Select Media Mentions
The Hill: Time Is Long Overdue for Congress to Address Marijuana Banking
March 6, 2019
According to tax data compiled by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, tax revenues in 2018 derived from state-sanctioned recreational sales surpassed $1 billion — a 57 percent increase over 2017 levels. Yet there remains a significant regulatory hurdle facing players and consumers who engage in this market. Read more
Law 360: Mich. Gov. Offers 45-Cent Gas Tax Hike For Urgent Road Fixes
March 5, 2019
Since 2013, 27 states have approved gas tax increases, according to an analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more (subscription)
CBS News:Some of America’s Biggest Companies Paid Little to No Federal Income Tax in 2018
March 4, 2019
Its 10-K estimates its federal income tax liability at $-22.176 for 2018 — hence ITEP’s conclusion that it won’t pay the government any money for the year. “When I say they paid zero, really what I mean is they reported a $22 million income tax rebate, so they have a negative income tax,” Gardner said. […]
Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Tax Avoidance Might Make Financial Sense, but Is It Fair?
March 1, 2019
One feature of sales taxes is that they cost lower-income people a bigger chunk of what they take in than is the case for more affluent people. In Minnesota the bottom 20 percent of taxpayers by family income only pay about 8.7 percent of their income in state and local taxes. In Florida the poorest […]
Bloomberg: Democrats In the Home of Hedge Funds Are Divided Over Tax Plans Sparing Rich
March 1, 2019
“Most public finance experts will tell you if you have sales tax it should be applied to a broad base,” said Carl Davis, the research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington. “If people are no longer going to Blockbuster and now they’re downloading movies, that’s created a gap in the […]
Fortune: Why Amazon May Pay No Federal Income Taxes This Year
March 1, 2019
Amazon’s expected tax avoidance comes despite it nearly doubling its U.S. profits to $11.16 billion in 2018, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a nonpartisan tax policy-focused think tank. In fact, instead of paying any federal income taxes, the company received a $129 million tax rebate from the government. The data […]
Vox: Undocumented immigrants pay millions of dollars in state taxes — even in the reddest states
March 1, 2019
While it’s impossible to get the exact numbers because of the limited data available, researchers at the left-leaning Institute for Taxation & Economic Policy estimate that undocumented workers paid a total of $11.7 billion in state and local taxes in 2014, the most recent year of data, according to their 2017 report. That includes $7 […]
Miami Community Newspapers: Marijuana Justice Act Introduced in Both Houses of Congress
February 28, 2019
Specifically, a 2017 report estimates that over 149,000 Americans are now working full-time in the cannabis industry. According to tax data compiled by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, tax revenues in 2018 derived from state-sanctioned recreational sales surpassed $1 billion – a 57 percent increase over 2017 levels. Further, numerous studies have identified an association between cannabis […]
New York Times: Betsy DeVos Backs $5 Billion in Tax Credits for School Choice
February 28, 2019
Carl Davis, the research director for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, noted that the new tax credit would be extremely generous in providing a 100 percent tax break, especially because the new tax law eliminated some incentives for charitable giving. “Now they want to put a supersized one back into the code,” he […]
Marketplace: Devos Proposes $5B in Tax Credits for Scholarship Donations
February 28, 2019
This new segment features ITEP’s research director Carl Davis:
Bloomberg Tax: Tax Executives Fear Overhaul Impermanence as Dems Mull Tweaks
February 28, 2019
The GILTI income subject to the tax is the income earned through a controlled foreign corporation that exceeds 10 percent of the value of the CFC’s tangible, depreciable assets, such as machinery and other equipment. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington think tank, said in a June 2018 post that this measurement […]
Reuters: Illinois Budget Debate Raises Key Questions on Taxing Retirement Income
February 28, 2019
But the policies of various states are all over the map. Data provided by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows that 11 states tax some portion of Social Security benefits, usually mirroring the federal formula. Many others tax pensions and tax-deferred accounts, although some have exemptions that protect lower-income, public sector workers and […]
Napa Valley Register: Congress Must Address Marijuana Banking Issue
February 25, 2019
According to tax data compiled by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, tax revenues in 2018 derived from state-sanctioned recreational sales surpassed $1 billion – a 57 percent increase over 2017 levels. Annual excise tax revenues on adult-use cannabis sales ($1.04 billion) rivaled those for all forms of alcohol ($1.16 billion). Here in California, […]
Bloomberg: Amazon Doesn’t Plan to Pay the IRS Anything This Tax Season
February 22, 2019
The fact that Amazon can legally reduce its tax bill to nothing calls into question the effectiveness of the code, said Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy. While those breaks have the backing of Congress and were implemented for some social or economic policy goal, they might be […]
InsideSources: Amazon Paid Zero Corporate Taxes Last Year. Why Aren’t 2020 Democrats Talking About It?
February 22, 2019
“I blame Congress,” says Matt Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy which first released the news of Amazon’s zero corporate tax bill. “Unless we see the actual tax returns, nobody can say exactly how Amazon avoided paying any corporate income taxes, but the available information makes it clear that […]
Financial Post: Lawrence Solomon: Amazon Is Fleecing Taxpayers. Strangely, Socialists Are the Ones Saving Us
February 22, 2019
According to the non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, while profitable major corporations have paid an average of over 21 per cent in federal taxes, over the last 10 years Amazon’s use of tax loopholes has lowered its average to just three per cent. In the last two years, during which it earned US$16.8 billion in profits, it paid no federal income tax at all, thanks to its use of unspecified tax credits and executive stock options.
The Guardian: Why Didn’t Amazon Pay Federal Taxes for the Second Consecutive Year?
February 22, 2019
Amazon is already getting plenty of benefits from the federal government. The company nearly doubled its profits to $11.2bn in 2018 from $5.6bn the year before and, for the second year running didn’t pay a single cent of federal income tax. In fact, Amazon reported a federal income tax rebate for the past two years totalling almost $270m according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy analysis of Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Netflix also paid no federal or income tax on profits of $845m last year.
Irish Examiner: New EU Competition Commissioner Must Take on US Tech Giants, Says ISME
February 21, 2019
“The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy report in Washington DC has noted that Amazon enjoyed a negative tax rate in the US in 2018. That is not a misprint. “On $10.8bn of US profits in 2018, Amazon got a tax rebate of $130m, equivalent to an effective tax rate of -1.2%.” Mr McDonnell concluded: […]
Think Progress: U.S. Banks Raked in Record Profits Thanks to GOP Tax Bill
February 21, 2019
Because of the corporate tax cut, massive corporations like Amazon, which is valued at nearly $800 billion, will pay $0 in federal taxes this year. In fact, the company is expecting a federal refund of nearly $129 billion. This essentially puts Amazon at a federal income tax rate of -1 percent this year, after paying a federal rate of more than 11 percent from 2011 to 2016. This is the second year in a row that Amazon has not paid any federal taxes. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) suggests that this is due to a combination of…
Truck-Only State Tolls Roil Industry That Favors Fuel-Tax Hike
February 20, 2019
Two dozen states have raised fuel taxes since 2013, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which encourages states to take the lead in fixing their roads. All but 11 have raised fuel taxes since the last increase in the federal fuel tax in 1993, according to the American Transportation Research Institute, the ATA’s research […]
The Columbian: In Our View: Amazon HQ2 Outcome Leaves Much to Unpack
February 20, 2019
But at the same time, growing wealth disparity throughout the United States is fueling mistrust of large corporations. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy last week reported that Amazon has paid no federal tax the past two years, rather than the statutory 21 percent. Following profits of $11.2 billion in 2018, the company received […]
Hawai’i Public Radio: Corporate Tax Loophole Costs Hawaii $38 Million Annually
February 20, 2019
Hawaii lawmakers are missing out on millions in potential tax revenue. That is the conclusion of a report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The ITEP found that a loophole in Hawaii’s tax code allows multinational corporations to avoid paying state corporate income taxes, resulting in a loss of $38 million in revenue annually. Read […]
New York Observer: Amazon Paid $0 in Federal Taxes Despite Making $11 Billion in 2018—And No One Knows Why
February 20, 2019
You may feel like a champion financial planner after filing last year’s income taxes, even though you did pay a hefty fee to an accountant or some tax software. But don’t even think about beating Amazon, which paid a whopping $0 in federal taxes last year—despite earning $11.2 billion in U.S. profits—according to a report from the […]
Vox: Amazon’s $0 Corporate Income Tax Bill Last Year, Explained
February 20, 2019
For starters, Jeff Bezos is rich because of the value of Amazon stock, but for years, Wall Street loved the company even though it was a curiously unprofitable retail and technology giant. But more recently, Amazon has emerged recently as a consistently profitable firm, reporting nearly $11 billion in earnings last year. Yet during this surge into profitability — the company’s earnings doubled between 2017 and 2018 — Amazon’s tax bill has actually gone down. The company paid $0 in corporate income tax last year, according to an analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, an astonishing figure…
The Columbian: In Our View: Amazon HQ2 Outcome Leaves Much to Unpack
February 20, 2019
But at the same time, growing wealth disparity throughout the United States is fueling mistrust of large corporations. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy last week reported that Amazon has paid no federal tax the past two years, rather than the statutory 21 percent.
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