Select Media Mentions
Connecticut Mirror: After one alarming tax fairness study, CT is wary of launching a second
March 3, 2020
Gasoline distributors shift the entire cost of Connecticut’s 8.1% wholesale fuel tax onto local filling stations, which then pass it all onto motorists — who also pay a 25-cents-per-gallon retail tax. Meg Wiehe, deputy executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said Connecticut already is a land of “stagnating working-class incomes” and […]
MSNBC: Team Trump wants even more corporate tax breaks in a second term
February 28, 2020
For another, corporations clearly don’t need a lower rate since so many of them aren’t even paying taxes at the current rate. Late last year, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released the results of a detailed study that found of the Fortune 500 companies, about 400 paid an average tax rate of about […]
The Chicago Tribune: Recreational marijuana sales in Illinois generated more than $10 million in tax revenue in January
February 25, 2020
Many dispensaries continue to sell recreational marijuana only on certain days of the week or for restricted hours. Though greater volumes of product continue to filter into the market from Illinois growers, the statewide shortage is expected to last for a year or more. Facilities that grow weed are expanding, and dozens of dispensaries are […]
The Hill: Financial trade tax gains traction with 2020 Democrats
February 25, 2020
Democratic presidential candidates across the ideological spectrum are calling for taxes on financial trades, breathing new life into an idea that for many years was promoted primarily in progressive circles. “It’s moving more into the mainstream,” said Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more
Anchorage Press: The Pocketbook Reasons Most Alaskans Should Prefer an Income Tax to a Statewide Sales Tax
February 24, 2020
An analysis in 2017 by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) produced similar results. All people in households who make less than $73,000 per year—and some in higher-earning households—would do better financially under a state income tax than a statewide sales tax, according to this study. A statewide sales tax would hit both […]
MarketWatch: Jeff Bezos spent more on this house in Beverly Hills than Amazon has paid so far in federal corporate income tax for 2019
February 20, 2020
Amazon listed a “summary” of its 2019 U.S. taxes as including $2.4 billion in other federal taxes, including payroll taxes and customs duties, and more than $1.6 billion in state and local taxes. The company also noted that it remitted nearly $9 billion in sales and use taxes to states and localities in accordance with […]
Washington Post: White House advisers privately float minimum tax on corporations amid blowback over 2017 GOP law
February 20, 2020
Opponents of the tax law such as presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have assailed the GOP and multibillion-dollar corporations for allegedly paying $0 in federal taxes under the new law. Ninety-one companies on the Fortune 500 paid $0 in federal corporate taxes in 2018, more than double the amount in previous years, according to […]
Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Tax reform may be more lucrative than advertised for corporations
February 20, 2020
Many of Minnesota’s major corporations paid lower tax rates in 2018 than new, dramatically lower corporate tax rates. That was among the findings in an analysis of government filings by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). ITEP, a nonprofit that gathers data to show how “taxes affect public revenue and people of various […]
Factcheck.org: FactChecking the Las Vegas Democratic Debate
February 20, 2020
There were indeed reports last year, prompted by the findings of the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, indicating that the two companies and others paid no federal income taxes in 2018. The ITEP more recently noted, based on a Securities and Exchange Commission filing for 2019, that Amazon “paid $162 million of federal income taxes, a bit more than […]
Yahoo! Finance: In Search of the ‘Disappearing Corporate Income Tax’
February 12, 2020
Those losses, driven by generous rule-writing and interpretations of the 2017 tax law by the U.S. Treasury, are so substantial that they were deemed “tax cuts 2.0” by the liberal-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. (You can read more about the revision in a recent blog post from CBO director Phillip Swagel, and in […]
Maine Beacon: Report: Maine losing $52 million annually to corporations using offshore tax havens
February 10, 2020
The amount of money U.S. companies move through tax havens is considerable. Fortune 500 companies made $2.6 trillion in offshore profits in 2016, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more
Politifact: Fact-checking the Democratic claim that Amazon doesn’t pay taxes
February 7, 2020
Short answer: Amazon’s tax returns are private, so we don’t know for sure what Amazon pays in federal taxes. But Amazon’s estimates on its annual 10-K filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are the closest information we have on this matter. They show mixed results for the past three years: no federal income […]
CBSNews.com: Amazon paid a tax rate of just 1.2% last year, versus 14% for average Americans
February 7, 2020
Amazon isn’t alone, of course. Hundreds of U.S. companies now pay tax rates that are lower than those many Americans pay. A study late last year from the liberal Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that Fortune 500 companies pay an average tax rate of 11.3%. Read more
Yahoo! Finance: Amazon paid a 1.2% tax rate on $13,285,000,000 in profit for 2019
February 7, 2020
Matthew Gardner, senior fellow for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), who analyzes corporations and their tax avoidance, says there’s “no meaningful” connection between Amazon and many of the taxes it listed in its announcement. Instead, the company lists taxes it collects on behalf of the U.S. government, like payroll taxes and sales […]
The Sun: AMAZON’S DIME Amazon paid just ONE per cent tax after making $13BILLION profit leaving taxpayers with jus $162million
February 7, 2020
One expert found ‘no meaningful’ link between Amazon and the tax payments in the SEC filing. Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, wrote: “Economists agree that payroll taxes are ultimately paid by employees in the form of reduced compensation. “Like the sales tax, the payroll tax is one […]
Fox Business: Amazon paid tax rate of 1.2% on $13B in profits last year
February 7, 2020
“This means that instead of avoiding 100 percent of its income tax liability, Amazon appears to have avoided only 94 percent of its tax bill last year,” Matthew Gardner, senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, wrote in a blog post. Read more
The Daily Mail: Amazon paid only $162M in US federal taxes in 2019 after making $13BILLION in profit – an effective rate of just one per cent
February 7, 2020
Taxes collected on behalf of the government for payroll and from online sales from third-party vendors don’t count as taxes paid. The expert wrote in a post made for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that ‘economists agree that payroll taxes are ultimately paid by employees in the form of reduced compensation.’ ‘Like the sales […]
Politico: Cloudy Forecast for Tax Law Fixes
February 6, 2020
DECOUPLING DEDUCTIONS: Two-thirds of states with property tax deductions set a $10,000 ceiling along the lines of the TCJA’s cap on federal deductions for state and local taxes, according to a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning group that considers such deductions regressive. Many states tightly link their tax […]
International Business Times: Amazon Only Paid 1.2% Taxes In 2019 Despite $13 Billion Profit
February 6, 2020
Yahoo Finance, however, pointed that with the exception of the federal income tax, the listed amounts aren’t actually taxes Amazon paid to the federal government. There’s “no meaningful” connection between Amazon and many of the taxes it listed in its announcement, said Matthew Gardner, senior fellow for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) that […]
CNBC: Amazon had to pay federal income taxes for the first time since 2016 — here’s how much
February 4, 2020
However, paying something like payroll tax is hardly something to boast about, according to Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, or ITEP, a nonpartisan and nonprofit tax policy think tank. In a blog post responding to Amazon’s release of its 2019 tax bill, Gardner notes that “economists agree […]
The Verge: Amazon finally owes federal income taxes this year — but we still don’t know how much it’s paying
February 4, 2020
t’s still, however, a low number compared to Amazon’s total profits. “It’s not fair to say [Amazon] paid nothing” on federal taxes anymore, says Matthew Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, whose reports have spurred coverage of Amazon’s taxes. “Clearly they’re not paying nothing. They’re paying very little.” Gardner takes issue with […]
Bond Buyer: IRS SALT regulation allows loophole for pass-through businesses
February 3, 2020
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Morning Call: Air Products collects $17 million tax rebate, one of many Fortune 500 companies that paid no corporate taxes
February 3, 2020
Air Products joined PPL, which during approximately the same period had a $19 million federal tax cut, according to the nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Fortune 500 company PPL not only paid no federal taxes last year, it got a $19 million rebate; it says it has invested those savings » The institute […]
Seattle Times: Amazon touts 2019 federal taxes, but the picture is complicated
January 31, 2020
So was Amazon’s 2019 U.S. federal income tax bill $1 billion or $162 million? The discrepancy stems from different financial statements companies prepare for tax authorities and investors, which recognize revenues and expenses at different times. Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and a longtime watcher of corporate […]
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