Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

Select Media Mentions

The Columbus Dispatch: 60% of Ohioans Would Receive Tax Increase Under Kasich Plan

February 11, 2015

Some of that gap is attributed to the governor’s plan to impose a $1-a-pack increase on the state cigarette tax. But even removing that from the table, taxpayers in the bottom 40 percent – $37,000 a year or less — still would see no tax benefits as a whole from Kasich’s proposal, according to an […]

Reuters: U.S. Companies May Not Be Fleeing Due to High Tax Rate

February 10, 2015

In a project for Reuters, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a tax policy think tank in Washington, looked at the six companies’ data somewhat differently, stripping out certain accounting adjustments, and found an average effective tax rate of 22.2 percent over the period. Read more

KELO TV: Paying More for Being Poor

February 10, 2015

Being poor in South Dakota is harder than in most other states in the U.S.. A recent study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that South Dakota’s tax structure, along with other factors, make it one of the most difficult states to live in for low-income families. The city of Sioux Falls […]

The Kennebec Journal: LePage Following Republican Governors’ National Strategy

February 5, 2015

Meg Wiehe, state policy director for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning organization that evaluates tax reform initiatives, questions whether journalists are making accurate appraisals of Republican policy in Maine and other states. “It’s frustrating to me because they’re not looking hard enough,” she said. “I just don’t think that it’s true […]

24/7 Wall Street: 10 States with the Worst Tax Averages for Americans

February 5, 2015

When looking at taxes paid as a share of the income earned, all states have a regressive tax system, which means poorer residents are taxed more than the wealthiest ones. The difference in effective tax rates between income groups, however, varies widely between states. According to “Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems […]

Washington Post: It’s Time to Stop Letting Sports Team Owners Blackmail Taxpayers for New Stadiums

February 5, 2015

“It’s a silly tax break,” said Matt Gardner, director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “It’s ludicrous that the federal government would be subsidizing state and local borrowing to give investors tax breaks to make it easier for them to build sports stadiums.” Read more

The Spokesman Review: Economy Finally Recovering–for the 1 %

February 4, 2015

Washington’s tax fairness problem is old news – every year, new analyses emerge that rank Washington near the bottom on measures of fairness. That’s based on the state’s reliance on the sales tax, which hits the poor the hardest. A report issued this month by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy ranked Washington at […]

Palm Beach New Times: Florida Has the 2nd Least Fair Tax System in the Nation

February 4, 2015

A big selling point to convincing people to move to the Sunshine State has always been that Florida has no state income tax. And that’s true. But the reality is that Florida ranks at the very bottom when it comes to the fairest taxes in the U.S. This means that the poorest of those living […]

The Bellingham Herald: When It Comes to Unfair Tax Systems, We’re No. 1

February 4, 2015

The unfair nature of our tax system made national news earlier this month when the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) released its state-by-state profile in which it compares features of state tax systems. Its analysis shows that while taxes in just about every state are skewed – on average the bottom 20 percent […]

CNN Money: Offshore Corporate Cash Piles at Risk from Obama Tax Plan

February 2, 2015

Meanwhile, Matt Gardner, executive director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, says the proposed tax rates are too low. “It’s helpful that the [U.S.] administration has identified a way to tax the profits that multinationals are stashing offshore. This is an important part of tax reform. But I think these rates are too […]

Nooga.com: Study Says Tennessee Poor Hit Harder with Taxes than the Rich

February 2, 2015

The report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy—a nonpartisan research group with ties to the liberal-leaning Citizens for Tax Justice—ranks Tennessee’s tax system as the seventh most unfair in the U.S. Under a regressive tax structure, family incomes are less equal after state and local taxes are paid than before. Read more

Progress Illinois: Illinois Ranks Poorly on Wellbeing Indicators

February 2, 2015

Additionally, researchers highlighted the fact that Illinois has the fifth most regressive tax system in the nation, according to a separate study recently issued by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The analysis showed that the poorest Illinois residents currently pay almost three times more in taxes as a percent of their income compared to the richest people in the […]

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio’s Tax System Burdens Middle Class and Poor

February 2, 2015

In Ohio the top 1 percent of non-elderly residents by income, who earned at least $356,000 in 2012, pay 7 percent of their income in state and local taxes on average. The lowest fifth, who make less than $18,000, pay 11.7 percent on average. Those in the middle, making between $34,000 and $56,000, pay 10.6 […]

Atlanta Black Star: Brutally Unfair Tax Structure Forces the Poor to Pay Twice As Much As the Rich

January 30, 2015

The culprit is the state and local taxes Americans pay on top of the federal taxes. While the federal taxes are relatively progressive, meaning they take a higher percentage from the wealthy than they do the poor and therefore try to address poverty and inequality, the federal efforts are swamped by state and local taxes […]

Forbes: Regressive Taxes Are Neither New Nor Good

January 30, 2015

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) released its annual “Who Pays” report. The report should be read by everyone in the state and local tax policy business. Once again, ITEP has found that state and local tax systems are decidedly regressive. In fact, ITEP concluded that the effective tax rate of the 20% […]

Politico: Gas Tax Talk Isn’t Just for the Feds

January 30, 2015

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill may struggle to even utter the words “gas tax hike” sometimes, but that’s not stopping action on the state level. At least a dozen states are seriously considering raising their gas taxes this year, according to Carl Davis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. That comes after eight states […]

Bangor Daily News: Roads in Maine–Well, Everywhere–Need More Than a 9-Month Fix

January 30, 2015

The result? The Highway Trust Fund — which pays for both road and transit improvements — faces a $161 billion shortfall by 2024, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that 78 percent of the shortfall is due to Congress’ inaction on the gas tax; 22 percent is […]

The Western Front: Keeping Tuition Prices on Ice

January 30, 2015

What it really comes down to is money and where that money comes from. Why doesn’t the legislature start by looking at how we collect taxes in Washington? According to a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, our state has the most regressive tax system in the nation. We’re one of […]

Seattle Times: Gov. Inslee’s Cap Gains Idea is DOA

January 30, 2015

The claim that Washington has the nation’s most unfair tax system comes from the liberal Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which favors progressive tax policies. We may quibble about the rankings — these things aren’t easy to measure — but the institute is right: Washington’s tax burden falls more heavily on lower-income taxpayers. It’s […]

The Atlantic: Robin Hood in Reverse

January 28, 2015

But according to a new report from The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the impact of those federal tax breaks is largely offset by the burden of state and local taxes. Here’s how state and local taxes break down as a percentage of income: The richest Americans pay the least. The tax mix changes […]

Inter Press Service: Banks, Inequality and Citizens

January 27, 2015

Every day we receive striking data on major issues which should create tumult and action, but life goes on as if those data had nothing to do with people’s lives. Well, in a just-released report, the U.S. Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy notes that in 2015 the poorest one-fifth of Americans will pay on […]

The Hill: Tech Mounts Pre-Emptive Strike on Taxes

January 27, 2015

“Intangible income is so easily manipulated on paper,” said Matthew Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a liberal group that has called out U.S. multinationals for what it sees as tax avoidance strategies. “You just can’t allow people to simply call it foreign income.” Read more

West Hawaii Today: How Progressive Is Our Tax System

January 26, 2015

On Jan. 15, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) released a report ranking the states in terms of how progressive their tax systems are. A “progressive” tax system is one that asks wealthier taxpayers to pay more of their income than poorer taxpayers. Most states rely upon some form of net income tax […]

St. Cloud Times: Tax Plan Is Fair, Sustains State’s Prosperity

January 26, 2015

A national study out this month confirms Minnesota is doing a better job at sharing the responsibility for paying for public services among all taxpayers than most other states in the U.S. The study from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy assesses the fairness of state and local tax systems by measuring the state […]

The Journal Gazette: Progress on Regressive Taxes

January 26, 2015

Indiana has the 10th most regressive tax structure in the nation, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Households in the lowest percentile, excluding seniors, pay 12 percent of annual income on state and local taxes. The top 1 percent pay just 5.2 percent. Indiana’s flat income tax rate of 3.4 percent “taxes […]

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].