Maine
Sales taxes are one of the most important revenue sources for state and local governments; however, they are also among the most unfair taxes, falling more heavily on low- and middle-income households. Therefore, it is important that policymakers nationwide find ways to make sales taxes more equitable while preserving this important source of funding for public services. This policy brief discusses two approaches to a less regressive sales tax: broad-based exemptions and targeted sales tax credits.
Investopedia: How Does Amazon Charge Taxes on Its Products?
September 13, 2016
Technically speaking, Amazon does not charge sales tax because only governments can levy taxes. What Amazon can do is set up processes and systems through which taxes are applied to online transactions. Since there is no federal sales tax in the United States, this means Amazon has to comply with hundreds of different tax […]
Governing: Back-to-School Tax Holidays Losing Popularity Among Lawmakers
August 30, 2016
“[Tax holidays] don’t help lower-income people much either, according to the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP).” Read more
Sales Tax Holidays: An Ineffective Alternative to Real Sales Tax Reform
July 11, 2016 • By Meg Wiehe
This brief was updated July 2018 Read this Policy Brief in PDF here. Sales taxes are an important revenue source, composing close to half of all state tax revenues.[1] But sales taxes are also inherently regressive because the lower a family’s income, the more the family must spend on goods and services subject to the […]
Read this Policy Brief in PDF Form Map of State Treatment of Itemized Deductions Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia allow a group of income tax breaks known as “itemized deductions.” [1] Itemized deductions are designed to help defray a wide variety of personal expenditures that affect a taxpayer’s ability to pay taxes, including charitable […]
Higher Education Income Tax Deductions and Credits in the States
March 22, 2016 • By Carl Davis
Read full report in PDF Download detailed appendix with state-by-state information on deductions and credits (Excel) Every state levying a personal income tax offers at least one deduction or credit designed to defray the cost of higher education. In theory, these policies help families cope with rising tuition prices by incentivizing college savings or partially […]
Maine Center for Economic Policy: When Budgets Unravel: Unlimited deductions will jeopardize schools and safety When Budgets Unravel: Unlimited deductions will jeopardize schools and safety
February 29, 2016
Read the full report here “Legislators passed a bipartisan budget last year that funds schools, communities, and programs that give a hand up to those most in need. The budget also cuts income taxes for 83% of Mainers and improves the overall fairness of Maine’s tax system by reducing property taxes for all homeowners and […]
Undocumented Immigrants’ State & Local Tax Contributions (2016)
February 24, 2016 • By Lisa Christensen Gee, Meg Wiehe
This report was updated in March 2017 Read as a PDF. (Includes Full Appendix of State-by-State Data) Report Landing Page Public debates over federal immigration reform often suffer from insufficient and inaccurate information about the tax contributions of undocumented immigrants particularly at the state level. The truth is that undocumented immigrants living in the United […]
Rewarding Work Through State Earned Income Tax Credits
February 11, 2016 • By Aidan Davis, Lisa Christensen Gee, Meg Wiehe
See the 2016 Updated Brief Here Read the brief in a PDF here. that time, the EITC has been improved to lift and keep more working families out of poverty. The most recent improvements enhanced the credit for families with three or more children and for married couples. First enacted temporarily as part of the […]
Mainebiz: Immigrants key ‘to what Maine needs to solve its demographic challenges’
January 26, 2016
“There were 44,687 immigrants in Maine in 2013, comprising 3.4% of the state’s population, according to the 2013 American Community Survey. Some 3.2% of business owners in Maine are foreign-born and generate total net business income of $120 million. Undocumented immigrants paid $3.7 million in Maine state and local taxes in 2010, according to the […]
Maine Center for Economic Policy: MECEP Analysis: Better Deal for Maine “Provides Bigger Tax Cuts for More Mainers”
October 21, 2015
The Maine Center for Economic Policy (MECEP) today released “Distributional Analysis: ‘Better Deal’ Provides Bigger Tax Cuts for Most Mainers while Increasing Investment in Education and Other Critical Services,” a report prepared in association with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nationally prominent non-profit, non-partisan research organization that works on federal, state, and […]
Maine Center for Economic Policy: Eliminating Maine’s income tax: A boon to wealthy Mainers, will hurt everyone else
October 21, 2015
Two weeks ago Governor LePage notified lawmakers of his intention to amend Maine’s constitution to eliminate the state’s income tax by 2020. This may mean the governor has thrown in the towel on his budget proposal that significantly reduces Maine’s income tax and pays for it by increasing sales and property taxes. The response to […]
Maine Center for Economic Policy: Republican Tax Plan Gives Huge Tax Breaks to the Wealthy While Raising Taxes for Working Mainers and Seniors
October 21, 2015
Legislative Republicans have released a tax plan that is a bad deal for working Mainers and seniors living on fixed incomes. Based on preliminary analysis the Maine Center for Economic Policy conducted in conjunction with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Mainers with income less than $57,000 will, on average, receive a tax increase […]
Maine Center for Economic Policy: Everything you need to know about the Democratic and Republican tax plans in one chart
October 21, 2015
Last week Republican legislators released their proposal for overhauling Maine’s tax system. The plan includes income and corporate tax cuts, and eliminates the estate tax, all disproportionately benefiting Maine’s wealthiest earners. It also continues the current 5.5% sales tax rate slated to expire later this year, and increases the meals and lodging tax rate to […]
Maine Center for Economic Policy: The one question Republican legislators need to answer
October 21, 2015
Last Friday legislative Republicans released their tax plan for the coming two-year budget cycle. In reference to the Republican plan, Maine people deserve an answer to one specific question: “The legislative Republicans’ tax proposal takes money from poor and working class Mainers and gives it to the wealthy. Is this by design or by mistake?” […]
Maine Center for Economic Policy: Where tax fairness is concerned, the legislative Republicans’ tax plan is the worst of all
October 21, 2015
Republican legislators released their plan for overhauling Maine’s tax system last week. Yesterday MECEP posted a chart comparing the distributional impacts of the Republican and Democratic plans. The key takeaway from that chart was that Mainers whose income is less than $89,000 – the bottom 80% of all Maine taxpayers – fare better on average […]
Maine Center for Economic Policy: Latest Budget Deal modestly improves Maine’s tax system progressivity, future revenue adequacy less certain Latest Budget Deal modestly improves Maine’s tax system progressivity, future revenue adequacy less certai
October 21, 2015
It is less clear whether or not revenues in the proposal will be adequate to maintain current spending in the future when adjusted for inflation. Both the Better Deal for Maine plan offered by Democrats in April and the majority budget proposal passed by the Appropriations Committee in a 9-4 vote, raise more revenue in […]
Maine Center for Economic Policy: Budget deal includes refundable tax credits for low- and moderate-income Mainers
October 21, 2015
The tax overhaul agreed upon by legislative leaders in their recent budget negotiations includes several major provisions that affect state and local taxes, including lower income tax rates, a broader income tax base, a doubling of the homestead property tax exemption, an estate tax cut, and permanently higher sales tax rates. Read full report here
Accounting Today: Tax Breaks Make an Impact on Fighting Poverty
October 5, 2015
“The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has updated its report on State Tax Codes as Poverty Fighting Tools, which examines how refundable Earned Income Tax Credits, property tax breaks, targeted low-income tax credits and child-related tax credits are working in different states. While a number of states such as California, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey […]
Maine Center for Economic Policy: Statement on Gov. LePage’s Proposal to Seek a Ballot Initiative to Reduce Maine’s Income Tax to 4 Percent by 2021
September 22, 2015
The non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that Mainers with annual income above $175,000 would receive almost 50 percent of the benefits from this massive tax cut. The top 1 percent of Mainers with income greater than $390,000 would get an average tax cut of over $21,000 while the 20 percent of Mainers […]
The U.S. Census Bureau released data in September showing that the share of Americans living in poverty remains high. In 2014, the national poverty rate was 14.8 percent - statistically unchanged from the previous year. However, the poverty rate remains 2.3 percentage points higher than it was in 2007, before the Great Recession, indicating that recent economic gains have not yet reached all households and that there is much room for improvement. The 2014 measure translates to more than 46.7 million - more than 1 in 7 - Americans living in poverty. Most state poverty rates also held steady between…
Rewarding Work Through State Earned Income Tax Credits
September 17, 2015 • By Aidan Davis, Lisa Christensen Gee, Meg Wiehe
Despite some economic gains in recent years, the number of Americans living in poverty has held steady over the past four years. At the same time, wages for working families have remained stagnant and more than half of the jobs created by the economic recovery since 2010 were low-paying, mostly in the food services, retail, and employment services industries. Our country's growing class of low-wage workers often faces a dual challenge as they struggle to make ends meet. First, wages are too low and growing too slowly - despite recent productivity gains - to keep up with the rising cost…
The Portland Press Herald: LePage, Republicans Shift Tactics on Eliminating Maine’s Income Tax
May 6, 2015
Democrats are claiming that their plan is geared more toward middle-income Mainers. An analysis by the Maine Center for Economic Policy, a left-leaning policy group, and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit, found that the Democratic plan would reduce taxes for the bottom 95 percent of Maine taxpayers. It also […]
Portland Press Herald: Maine Democrats Tout Tax Plan and Middle-Class Economics
May 4, 2015
Democrats have also touted an analysis by the Maine Center for Economic Policy, a left-leaning policy group, and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit, that compares their tax plan with the governor’s. Read more
Undocumented Immigrants’ State & Local Tax Contributions (2015)
April 15, 2015 • By Matthew Gardner, Meg Wiehe
This report was updated February 2016 Read as a PDF. (Includes Full Appendix of State-by-State Data) Report Landing Page In the public debates over federal immigration reform, sufficient and accurate information about the tax contributions of undocumented immigrants is often lacking. The reality is the 11.4 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States pay billions […]
