Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

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6,242 posts

New Jersey Policy Perspective: Making New Jersey Affordable for Families – The Case for a State-Level Child Tax Credit

• By ITEP Staff

A state-level child tax credit would recognize the unique costs of raising children and the support that most families need to care for their kids and set them up for success. When families can pay for basic expenses and save for their children’s futures, it improves child well-being immediately by reducing key costs like food […]

Yahoo! Finance: Young workers may see $800 more in their tax refunds this year

February 18, 2022

Many young workers may get an extra $820 in their tax refund this year because of the expansion of a key poverty-fighting credit, a new analysis found. The expanded Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) will reach more than 1 in 3 young adults this year, according to the report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic […]

American Prospect: The Year of the Tax Cut

February 17, 2022

State lawmakers are also pointing to substantial, but temporary, budget surpluses to justify tax cuts, but these surpluses are “deceptive and fleeting,” says Neva Butkus of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a Washington think tank. Twenty-three states lowered their revenue estimates compared to pre-pandemic levels, and 19 states counted delayed fiscal year […]

USA Today: New rules for 2021 taxes may mean bigger refund for young workers, retirees with side jobs

February 16, 2022

More than 1 in 3 young adults – or more than 5 million people – would benefit from this change in the earned income tax credit, seeing an average of benefit $820, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a progressive think tank, which is advocating for a permanent change in the age restrictions. […]

West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy: House Personal Income Tax Cut Plan Largely Benefits Wealthy, Not Fiscally Sustainable

• By ITEP Staff

The West Virginia Legislature has introduced a bill to cut and eventually eliminate the state’s personal income tax. The House Finance Committee voted to advance that bill to the House floor with no discussion or questions asked. Like previous attempts to eliminate the state’s income tax, HB 4007 would lead to major revenue losses for the […]

Oklahoma Policy Institute: Strengthening the Grocery Tax Credit Would Provide Fiscally Smart Tax Relief to Working Oklahomans

• By ITEP Staff

Oklahoma can effectively eliminate the state and local sales tax on groceries for most low-income families by strengthening the Sales Tax Relief Credit. At a time when many Oklahomans are struggling to put food on the table and are at risk of eviction, a more robust Sales Tax Relief Credit can help put money back into the pockets […]

Democracy Now!: Alabama Amazon Workers Vote in 2nd Union Election as Amazon Dodges $5 Billion in Taxes

February 10, 2022

Meanwhile, a new report found Amazon was able to dodge over $5 billion in federal income taxes in 2021. Amazon reported record revenue of $35 billion last year but benefited from a federal income tax rate of just 6%, thanks to corporate tax breaks. The report was issued by the Institute on Taxation and Economic […]

CNBC: 1 in 3 young adults will see an average $800 tax credit boost this year

February 10, 2022

For the 37% of workers 19 to 24 who are now eligible to receive the credit, the expansion will mean an average boost of $820, according to a study from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. If an individual has no other tax liability, that money will be sent to them in their refund […]

Common Good Iowa: New Income Tax Cuts – a Recipe for Disaster and Inequity

• By ITEP Staff

Iowa lawmakers have repeatedly cut taxes over the last three decades in ways that provide the greatest benefits to the highest-income taxpayers while ratcheting down investments that historically made the state attractive to raise a family or do business — including public schools and public health. Now, within months of passing tax cuts that when […]

Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy: HB 436 Tax Cuts Benefit Wealthy Idahoans

• By ITEP Staff

The tax cuts proposed in HB 436 would benefit wealthy Idahoans the most. The bill would also collapse the state’s five tax brackets to four, and would lower the income tax rate on the wealthiest tax bracket from 6.5% to 6%. Read more

Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy: Idaho Families Would Benefit From Move to Include More Children in State’s Child Tax Credit

• By ITEP Staff

From housing to child care, hard-working Idaho families face high costs in our growing state. Since 2018, Idaho’s tax code has supported families through the state Child Tax Credit (CTC). In the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), Congress approved a temporary change to expand the definition of “child” to include 17-year-olds in tax year 2021. […]

Hawai’i Budget & Policy Center: Expanding Economic Opportunity with the Hawai’i EITC

• By ITEP Staff

Hawai’i’s working families continue to struggle with the nation’s highest gap between median earnings and the cost of living, and this difficult reality has only been made harsher by the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, more than a third of Hawai’i households had at least some difficulty paying for their monthly expenses in December of 2021. […]

Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families: Tax Cut Plan Even More Expensive, Skewed Toward The Wealthy

• By ITEP Staff

The likely proposal for the long-discussed special session seems to have settled, and its main feature would be to cut the top personal and corporate income tax rates. This disproportionately benefits the wealthy, and the corporate income tax cut will largely be captured by out-of-state shareholders, meaning the revenue will leave the state economy entirely. […]

Wisconsin Budget Project: Tax Shift Would Hike Taxes for People with Low Incomes and Give a Big Tax Cut to the Top 1%

• By ITEP Staff

Last month, an influential group of lobbyists released a proposal to raise Wisconsin’s sales tax to 8%, making it the highest state sales tax in the country, and eliminate the state individual income tax, Wisconsin’s biggest source of revenue. The plan would result in the largest tax cuts going to white households, with households of color […]

The Commonwealth Institute: Youngkin Administration’s Proposals Would Sharply Reduce State Resources, Largely Exclude Working Families with the Lowest Incomes

• By ITEP Staff

The Youngkin administration’s tax plan would leave out nearly 80 percent of the over 800,000 taxpayers in Virginia who have incomes below $24,000. Gov. Youngkin’s proposed changes would also sharply reduce state General Fund revenues — the portion of the state budget over which lawmakers have the most discretion and which primarily goes toward funding […]

One Voice: Eliminating Individual Income Tax is Bad for Mississippi

• By ITEP Staff

House Bill 531 would eliminate the state individual income tax. Eliminating the income tax is bad for Mississippi, especially the state’s working families, communities of color, and retirees. While some lawmakers are suggesting that Mississippi’s revenue system is sound enough to support this tax cut, due to the current surplus, this couldn’t be further from […]

Alabama Arise: Eliminating State Grocery Tax Would Make Life Better for Alabama Families

• By ITEP Staff

Two bills in the 2022 regular session would end the state grocery tax while protecting school funding. The graph below shows how millions of Alabamians would benefit. Untaxing groceries quickly and responsibly would boost economic and food security for all Alabamians. That means replacing revenue for public schools in a way that doesn’t harm struggling […]

Newsweek: States’ Pursuit of Top-Heavy Tax Cuts Is Disconnected from Reality

February 4, 2022

The following is an excerpt of an opEd by Aidan Davis, ITEP senior policy analyst, and Neva Butkus, policy analyst, published on Feb. 4 in Newsweek: One report after another in recent months revealed that the nation’s richest individuals gained wealth during the pandemic while ordinary families financially stood still or faced impossible decisions—such as […]

Open Sky Policy Institute: Most Nebraskans Left Behind by Income Tax Cut Bills

• By ITEP Staff

Non-Nebraskans, corporations and wealthy residents would be big winners under the latest income tax cuts proposed in in LB 938 and LB 939. Meanwhile, the bills – which would ratchet the state’s top corporate and personal income tax rates to 5.84% over four and three years respectively – offer most Nebraskans little tax savings while depleting revenue needed […]

CBS News: Millions of low-income Americans eligible for tax refund boost this year

February 3, 2022

Meanwhile,  the bigger credit comes at a welcome time for many Americans, as roaring inflation consumes most of low-wage workers’ pay gains. “While these folks without dependent children may not be faced with the cost of childcare, they’re definitely paying more for food, for gas, for rent. For these folks, these necessities may be out […]

Connecticut Voices for Children: Steps to a Fairer Tax System

• By ITEP Staff

Although Connecticut has the second highest level of per capita personal income in the US, making it exceptionally wealthy overall, many families consistently struggle because Connecticut also has the second highest level of income inequality and a substantial racial income gap, meaning a small, disproportionately white portion of the population primarily benefits from the state’s […]

Northern Kentucky Tribune: General Assembly’s proposed ‘shift and shaft’ tax policy no way for Kentucky to prosper

January 25, 2022

If Kentucky were to cut its income tax rate to 4%, it would have to raise the sales tax rate from 6% to 7.4% to make up the lost revenue, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. That would give our state the highest state sales tax in the country. The bottom 60% […]

Inequality.org: Two Sides, Same Coin: Suppressing Votes, Cutting Rich People’s Taxes

January 24, 2022

But those surpluses, points out Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy analyst Neva Butkus, reflect a set of special circumstances that range from billions in federal Covid aid to changes in tax-filing deadlines during the pandemic that have left many 2020 and 2021 tax payments getting collected in the same fiscal year. Using the surpluses these special […]

The Street: The Top Corporate Tax Havens and Global Tax Reform

January 24, 2022

According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy: FedEx (FDX) – Get FedEx Corporation Report zeroed out its federal income tax on $1.2 billion of U.S. pretax income and received a rebate of $230 million, Nike (NKE) – Get NIKE, Inc. Class B Report paid no federal income tax on almost $2.9 billion of […]

Idaho Press-Tribune: Who gets rebates, tax cuts under House bill

January 20, 2022

Idaho’s corporate income tax rate is a single rate of 6.5%; the bill would lower it to 6%. Necochea called that “throwing money out of the state,” citing figures from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimating that 81% of the benefit from that cut would flow out of state. “Corporate owners can live […]