Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

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Sacramento Bee: California Families Could Save Thousands of Dollars From Proposed Child Tax Break. Here’s Why

March 12, 2024

President Joe Biden’s child tax credit plan would benefit millions of California parents, saving eligible families an average of $2,980, according to data from Washington’s Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

Newsweek: What a Second Trump Term Means for Taxes

March 12, 2024

A second Donald Trump presidency would likely see another round of tax cuts targeted at the wealthy, similar to his 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, according to a prominent taxation expert and lawyer.

USA Today: What President Joe Biden Got Wrong (and Right)

March 11, 2024

Though President Joe Biden largely stuck to the facts during his third State of the Union address Thursday, on several occasions he overstated the truth, left out key context or was simply wrong.

Washington Post: Biden: Ban Deductions for Firms Paying Executives More Than $1 Million

March 7, 2024

President Biden will call for blocking corporations from deducting the costs of paying salaries over $1 million from their federal taxes in Thursday night’s State of the Union address, part of populist-oriented tax proposals in the speech as the 2024 campaign kicks off in earnest. Read more.

Yahoo Finance: Trump-Era Corporate Tax Cuts Boosted Investment, but Did Not Pay for Themselves

March 6, 2024

The corporate tax cuts included in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act helped boost business investment while delivering a small increase in worker pay, according to a new analysis published by the Bureau of Economic Research. The tax cuts did not, however, come anywhere close to paying for themselves, as their Republican proponents in Congress and the Trump administration insisted they would, and instead are costing the federal government more than $100 billion per year in lost revenues.

Route Fifty: States Move to Cut Grocery Taxes

March 4, 2024

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Tuesday signed a bill to eliminate the state’s sales tax on groceries. With the 4.5% tax gone, that leaves 11 states that impose a grocery tax—a number that is swiftly shrinking. Stitt called it the largest single-year tax cut in state history. Oklahoma will see more than $415 million less in revenue a year.

Deseret News: The Utah Legislature Approved Another Tax Cut. Here’s What Taxpayers Need to Know

March 4, 2024

Utah lawmakers dropped the state’s income tax rate again this year. The reduction in the individual and corporate state income tax rate from 4.65% to 4.55% adds up to nearly $170 million, slightly more than the amount set aside in December for an unspecified tax cut by the powerful Executive Appropriations Committee made up of legislative leadership. The higher price tag is due to updated revenue forecasts showing an anticipated increase in income tax collections and the Legislature’s longtime Republican supermajority left little doubt they intended to continue to lower the state income tax rate. A tax cut was announced as a top…

The Guardian: Private Equity Prepares for a Boon From Congress

March 4, 2024

Some of largest and most profitable companies in the US are primed to save billions of dollars from a congressional tax deal that critics say gives “billions in tax credits to the biggest corporations while giving pennies to middle-class children and families”. And private equity funds could be among the deal’s biggest beneficiaries, a Guardian analysis suggests. The tax cuts passed the House of Representatives at the end of January as part of an agreement that pairs handouts for businesses with a moderate expansion of the child tax credit. The Senate could vote on the bill over the coming weeks, and the White House has indicated that Joe…

Newsweek: Income Tax Ban Could Be Reality for Millions

March 4, 2024

Supporters of a Washington resident-backed initiative trying to officially eliminate personal income taxes in the state got their first hearing before the legislature on Tuesday. Washington residents haven't paid personal income taxes in almost a century thanks to a 1933 decision by the state Supreme Court, but those backing Initiative 2111 want to make sure that things stay that way, cementing the existing practice into law. I-2111 would prohibit state, counties, cities, and other local jurisdictions from imposing or collecting income taxes.

HuffPost: America’s Largest Companies Dodged Nearly $300 Billion In Taxes, Report Finds

March 4, 2024

The country’s largest companies dodged more than $275 billion in federal corporate income taxes from 2018 to 2022, a new report from the nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy finds. The report examined corporate income taxes paid by 342 of the country’s largest companies from 2018 to 2022, the latest year for which companies have reported their earnings. All of them were profitable in all five years covered by the report.

The Guardian: Trump Gave Top US Firms Staggering Tax Cuts, With Some Paying $0 or less – Report

March 4, 2024

Some of the US’s most profitable corporations, including General Motors, Citigroup and Netflix, have slashed their tax bills in the years since the passage of the Trump tax cuts, with nearly a quarter paying rates in the single digits and 23 paying nothing, a report has found. The 2017 law cut the top corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%. But the new assessment of corporate tax avoidance, published on Thursday by the non-profit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (Itep), found that during the first five years the law was in effect, many profitable public companies in the US paid a…

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: PNC Bank, PPG Industries Among Companies Paying Less Than the Federal Tax Rate

March 4, 2024

WASHINGTON — More than a dozen Pennsylvania companies — including a handful in the Pittsburgh area — paid less than the 21% federal corporate income tax rate from 2018 to 2022, according to a study released Thursday by a progressive research group.

NPR: A Tech Billionaire Is Quietly Buying Up Land in Hawaii. No One Knows Why

February 28, 2024

Over the last couple of years, a mystery has been brewing in this small mountain town. Someone has been quietly buying hundreds of acres of land — stirring worries about rising housing prices and speculation among locals about what exactly is going on.

Mother Jones: It’s No Secret Our Tax System Punishes Low-Income People. It Doesn’t Have To

February 26, 2024

Oregon taxpayers will become some of the first in the nation to have the option to self-identify their race and ethnicity when they file their tax returns this year. The reason is both simple and complex: Especially at the state level, taxes worsen America’s yawning wealth gaps rather than easing them. A growing number of advocates and policymakers are trying to do something about that. 

The Hill: Trump Tax Cuts on the Line in 2024 Election

February 21, 2024

The 2017 Trump tax cuts are on the line in the election this year, with Republicans hoping a sweep of Congress and the White House will allow them to extend the former president’s signature law. Democrats opposed the law when Trump was in power but have supported extending certain cuts, such as the decreased tax rates for people making less than $400,000 a year. Democrats do not want a blanket extension, which would cost nearly $4 trillion over the next decade.

Audio: ITEP’s Carl Davis Talks to Ohio Newsroom About That State’s Upside-Down Tax Code

February 20, 2024

Ohio’s poorest residents pay a greater percentage of their income to state and local taxes than the richest Ohioans, according to a recent report from the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. It found that Ohio has the 15th most unequal tax system in the country.

Roll Call: Rule for ‘SALT’ Bill Goes Down, Likely Sealing Its Fate

February 20, 2024

The House rejected a rule that would provide for floor consideration of a bill to double the cap on state and local tax deductions for married couples earning up to $500,000, striking a blow to legislation championed by blue-state Republicans. The House voted 195-225 Wednesday on the rule, falling well short of the majority needed to proceed to a floor vote on the bill and an unrelated resolution criticizing President Joe Biden’s energy policies.

LA Times: Taxpayer ‘Protection’ or Taxpayer ‘Deception’? A New Ballot Measure Aims to Destroy State and Local Budgets

February 14, 2024

It’s indisputable that the decline of state fiscal management in California began with the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978. The tax-cutting initiative upended the tax structure that provided most of the revenues needed by localities and school districts, undermining the locals’ control of their own spending.

Stateline: If You Can Buy a ‘Mansion,’ You Can Pay a Tax for Affordable Housing, These States Say

February 12, 2024

To create a long-term revenue stream, Berg has proposed raising taxes on the most expensive real estate transactions, an increasing nationwide trend sometimes dubbed a “mansion tax.” Her legislation would increase the state’s tax on property sales above $3 million while decreasing the tax rate for less expensive sales. The change is estimated to create an additional $300 million in revenue each biennium, said Berg, chair of the House Finance Committee.

Center for Public Integrity: More Tax Cuts Put States’ Revenue At Risk

February 12, 2024

At least a dozen proposals for income tax cuts that would primarily benefit wealthy residents and big companies are already on the table for state legislatures to consider in 2024 — and more are likely to come. Read more. 

Semafor: Immigration ‘Will Boost US Economy by $7 Trillion’ Over Next Decade

February 12, 2024

The ongoing surge of immigration to the United States will boost its economy by $7 trillion over the next decade by expanding the labor force and increasing consumer demand, a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found.

Yahoo Finance: Low-Earners in These 3 Low-Income Tax States Are Paying 5x More than the Rich in Taxes

February 6, 2024

The disparity between the rich and poor keeps growing with the disproportionate burden carried by low- and middle-income families. A recent report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization dedicated to tax policy, sheds light on the regressive nature of state and local tax systems in the United States.

MinnPost: Minnesota’s ‘Most Progressive’ Tax State Designation Explained

February 5, 2024

Minnesota is now the state with the nation’s most-progressive tax system in the U.S., as calculated by the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Its data-driven assessment looks at the share of state taxes that are borne by various income groups. Progressive is defined not in partisan terms but to describe tax systems that have higher income taxpayers devoting a larger percentage of their incomes to taxes than lower-income taxpayers.

The Hill: Tax Deal Likely Much More Expensive than Official Estimate, Experts Warn

January 31, 2024

“The $600B figure … is consistent with earlier estimates of the 10-year costs of these provisions if made permanent,” Joe Hughes, a policy analyst with Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, told The Hill.

Audio: ITEP’s Carl Davis Discusses Idaho’s Regressive Tax System

January 30, 2024

Idaho has the 36th most regressive tax system in the nation, according to a new study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The Who Pays report says that low- and middle-income families in Idaho pay more in taxes than the wealthy, and the institute also says that disparity has only gotten worse over the last five years. May Roberts, Policy Analyst at the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy, and Carl Davis, Research Director at the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy, joined Idaho Matters to break down the study.

Members of the media rely on ITEP for analysis and insight about how tax policies affect people. If you’re a reporter looking to talk to one of our experts, contact Jon Whiten at [email protected].