Oregon
Iowa Flat Tax Shows Why Such Policies Are a Problem Everywhere
• By Eli Byerly-Duke
As Iowa lawmakers change the state’s graduated personal income tax to a single flat rate, they are designing a state tax code where the rich will pay a lower rate overall than families with modest means.
Audio: ITEP’s Joe Hughes on the Need for a Well-Funded IRS
• By Joe Hughes
ITEP Federal Policy Analyst Joe Hughes appeared on the Oregon Center for Public Policy’s “Policy for the People” podcast, discussing IRS funding and Direct File.
Oregon Center for Public Policy: Complete Reporting Would Make It Hard for Corporations to Hide Profits Overseas
• By ITEP Staff
Oregon can clamp down on multinational corporations shifting profits overseas, create a more level playing field for Oregon businesses, and raise millions in revenue by enacting “Complete Reporting” by large corporations. That law would make it difficult for multinational corporations to avoid Oregon corporate income taxes by artificially shifting profits earned in Oregon to subsidiaries […]
Money: These States Are Using Their Budget Surpluses to Give Tax Breaks to Residents
April 8, 2024
The most impactful changes in state taxes this year have come in the form of new or expanded tax credits targeted at families with children, according to Aidan Davis, state policy director at the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a nonprofit, nonpartisan tax policy organization. “The first really incredible — and, I would say, positive — trend was that 18 states created or enhanced child tax credits or income tax credits in their states,” Davis…
State Rundown 4/3: Some States Buck the Trend on Foolish Tax Policy
• By ITEP Staff
This week tax cuts were debated across the upper Midwest...
Local Mansion Taxes: Building Stronger Communities with Progressive Taxes on High-Value Real Estate
• By Andrew Boardman
More than one dozen cities and counties levy progressive taxes on high-price real estate transactions — sometimes called mansion taxes — and over a dozen more are considering such policies. By asking buyers and sellers with greater financial means to contribute more to the common good, these policies are equipping communities with resources to make progress on critical challenges of local and national concern.
Mother Jones: It’s No Secret Our Tax System Punishes Low-Income People. It Doesn’t Have To
February 26, 2024
Oregon taxpayers will become some of the first in the nation to have the option to self-identify their race and ethnicity when they file their tax returns this year. The reason is both simple and complex: Especially at the state level, taxes worsen America’s yawning wealth gaps rather than easing them. A growing number of advocates and policymakers are trying to do something about that.
Audio: ITEP’s Miles Trinidad Talks About Oregon’s Upside-Down Tax Code
• By Miles Trinidad
We’re talking taxes today on Policy for the People, specifically from the vantage point of the Oregonians with the fewest resources, those who are struggling the most to make ends meet. In our first segment, we hear about a brand new tax credit in Oregon designed to shore up the lowest-income families with young children in our state. Tyler Mac Innis of the Oregon Center for Public Policy explains who qualifies for the Oregon Kids’…
Oregon Center for Public Policy: Oregon’s Tax System is Fundamentally Unfair, but We Can Fix It
• By ITEP Staff
If you were designing a tax system from scratch, who would you tax at a higher rate: a low-income family struggling to pay the rent and put food on the table, or a rich family making way more money than they spend?
State Tax Watch 2024
• By ITEP Staff
Updated July 15, 2024 In 2024, state lawmakers have a choice: advance tax policy that improves equity and helps communities thrive, or push tax policies that disproportionately benefit the wealthy, drain funding for critical public services, and make it harder for low-income and working families to get ahead. Despite worsening state fiscal conditions, we expect […]
How the Fairness of State Tax Codes Affects Public Education
• By Carl Davis
The findings of Who Pays? go a long way toward explaining why so many states are failing to raise the amount of revenue needed to provide full and robust support for our public schools.
In Most States, the Tax Code Makes Inequality Worse
• By Carl Davis
The vast majority of state and local tax systems are upside-down, with the wealthy paying a far lesser share of their income in taxes than low- and middle-income families. Yet a few states have made strides to buck that trend and have tax codes that are somewhat progressive and therefore do not worsen inequality.
Tax Systems in 44 States Exacerbate Inequality, In-Depth ‘Who Pays?’ Study Finds
• By ITEP Staff
The vast majority of state and local tax systems are upside-down, with the wealthy paying a far lesser share of their income in taxes than low- and middle-income families. That’s according to the latest edition of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s Who Pays?, the only distributional analysis of tax systems in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Oregon: Who Pays? 7th Edition
• By ITEP Staff
Oregon Download PDF All figures and charts show 2024 tax law in Oregon, presented at 2023 income levels. Senior taxpayers are excluded for reasons detailed in the methodology. Our analysis includes nearly all (99.5 percent) state and local tax revenue collected in Oregon. State and local tax shares of family income Top 20% Income Group […]
State Rundown 1/4: New Year, New Opportunities, Same Tax Cut Proposals
• By ITEP Staff
The year may be new, but state lawmakers seem to have the same old resolution: slashing state income taxes...
Which States Allow Deductions for Federal Income Taxes Paid?
• By ITEP Staff
Three states allow an unusual income tax deduction for federal income taxes paid. Missouri and Oregon limit these deductions by capping and/or phasing out the deduction, while Alabama, offers what amounts to an unlimited deduction. These deductions are detrimental to state income tax systems on many fronts, as they offer large benefits to high-income earners […]
Hidden in Plain Sight: Race and Tax Policy in 2023 State Legislative Sessions
• By Brakeyshia Samms
Race was front and center in a lot of state policy debates this year, from battles over what’s being taught in schools to disagreements over new voting laws. Less visible, but also extremely important, were the racial implications of tax policy changes. What states accomplished this year – both good and bad – will acutely affect people and families of color.
Abortion-Restricting States Skimp on Funding for Children
• By Amy Hanauer
States differ dramatically in how much they allow families to make choices about whether and when to have children and how much support they provide when families do. But there is a clear pattern: the states that compel childbirth spend less to help children once they are born.
State Tax Credits Have Transformative Power to Improve Economic Security
• By Aidan Davis
The latest analysis from the U.S. Census Bureau provides an important reminder of the compelling link between public investments and families’ economic well-being. Policy decisions can drastically reduce poverty and improve family economic stability for low- and middle-income families alike, as today’s data release shows.
States are Boosting Economic Security with Child Tax Credits in 2023
• By Aidan Davis, Neva Butkus
Fourteen states now provide Child Tax Credits to reduce poverty, boost economic security, and invest in children. This year alone, lawmakers in three states created new Child Tax Credits while lawmakers in seven states expanded existing credits. To maximize impact, lawmakers should consider making their credits fully refundable, not including an earnings requirement, setting a maximum amount per child instead of per household, setting state-specific phase-out ranges that target low- and middle-income families, indexing to…
Boosting Incomes, Improving Equity: State Earned Income Tax Credits in 2023
• By Aidan Davis, Neva Butkus
Nearly two-thirds of states (31 plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico) have an Earned Income Tax Credit, an effective tool that boosts low-paid workers’ incomes and helps lower-income families achieve greater economic security. This year, 12 states expanded and improved EITCs.
Refundable Credits a Winning Policy Choice Again in 2023
• By Neva Butkus
State lawmakers continue to make groundbreaking progress on state tax credits, with 17 states creating or enhancing Child Tax Credits or Earned Income Tax Credits so far this year. These policies have the potential to boost family economic security and dramatically reduce the number of children living below the poverty line.
State Rundown 6/28: Movement on Refundable Credits Remains Hot Topic in 2023
• By ITEP Staff
The trend of state lawmakers taking big steps on important tax credits like the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit is coming out in full force this week...
State Rundown 6/22: Some Tax Debates Heat Up as Others Cool Off
• By ITEP Staff
Summer is here and many states nearing the end of their legislative sessions. Temperatures are rising in more ways than one in some state legislatures while others seem to be cooling off.
States Looking to Make Property Taxes Affordable Should Turn to ‘Circuit Breakers’
• By ITEP Staff
Many state legislatures this year have been considering property tax cuts – but too many are ignoring the solution that speaks more directly to questions of property tax affordability than any other policy option: the “circuit breaker."
