Recent Work by ITEP

State Rundown 11/07: Election Week and New Special Sessions

November 7, 2024 • By ITEP Staff

Tax policy results are mixed across the country as many voters weigh in on state and local ballot measures. For example, Washington state voted to maintain its new progressive tax on capital gains; Georgia voters capped growth in property tax assessments; Illinois voters approved a call for a millionaires’ tax; North Dakota voters rejected property […]

How Tax Decisions in 2025 Can Advance Racial Justice

October 30, 2024 • By Brakeyshia Samms, Jon Whiten

In the coming 14 months, federal lawmakers should address longstanding issues of racism in the tax code. With a presidential election this fall and many provisions of 2017’s Trump tax law expiring at the end of 2025, the debate over tax policy and economic fairness is in full swing.

State Rundown 10/24: Tricks, Treats, and Tax Policy

October 24, 2024 • By ITEP Staff

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry is proposing a regressive tax reform package that would enact a flat personal and corporate income tax while expanding the state’s sales tax base and eliminating certain exemptions to make up for a portion of the lost revenue. West Virginia continues to chip away at its personal income tax, one of the state’s few progressive revenue options. And advocates in New York are rallying around a package of progressive tax legislation that would tax capital gains at higher rates, enact higher income tax brackets on multi-millionaires, and tax unrealized capital gains of billionaires.

How Would the Harris and Trump Tax Plans Affect Different Income Groups?

October 23, 2024 • By Jon Whiten

Presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have put forward a wide range of different tax proposals during this year’s campaign. We have now fully analyzed the distributional impacts of the major proposals of both Vice President Harris and former President Trump in separate analyses. In all, the tax proposals announced by Harris would, on average, lead to a tax cut for all income groups except the richest 1 percent of Americans, while the proposals announced by Trump would, on average, lead to a tax increase for all income groups except the richest 5 percent of Americans.  

A Distributional Analysis of Kamala Harris’ Tax Plan

October 23, 2024 • By Steve Wamhoff

The tax proposals from Vice President Kamala Harris would, on average, lead to a tax increase for the richest 1 percent of Americans and a tax cut for all other income groups.

2024 Local Tax Ballot Measures: Voters in Dozens of Communities Will Shape Local Policy

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.  

2024 State Tax Ballot Questions: Voters to Weigh in on Tax Changes Big and Small

October 17, 2024 • By Jon Whiten

As we approach November’s election, voters in several states will be weighing in on tax policy changes. The outcomes will impact the equity of state and local tax systems and the adequacy of the revenue those systems are able to raise to fund public services.

Fifteen Companies Each Avoided More than $1 Billion in Taxes from a Single Trump Tax Cut

October 10, 2024 • By Joe Hughes, Spandan Marasini

The deduction for Foreign-Derived Intangible Income (FDII), one of the tax cuts included in former President Trump’s signature 2017 tax law, provides a lower effective tax rate on income earned from intangible assets, such as patents, trademarks, and other forms of intellectual property. Since the law went into effect in 2018, 15 corporations have separately reported more than $1 billion in tax benefits. Alphabet (the parent company of Google) reported the most, at more than $11 billion in tax breaks from 2018 to 2023. Other beneficiaries include large tech firms such as Meta, Microsoft, Intel, and Qualcomm.

State Rundown 10/10: More Special Sessions, More Proposed Tax Cuts

October 10, 2024 • By ITEP Staff

This week several states are getting an early start at writing new tax policy in special sessions. In West Virginia, the legislature has come to an agreement with Gov. Justice on an additional tax cut—on top of already-planned cuts. The 2 percent cut will cost the state $49 million a year and come from spending […]

A Distributional Analysis of Donald Trump’s Tax Plan

October 7, 2024 • By Carl Davis, Erika Frankel, Galen Hendricks, Joe Hughes, Matthew Gardner, Michael Ettlinger, Steve Wamhoff

Former President Donald Trump has proposed a wide variety of tax policy changes. Taken together, these proposals would, on average, lead to a tax cut for the richest 5 percent of Americans and a tax increase for all other income groups.