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blog
June 13, 2018
State Rundown 6/13: Budget Crunch Time Sets in as State Fiscal Years Come to Close
With many state fiscal years ending June 30th, budget negotiations were completed recently in California, Illinois, Michigan, and North Carolina. New Jersey remains a state to watch as a government shutdown looms but leaders continue to disagree about a proposed millionaires tax, corporate taxes, and school funding. In other states looking to wealthy individuals and large corporations for needed revenues, Arizona’s teacher pay crisis could be solved with a tax on its highest-income residents and a similar proposal in Massachusetts is polling well, but Seattle’s new “head tax” could be on the chopping block.
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blog
June 13, 2018
All Bets are Off: State-Sponsored Sports Betting Isn’t Worth the Risk
Many state legislators and regulators are considering expanding state-sponsored gambling by allowing betting on major league sports games. But the revenue states could bring in isn’t worth the risk.
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brief
June 12, 2018
Lottery, Casino and other Gambling Revenue: A Fiscal Game of Chance
Cash-strapped, tax-averse state lawmakers continue to seek unconventional revenue-raising alternatives to the income, sales, and property taxes that form the backbone of most state tax systems. However, gambling revenues are rarely as lucrative, or as long-lasting, as supporters claim.
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blog
June 6, 2018
New Legislation Would Close Significant Offshore Loopholes in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
One simple rule should drive the nation’s international tax policies: tax the offshore profits of American companies the same way their domestic profits are taxed. The latest legislation to approach that ideal is the Per-Country Minimum Act (H.R. 6015), from Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR). The DeFazio bill closes the loophole that allows corporations to use foreign tax credits to shelter profits in tax havens from U.S. taxes. No other bill addresses this.
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report
June 6, 2018
The New International Corporate Tax Rules: Problems and Solutions
The nation’s corporate tax system has been dysfunctional for decades. Unfortunately, the recently enacted Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) fails to solve fundamental problems facing the corporate tax and, in some ways, makes these problems even worse.
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blog
June 1, 2018
State Rundown 6/1: Time Is Ripe for Closer Look at Intergovernmental Relations
This week, Virginia lawmakers overcame their budget impasse and approved an expansion of Medicaid, North Carolina’s behind closed doors budget debate appears to be wrapping up, and Vermont’s special session continues in the wake of the governor’s vetoes of the state budget and accompanying tax bills. New research highlighted in our What We’re Reading section shows that both corporate income tax cuts and business tax subsidies contribute to wider economic inequality. And the possible reconstitution of a federal commission on intergovernmental relations could not come soon enough, as other headlines this week include a state-to-local shift in school funding, governments turning to the gig economy for staffing and revenue needs, and state-federal tensions heating up as the IRS cracks down on gimmicks designed to evade the $10,000 cap on the federal deduction for state and local taxes.
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May 31, 2018
ITEP's Senior Policy Analyst Richard Phillips Remarks at Facebook Shareholders Meeting in Favor of Tax Principles Resolution
Read the Remarks in PDF Listen to Webcast of Shareholders Meeting (Richard’s remarks begin at 21:20) My name is Richard Phillips and I am here… -
blog
May 30, 2018
Facebook Facing Shareholder Scrutiny for Its Offshore Tax Avoidance
In advance of its annual shareholders meeting on May 31, Facebook was confronted with a shareholder resolution asking it to endorse a set of principles to guide its tax policy and to ensure that such principles consider the impact of its tax strategies on local economies and public services. The resolution is a signal from a group of concerned shareholders that Facebook’s tax avoidance hurts its reputation, the communities in which it operates, and creates financial risks to the company’s shareholders.
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blog
May 24, 2018
As IRS Prepares to Act, Red-State Taxpayers Profit from Use of SALT “Workaround Credits”
A new ITEP report explains the close parallels between the new workaround credits and existing state tax credits, including those benefiting private schools. The report comes the same day that the IRS and Treasury Department announced they would seek new regulations related to these tax credits. It notes that the SALT workarounds are emblematic of a broader weakness with the federal charitable deduction. And it cautions regulators to avoid a “narrow fix” that will only address the newest SALT workarounds (which, so far, have only been enacted in blue states) without also addressing other abuses of the deduction, which have long been employed by red states.
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blog
May 24, 2018
New Legislation Would End Tax Incentives to Move Jobs and Profits Offshore
New legislation introduced today, the No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act, by Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) would help repair the damage to the international tax code wrought by the new Trump-GOP tax law and move toward a system where U.S. corporations can’t reap tax benefits from shifting jobs and profits offshore.