
January 8, 2025 • By Steve Wamhoff
Trump’s plan to make most of the temporary provisions of his 2017 tax law permanent would disproportionately benefit the richest Americans. This includes all major provisions except the $10,000 cap on deductions for state and local taxes (SALT) paid.
The anti-tax playbook has been on full display in recent weeks as state policymakers run their offenses against public services and shared priorities. As the playbook dictates, if you have a little breathing room in your budget, propose cuts to the one major tax (personal income tax) that tends to ask more of those who […]
November 20, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
This week, there are high-profile budget and tax debates at both the state and local levels. The Louisiana legislature continues to debate Gov. Jeff Landry’s deeply regressive tax package in a special session focused on replacing corporate and personal income tax revenue with additional sales taxes, but some efforts to find offsets for the cuts […]
November 19, 2024 • By Kamolika Das
On election day, voters across the country — in states red and blue and communities rural and urban — approved a wide range of state and local ballot measures on taxation and public investment. The success of these measures clearly shows that voters are willing to invest in public priorities that feel tangible and close to home.
October 17, 2024 • By Rita Jefferson
Next month, voters across the country will weigh in on many local ballot measures that will have a profound effect on the adequacy of our local tax systems and whether cities and communities can fund public needs. These are in addition to statewide ballot questions, many of which have local implications this year.
September 13, 2024 • By Steve Wamhoff
The TCJA Permanency Act would make permanent the provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 that are set to expire at the end of 2025. The legislation would disproportionately benefit the richest Americans. Below are graphics for each state that show the effects of making TCJA permanent across income groups. See ITEP’s […]
September 12, 2024 • By Neva Butkus
Nearly two-thirds of states (31 plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico) have an Earned Income Tax Credit. These credits boost low-paid workers’ incomes and offset some of the taxes they pay, helping lower-income families achieve greater economic security.
September 5, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
Property tax bills are undeniably a concern for many low- and moderate-income households across the nation...
Many cities, counties, and townships across the country are in a difficult, or at least unstable, budgetary position. Localities are responding to these financial pressures in a variety of ways with some charging ahead with enacting innovative reforms like short-term rental and vacancy taxes, and others setting up local tax commissions to study the problem.
August 8, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
Whether they’re in a special session, gearing up for one, or prepping for 2025, states around the country are focusing on important tax fights...
August 6, 2024 • By Marco Guzman
Nineteen states have sales tax holidays on the books in 2024. These suspensions combined will cost states and localities over $1.3 billion in lost revenue this year. Sales tax holidays are poorly targeted and too temporary to meaningfully change the regressive nature of a state’s tax system.
Undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022. Providing access to work authorization for undocumented immigrants would increase their tax contributions both because their wages would rise and because their rates of tax compliance would increase.
July 17, 2024 • By Emma Sifre, Marco Guzman
Undocumented immigrants who work and pay taxes but don't have a valid Social Security number for either themselves or their children are excluded from federal EITC and CTC benefits. Fortunately, several states have stepped in to ensure undocumented immigrants are not left behind by the gaps in the federal EITC and CTC. State lawmakers should continue to ensure that immigrants who are otherwise eligible for these tax credits receive them.
This week, it was the best of times or, in some cases, the worst of times for tax policy in two different states...
May 22, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
State legislatures are wrapping up, but don’t stray too far from your state capital or you’ll miss out on the action...
This week, special sessions with major tax implications are in the air...
This week, many states took steps toward enacting tax cuts...
April 17, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
Happy (belated) Tax Day!
April 3, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
This week tax cuts were debated across the upper Midwest...
March 28, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
While madness is typically reserved for basketball in March, several high-profile, regressive tax cuts are making their way through state legislatures this week...
Over the past week Utah continued its slow march toward a more inequitable tax code...
Governors and legislative leaders in a dozen states have made calls to fully eliminate their taxes on personal or corporate income, after many states already deeply slashed them over the past few years. The public deserves to know the true impact of these plans, which would inevitably result in an outsized windfall to states’ richest taxpayers, more power in the hands of wealthy households and corporations, extreme cuts to basic public services, and more deeply inequitable state tax codes.
Many state legislative sessions are in the final stretch...
February 22, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
With many state legislatures now in full swing with activity heating up, some tax cut proposals have lost steam...
As many of you may know, we love taxes, along with the many great things they provide for our communities...