Kentucky
How the Final GOP-Trump Tax Bill Would Affect Kentucky Residents’ Federal Taxes
December 16, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The final tax bill that Republicans in Congress are poised to approve would provide most of its benefits to high-income households and foreign investors while raising taxes on many low- and middle-income Americans. The bill would go into effect in 2018 but the provisions directly affecting families and individuals would all expire after 2025, with […]
How the House and Senate Tax Bills Would Affect Kentucky Residents’ Federal Taxes
December 6, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The House passed its “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” November 16th and the Senate passed its version December 2nd. Both bills would raise taxes on many low- and middle-income families in every state and provide the wealthiest Americans and foreign investors substantial tax cuts, while adding more than $1.4 trillion to the deficit over ten years. The graph below shows that both bills are skewed to the richest 1 percent of Kentucky residents.
Senate Tax Plan Harms Low- and Middle-Income Kentuckians to Pay for Giveaways to Those at the Top
November 21, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Senators will return to Capitol Hill next week after the Thanksgiving recess for a potential vote on their revised plan. According to estimates from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), the bottom 60 percent of Kentuckians, who make an average of $37,500 a year, will actually face more taxes from the plan with an average increase of $80 in 2027.
How the Revised Senate Tax Bill Would Affect Kentucky Residents’ Federal Taxes
November 13, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The Senate tax bill released last week would raise taxes on some families while bestowing immense benefits on wealthy Americans and foreign investors. In Kentucky, 43 percent of the federal tax cuts would go to the richest 5 percent of residents, and 9 percent of households would face a tax increase, once the bill is fully implemented.
How the House Tax Proposal Would Affect Kentucky Residents’ Federal Taxes
November 6, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was introduced on November 2 in the House of Representatives, includes some provisions that raise taxes and some that cut taxes, so the net effect for any particular family’s federal tax bill depends on their situation. Some of the provisions that benefit the middle class — like lower tax rates, an increased standard deduction, and a $300 tax credit for each adult in a household — are designed to expire or become less generous over time. Some of the provisions that benefit the wealthy, such as the reduction and eventual repeal of the estate…
GOP-Trump Tax Framework Would Provide Richest One Percent in Kentucky with 49.5 Percent of the State’s Tax Cuts
October 4, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The “tax reform framework” released by the Trump administration and congressional Republican leaders on September 27 would not benefit everyone in Kentucky equally. The richest one percent of Kentucky residents would receive 49.5 percent of the tax cuts within the state under the framework in 2018. These households are projected to have an income of at least $460,800 next year. The framework would provide them an average tax cut of $42,480 in 2018, which would increase their income by an average of 3.2 percent.
In Kentucky 35.7 Percent of Trump’s Proposed Tax Cuts Go to People Making More than $1 Million
August 17, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
A tiny fraction of the Kentucky population (0.4 percent) earns more than $1 million annually. But this elite group would receive 35.7 percent of the tax cuts that go to Kentucky residents under the tax proposals from the Trump administration. A much larger group, 48.1 percent of the state, earns less than $45,000, but would receive just 7.4 percent of the tax cuts.
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Trump Tax Plan Would Be a Windfall for Only the Wealthiest Kentuckians
July 21, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The wealthiest Kentuckians would be winners from the $4.8 trillion in federal tax cuts President Donald Trump has proposed, as shown by a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). But as a poor state the tax cuts — coupled as they are with huge federal budget cuts to programs and […]
Trump Tax Proposals Would Provide Richest One Percent in Kentucky with 42.8 Percent of the State’s Tax Cuts
July 20, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Earlier this year, the Trump administration released some broadly outlined proposals to overhaul the federal tax code. Households in Kentucky would not benefit equally from these proposals. The richest one percent of the state’s taxpayers are projected to make an average income of $1,313,400 in 2018. They would receive 42.8 percent of the tax cuts that go to Kentucky’s residents and would enjoy an average cut of $68,550 in 2018 alone.
State Rundown 7/19: Handful of States Still Have Their Hands Full with Tax and Budget Debates
July 19, 2017 • By .ITEP Staff
Tax and budget debates drag on in several states this week, as lawmakers continue to work in Alaska, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. And a showdown is brewing in Kentucky between a regressive tax shift effort and a progressive tax reform plan. Be sure to also check out our "What We're Reading" section for a historical perspective on federal tax reform, a podcast on lessons learned from Kansas and California, and more!
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Troubling Hints About Direction for Tax Reform
June 8, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The corporate tax cuts described above mean profitable businesses chip in less for the public services that help them succeed. And the result of less reliance on income and inheritance taxes is clear (see graph below): those at the top in Tennessee and Indiana pay an even smaller share of their income in state and local taxes than the wealthiest Kentuckians do, and their lowest-income residents pay an even higher share than the poorest Kentuckians.
State Rundown 5/31: Budget Woes Spurring Special Legislative Sessions
May 31, 2017 • By .ITEP Staff
This week, special legislative sessions featuring tax and budget debates are underway or in the works in Kentucky, Minnesota, New Mexico, and West Virginia, as lawmakers are also running up against regular session deadlines in Illinois, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Meanwhile, a legislative study in Wyoming and an independent analysis in New Jersey are both calling for tax increases to overcome budget shortfalls.
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Any Way You Slice It, A Shift To Consumption Taxes Will Hurt Kentucky
May 22, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
According to ITEP, replacing all of Kentucky’s income tax revenue with sales tax revenue would require an increase in our sales tax rate to 13.3 percent – more than double the current 6 percent rate and by far the highest state sales tax rate in the country (next highest is California at 7.5 percent). But […]
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: What Good Tax Reform Looks Like
April 17, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
In contrast, HB 263 would ask more of those at the top and less of low- and middle-income people who currently pay a larger share of their income in taxes. To further help with inequities, the bill would create a state level Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) – an effective poverty-fighting tool that supports work […]
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Taxing Groceries in Kentucky Would Hurt Low-Income Families, Weaken Revenue Growth
April 12, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Lower-income families therefore receive the most benefit from the exemption for groceries. Repealing it would disproportionately increase the share of income they pay in taxes, making Kentucky’s tax system more regressive than it already is.
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Undocumented Immigrants Contribute $37 Million Toward Investments in Kentucky Each Year
April 3, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Undocumented immigrants living in Kentucky pay $36.6 million in state and local taxes each year, according to a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. These substantial tax contributions should be acknowledged as lawmakers consider the economic and social impact of immigration policy and enforcement in the U.S. – including a recent […]
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Tiny Fraction of Wealthiest Kentuckians Gain from Tax Cuts in Health Repeal
March 23, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The House plan to repeal healthcare reform, known as the American Health Care Act (AHCA), provides a tax cut to the wealthiest people while reducing the number of Americans with health coverage by an estimated 24 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Because Kentucky has relatively few high earners, we benefit even less from the […]
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: The Math Behind Ed Choice Tax Credit Fails Many Tests
February 21, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Today in the House Education Committee legislators are hearing discussion of House Bill 162, a proposal to create a so-called Education Choice tax credit in Kentucky. This proposal does not target low- and moderate-income students as suggested; is expensive, taking resources away from public schools and other investments; and provides an excessively large credit under […]
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Refugees, Immigrants Important to Kentucky and the Economy: An Overview of the Research
February 1, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
From the promise to build a wall paid for by tariffs on Mexican imports and uncertainty about what will happen to DACA (which allows undocumented immigrants whose parents brought them to the U.S. as children to apply for a renewable reprieve from deportation), to a 120-day ban on refugee admissions and an indefinite ban for […]
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: A Preview of the 2016-2018 Kentucky State Budget
January 10, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
A comprehensive preview of the upcoming two-year Kentucky state budget confirms both a massive funding gap facing the state for the next two years and a need for reinvestment in many areas post-recession. Authored by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy (KCEP), the report notes that expected growth in state revenue the first year […]
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: 2016 Kentucky Budget Primer
January 10, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The Budget of the Commonwealth is a financial plan, enacted every two years by Kentucky’s General Assembly, that maps out our state’s investments in education, health, transportation, public safety, human services and other areas that build a strong state economy. As such, the budget is a statement of Kentucky’s priorities: How we invest reflects […]
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Inheritance Tax Repeal Is Giveaway to the Top Kentucky Can’t Afford
January 10, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Since 1906, Kentucky has relied on the inheritance tax to help pay for the good schools, infrastructure and other investments that strengthen the Commonwealth. A repeal of the inheritance tax would be a $51 million tax cut tilted to the very wealthy that would weaken those investments and make economic progress harder in the […]
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Those at the Top Would Get More Tax Breaks, Investments Would Suffer from Shift to Consumption Taxes
December 13, 2016 • By ITEP Staff
“The table below shows the impact, by income group, of two such hypothetical shifts. Notice that even when the shift is seemingly minor – one penny less on the dollar for the top income tax rate and one penny more on the sales tax rate – the top one percent of households get a $5,396 […]
Courier Journal: Future now uncertain for thousands of immigrants
June 28, 2016 • By ITEP Staff
“The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that undocumented immigrants in Kentucky pay $37 million a year in state and local taxes.” Read more
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Revenue Options that Strengthen the Commonwealth
February 8, 2016 • By ITEP Staff
“By generating new revenue to invest in the building blocks of our s.tate, good tax reform will make Kentucky stronger for all. This menu of tax reform options describes some of main ways to get there. Currently, too many tax breaks and loopholes in the state’s tax system drain money that is needed to shore […]
