Select Media Mentions
Gizmodo: Amazon’s Tax Claims Are Riddled with BS
January 31, 2020
According to Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, these numbers are, at best, misleading. “You look at the different types of taxes that they’re collecting here—and they don’t say ‘pay’, they say ‘collect’—and there’s a reason for that. The biggest number on this list is the sales and […]
USA Today: State taxes: Which are the most tax-friendly states for the wealthy?
January 29, 2020
Wealthier Americans tend to pay a smaller share of their income in state and local taxes than lower-income Americans. According to a 2018 report released by The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, the highest-earning 1% of American families pay just 7.4% of their income in state and local taxes […]
Scroll.in: At the centre of the US government and Facebook’s tax dispute is the company’s Dublin office
January 27, 2020
If the IRS prevails in court, it could cost Facebook up to $9 billion more in taxes, based on estimates in the company’s securities filings. It would be a notable defeat for a company that, when it comes to risky tax avoidance, has been more aggressive “than almost any other US corporation,” said Matt Gardner, […]
Washington Post: Va. Governor Proposes Gas Tax Increase
January 27, 2020
Virginia would join 31 states that have raised or reformed their gas tax in the last decade, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more
The Washington Spectator: Tax Policy Options for the Next Administration
January 26, 2020
Bernie Sanders has proposed taxing estates worth more than $3.5 million. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that this would raise more than $30 billion a year. Another reform would generate a good deal more revenue—ending the so-called “step-up” provision of capital gains. When heirs receive an asset, they don’t owe taxes on […]
Business Insider: Treasury Secretary Mnuchin keeps insisting Trump’s tax cuts will pay for themselves despite consistent evidence they exploded the federal deficit
January 25, 2020
It’s soaring because the government is collecting fewer tax dollars as a result of the cuts. One study from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think-tank, released in December suggested corporate taxes are at a 40-year low. Read more
New York Times: As States Add Money to Fix Roads, U.S. Is Urged to Ante Up
January 25, 2020
According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, most states have raised their gasoline taxes over the last several years. Along with the ballot initiatives passed to support highway projects, states could take a bigger role in their own infrastructure destinies. Ironically, more state-level control and funding is one of the tent poles of […]
Politico: The Power of Semantics
January 24, 2020
States’ use of tax incentives to lure the filming of movies and television shows is one of those policy ideas that experts of basically all political persuasions are against — believing that the costs in revenue far outweighs the economic benefits generally trumpeted by politicians and Hollywood. (One example: “The competition among states on this […]
ProPublica: Who’s Afraid of the IRS? Not Facebook
January 23, 2020
If the IRS prevails in court, it could cost Facebook up to $9 billion more in taxes, based on estimates in the company’s securities filings. It would be a notable defeat for a company that, when it comes to risky tax avoidance, has been more aggressive “than almost any other U.S. corporation,” said Matt Gardner, […]
ProPublica: The IRS Decided to Get Tough Against Microsoft. Microsoft Got Tougher.
January 22, 2020
Microsoft, meanwhile, has continued to reap the benefits of its offshore deals. In 2017, the last year before the new tax law cut the corporate rate from 35% to 21%, Microsoft paid $2.4 billion in taxes on $29.9 billion in income, a rate of 8%. By that point, Microsoft had stored $142 billion in profits […]
McClatchy: Lifting the Cap on This Tax Break Would Benefit California’s Rich
January 17, 2020
The figures were developed by the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. to project the likely effects if the Democrats’ proposal went into effect in 2022. That’s likely the earliest year when Democrats could have their policies go into full effect if the party takes control of the White House and Congress in 2021. […]
Hartford Business Journal: CT Voices proposes major state tax shift to reverse inequality
January 16, 2020
And creation of a new Child Tax Credit could provide poor and middle-income residents — even those earning nearly $500,000 per year — as much as $800 to $1,550 on each filer’s annual refund. “The child tax credit has been found to have staggering impacts on poverty reduction,” said Meg Wiehe, deputy executive director for […]
The Colorado Sun: Colorado progressives have a new target in their pursuit of a tax overhaul: the rich. Here’s why.
January 16, 2020
More progressive taxes aren’t a panacea for income inequality, either. With a top rate of 12.3%, plus a 1% millionaire tax, California has the most progressive tax code in the country, according to the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. It is also the seventh most unequal, with the wealthiest 1% making 30 times […]
Dallas Morning News: Trump slashed corporate tax rates to 21%, but many companies paid far less than that
January 13, 2020
Here’s another reason to complain: Many companies aren’t paying even the lower rate. In 2018, the first year under the new law, 379 profitable companies in the Fortune 500 paid an average effective rate of 11.3%, according to a study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a progressive think tank in Washington. Read […]
KTVB.com: Idaho Democratic leaders discuss their top priorities for the 2020 legislative session
January 12, 2020
The “circuit breaker” would protect seniors and low income homeowners from paying too high of a percentage of their income on property taxes. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a “circuit breaker” protects taxpayers from property tax overload just like an electric circuit breaker. It kicks in when a property tax bill […]
Between the Lines: Trump-GOP Tax Law Ushers in Lowest Corporate Tax Rates in 40 Years
January 8, 2020
Interview with Matthew Gardner, senior fellow with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, conducted by Scott Harris
Inside Sources: Creating an Economy That Works for All Starts With Repealing the Trump Tax Law
January 6, 2020
While some Americans received a tax cut during the 2018 filing season, it was nowhere enough to substantially improve their lives. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy warns, “The few provisions that targeted working families weren’t ambitious enough to make a notable difference for most working families.” This isn’t lost on the public, who remain opposed […]
Capital and Main: Two Years Later: What Has Trump’s Tax Law Delivered?
January 6, 2020
Promise: “We’re also going to eliminate tax breaks and complex loopholes taken advantage [of] by the wealthy.” – President Trump, November 29, 2017. Reality: The law kept tax loopholes in place and added new ones, including for the commercial real estate industry and wealthy heirs. In 2018, a group of the most profitable corporations paid an effective tax rate […]
Public News Service: Report: Many Big Companies Pay Nothing Under New Tax Law
January 3, 2020
HELENA, Mont. – During the first year of the Trump administration’s new tax law, 91 Fortune 500 companies didn’t pay a dime in federal income tax. That’s according to a new study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Report co-author and Policy Analyst at the Institute Lorena Roque says by using legal loopholes, corporations […]
Public News Service: Will WA Lawmakers Tackle Tax Fairness in 2020?
January 3, 2020
How can Washington state create a more just society in 2020? Two experts say the state should tax its way toward that goal. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy ranks Washington last in the nation in terms of tax-system fairness, with low-income residents shouldering the biggest tax burden as a portion of their income. Katie Baird, […]
Common Dreams: Eight Ways the Trump-GOP Tax Cuts Have Made the Rich Richer While Failing Working Families
January 3, 2020
Within the Fortune 500, 91 profitable corporations—such as Amazon, FedEx, Netflix and General Motors—paid no U.S. corporate income taxes in 2018, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. And 379 profitable Fortune 500 corporations paid just an 11.3 percent tax rate last year. That’s about half the rate established under Trump’s tax law, which […]
Mother Jones: Chevron Made $4.5 Billion in 2018. So Why Did the IRS Give Them a Refund?
January 3, 2020
The largest chunk of Chevron’s $1.1 billion in tax breaks came in the form of tax deferral, a longstanding tax instrument that enables businesses to postpone paying taxes until a later fiscal year—sometimes indefinitely. Tax deferral is not new, but by lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent, Trump’s tax law made […]
Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Industry Had Highest Federal Income Tax Rates in 2018
January 3, 2020
A big driver of the higher taxes in healthcare is a doomed Affordable Care Act fee on health insurers. The amount each insurer pays is based on premium revenue. President Donald Trump in late December signed a spending bill repealing that tax in 2021 and beyond. “It’s just one weird example that there is an industry-specific tax […]
Salon: Under Trump’s Tax Bill, Employees Pay Higher Rates Than Biggest Corporations in the World: Study
January 3, 2020
Workers at some of the biggest corporations in the world are paying higher tax rates than their employers, according to a new study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The Republican-passed tax cuts signed by President Trump in 2017 permanently lowered the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent but many […]
Workday Minnesota: Dozens of Big Businesses Avoided Corporate Taxes in 2018
January 2, 2020
Roque said corporate tax cuts and loopholes have been enacted by Congresses and presidents of both major parties for the past two decades. Champions of the new tax code argued that lowering corporate rates would lead to increased investments and higher wages, and would increase federal revenues by removing tax shelters. Outside of a few […]
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