Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

Iowa

Common Good Iowa: Killing Democracy by Superminority

March 6, 2024

Iowa’s tax structure has long favored the wealthiest Iowans and corporations, and tax cuts passed in 2022 are making inequities worse. The average millionaire will see a cut of $62,000 a year. In the middle, Iowans earning $40,000 to $60,000 will see an average cut of $300, or about $6 a week. Most with incomes under $40,000 will see no cut at all. 

State Rundown 2/28: States Keep Busy While Washington Stalls

State legislative sessions are in full swing with New Jersey and Oklahoma both particularly active this week...

Common Good Iowa: Both Governor’s, Senate Plans Worsen Tax Inequalities

February 12, 2024

Iowans have traditionally valued expanding opportunity, caring for neighbors and a strong sense of fair play. Tax-cut proposals at the Iowa Statehouse from Governor Kim Reynolds and legislative leaders turn these Iowa values upside down. They would drastically restrict revenue needed to fund critical services such as education, health care, public safety and environmental quality. The Senate bill, SSB 3141, would set out to fully eliminate the income tax, which until recently has funded roughly half of the state budget. By targeting benefits to the wealthiest Iowans, the plans would throw an already inequitable tax system further out of balance.

State Rundown 2/8: Flowers, Chocolates, and Tax Cuts for the Wealthy?

While we were hoping to get progressive tax policy wins for Valentine’s Day, many state lawmakers have another idea in mind...

State Rundown 1/26: Wealth Taxes Drawing Interest Early in Legislative Sessions

Bills are moving and state legislative sessions are picking up across the country, giving elected officials the opportunity to consider two distinct paths when it comes to tax policy...

State Tax Watch 2024

January 23, 2024 • By ITEP Staff

State Tax Watch 2024

Updated July 15, 2024 In 2024, state lawmakers have a choice: advance tax policy that improves equity and helps communities thrive, or push tax policies that disproportionately benefit the wealthy, drain funding for critical public services, and make it harder for low-income and working families to get ahead. Despite worsening state fiscal conditions, we expect […]

State Rundown 1/11: Sounding the Alarm on Regressive State & Local Tax Codes

States got a wake-up call this week as ITEP released the latest edition of our flagship Who Pays? report...

Iowa: Who Pays? 7th Edition

January 9, 2024 • By ITEP Staff

Iowa: Who Pays? 7th Edition

Iowa Download PDF All figures and charts show 2024 tax law in Iowa, presented at 2023 income levels. Senior taxpayers are excluded for reasons detailed in the methodology. Our analysis includes nearly all (99.9 percent) state and local tax revenue collected in Iowa. These figures depict Iowa’s 2024 graduated personal income tax, with a top […]

State Rundown 1/4: New Year, New Opportunities, Same Tax Cut Proposals

The year may be new, but state lawmakers seem to have the same old resolution: slashing state income taxes...

Common Good Iowa: Tax Cuts: What’s At Stake for Iowans

January 4, 2024

The income tax is a way Iowans come together to lay strong foundations that create opportunity and help people thrive. Governor Reynolds and legislative leaders want to eliminate Iowa’s personal income tax — a virtual promise to decimate the services that make Iowa a better place to live, work and raise a family. Read more.

State Rundown 11/8: Election Results Bring Victories, Opportunities for More Common-Sense Tax Reform

Voters had the chance to impact tax policy across the country on election day, and some chose to enact common-sense reforms to raise revenue...

State Rundown 9/27: Some States are Looking to Paint the Budgets Red

When it comes to investments, state lawmakers across the country are positioning their states to be in the red as they pass or debate further tax cuts that will overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy – and some states are now adding an additional coat of red paint...

Sales tax holidays are bad policies that have too often been used as a substitute for more meaningful, permanent reform.

Read as PDF Re: Recommendation for Inclusion of Section 1001 Regulation in 2023-2024 Priority Guidance Plan To Whom It May Concern, We are writing to respectfully urge that the IRS return to the work it left unfinished in 2019 when it issued final regulations on “Contributions in Exchange for State or Local Tax Credits” (RIN: […]

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The Real Impact of State Tax Cuts

June 5, 2023 • By Aidan Davis

The Real Impact of State Tax Cuts

This op-ed was originally published by Route Fifty and co-written by ITEP State Director Aidan Davis and Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Senior Advisor for State Tax Policy Wesley Tharpe. There’s a troubling trend in state capitols across the country: Some lawmakers are pushing big, permanent tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy and […]

Many state legislatures this year have been considering property tax cuts – but too many are ignoring the solution that speaks more directly to questions of property tax affordability than any other policy option: the “circuit breaker."

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States are Talking About the Wrong Kind of Property Tax Cuts

May 11, 2023 • By Brakeyshia Samms, Carl Davis

States are Talking About the Wrong Kind of Property Tax Cuts

Concerns over property tax affordability have been at the forefront this year as housing prices have climbed and property tax bills have often increased along with them. As lawmakers mull a range of property tax cuts, circuit breakers are the best possible approach—and these policies are receiving far too little attention in the states.

State Rundown 5/10: Momentum on State Tax Credits Continues to Build

This week, in states across the country the momentum to center improvements to family economic security remains strong...

Extending Temporary Provisions of the 2017 Trump Tax Law: National and State-by-State Estimates

The push by Congressional Republicans to make the provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent would cost nearly $300 billion in the first year and deliver the bulk of the tax benefits to the wealthiest Americans.

State Rundown 4/19: Revenue Discussions Heat Up Like the Temperature

Tax season has ended for most filers, but the topic remains a hot one in states around the country...

State Rundown 3/30: A Win for Tax Equity in The Evergreen State

Over the past week Washington state saw a major victory for tax fairness after the state Supreme Court held the state’s capital gains tax—passed in 2021—constitutional...

State Rundown 3/23: A Spring Awakening of Tax Proposals

As nature bursts into life and color with the arrival of spring, state tax proposals are doing the same as the legislative seeds planted by lawmakers earlier this year start to grow, blossom, and in some cases rot. However, some governors are not entirely happy with what state lawmakers have produced.

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State Income Tax Subsidies for Seniors

March 23, 2023 • By Carl Davis, Eli Byerly-Duke

State Income Tax Subsidies for Seniors

State governments provide a wide array of tax subsidies to their older residents. But too many of these carveouts focus on predominately wealthy and white seniors, all while the cost climbs.

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State Rundown 3/15: Tax Madness

March 15, 2023 • By ITEP Staff

State Rundown 3/15: Tax Madness

It’s March and state lawmakers are showing why the Madness isn’t only reserved for the basketball court...

Tax Avoidance Continues to Fuel School Privatization Efforts

Wealthy families are overwhelmingly the ones using school voucher tax credits to opt out of paying for public education and other public services and to redirect their tax dollars to private and religious institutions instead. Most of these credits are being claimed by families with incomes over $200,000.