trump administration in an attempt to have the IRS-ICE data sharing agreement stuck down. The legal brief cites three ITEP reports (see pages 9-10 and 14). Read more

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) made major changes to public programs and the federal tax code. It included about $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, with most of the benefits going to higher-income households. To help pay for those tax cuts, the law also reduced funding for health care and food assistance and shifted some federal costs onto the states.

In fact, thanks to the legislation’s expansion of the state’s Working Families Tax Credit and elimination of sales taxes on several categories of items, 95% of Washington households will pay less in state taxes, according to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

The QSBS exclusion allows investors who buy stock in a “qualified business” to write off as much as 100 percent of their capital gains when they sell that stock, in some cases delivering millions of dollars in tax breaks. 

U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen and U.S. Representative Brittany Pettersen led their colleagues in reintroducing the Disclosure of Tax Havens and Offshoring Act, legislation to provide transparency around corporations’ use of tax havens and incentives to offshore jobs.

In early August, Missouri voters will decide one of the most consequential state tax policy questions in recent memory: whether to eliminate their state’s personal income tax.

Proposition 3 will appear on the November 2026 statewide ballot, asking California voters whether to make permanent the higher-income tax rates on the state’s highest earners. 

Immigrants made up 29 percent of Napa County’s workforce as of 2019–23, with those working in the wine and hospitality industry generating an estimated $1.5 billion in county GDP.

According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, immigrants without documentation contributed $436.5 million in state and local taxes in Colorado in 2022.

“Congress often tinkers with the tax code from one year to the next, so state conformity debates happen all the time, says Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “But they’re usually much more minor considerations.”

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found the OBBBA “will increase taxes for most Americans, significantly expand income inequality, and add trillions to the national debt, while delivering substantial tax cuts to high-income households, corporations, and foreign investors.”

The recent explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) and the construction of data centers threatens to swallow the US economy and transform society. 

Under H.R. 1, the federal tax package passed last year, the richest 1% of Arizonans are set to receive an average tax cut of nearly $80,000, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The lowest-income 20% of Arizonans will receive about $10. Read more.

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) found that at least 88 of the nation’s largest corporations paid zero federal corporate income tax in fiscal year 2025, despite reporting a combined $105 billion in US pretax income.

Since 2018, however, Idaho households have received $4.5 billion in state and federal income tax cuts—an amount that exceeds current state investments in health and education combined.

According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, “Millionaires are unlikely to move because of taxes. Instead, like most other people, millionaires primarily choose where to live based on community ties, schools, and jobs, and are not likely to uproot their lives based on a marginal tax difference.” Read more.

ITEP cited in a report that outlines wealth and income thresholds to policymakers, explaining why measuring both income and wealth is more difficult than might be expected. Read more.

ITEP cited in a review of Governor Kemp’s spending cut anskewed toward those already earning the highest incomes and away from meeting the needs of working and middle-income families. Read more.

Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Denver, and Milwaukee all struggle with office vacancies and underperforming downtowns due to this rise in remote work. Even apart from remote work, cities are entering a new period of fiscal stress. They may need help from state and national leaders to thrive. Read more.

The already dire conditions for Black and brown residents and those with low incomes are likely to worsen this year and beyond as the combined harm of federal layoffs on DC’s economy and cuts to vital safety net programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and Medicaid take effect. Read […]

ITEP cited in testimony in favor of a California policy that would close a profit shifting loophole and ensure that corporations pay their fair share. Read more.

A recap of Maine’s 2026 legislative session covers the state’s new millionaire tax, decoupling of last summer’s regressive federal tax provisions, and the expansion of the property tax fairness credit. Read more.  

State Child Tax Credits are a promising and increasingly popular policy to reduce child poverty, strengthen family economic stability, and promote healthy development. Read more.

According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, at least 88 of some of the largest corporations—including Tesla, Coinbase, and Palantir—made more than $105 billion in 2025. But they paid zero dollars in federal income tax because of the Republican’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Collectively, billionaires added $1.5 trillion to their wealth in 2025 […]