Recent Work by ITEP
The ‘Big, Beautiful’ Bill Creates a $5 Billion Tax Shelter for Private School Donors
June 9, 2025 • By Amy Hanauer
On May 22, Congress passed the House reconciliation bill or “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” by a one-vote margin. The bill’s dozens of destructive tax provisions would supercharge inequality and force devastating cuts to health and food aid that have been bedrocks of the American safety net since the 1960s.
As the Washington, D.C. region heads toward a likely recession, local policymakers will need to look to new revenue sources to help lessen the pain. In D.C., lawmakers ought to adopt a simple reform that would raise substantial revenue and make the District’s business tax system fairer.
Our tax policies enable people like Elon Musk and Donald Trump to accumulate more wealth than anyone could ever use in a lifetime. They then use it to steer elections and shape public policy to further enrich themselves and others like them. We should defeat the enormously destructive tax bill in Congress and instead craft tax policy that taxes the rich, makes our democracy more fair, and returns resources to the rest of the country.
State Rundown 6/5: States Wrap Sessions, Some Prepare for Fiscal Uncertainty
June 5, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
States use the final hours of their legislative sessions to address deficits and preserve revenue in preparation for the times ahead.
Trump’s Last Tax Cuts Failed Americans Like Me. Let’s Not Repeat the Mistake.
June 5, 2025 • By Brakeyshia Samms
Now as more GOP tax cuts for the rich move through Congress, history is poised to repeat itself. The bill would disproportionately benefit the well-off — and harm the financial well-being of millions of working Americans, including Black women like me.
Amid Economic Uncertainty, Delaware Lawmakers Should Consider Progressive Revenue Proposals
June 4, 2025 • By Miles Trinidad
Delaware leaders cited the ongoing federal tax debate and economic uncertainty amid the Trump administration's tariffs and trade wars as reasons to delay pursuing some of the progressive tax increases that Gov. Matt Meyers proposed in recent months. But just the opposite is needed. Delaware lawmakers should advance tax policies that can simultaneously protect state revenue to fund important priorities and improve tax equity in the state ahead of the approaching fiscal storm.
Sweeping Federal Tax and Spending Changes Threaten Local Governments
June 3, 2025 • By Kamolika Das
Given this environment, local leaders must do what they can to preserve and strengthen progressive revenue tools, advocate for expanded local taxing authorities and flexibility, and push their state leaders to decouple from harmful federal tax changes.
Five Issues for States to Watch in the Federal Tax Debate
June 3, 2025 • By Dylan Grundman O'Neill, Kamolika Das, Marco Guzman, Miles Trinidad, Neva Butkus
This post covers five particularly notable provisions for states: increasing deductions for state and local taxes (SALT) paid, allowing more generous tax write-offs for businesses, offering new avenues for capital gains tax avoidance to people contributing to private school voucher funds, carving tips and overtime out of the tax base, and re-upping Opportunity Zone tax breaks for wealthy investors.
House Bill’s $164 Billion Giveaway to Multinational Corporations Puts America Last
May 27, 2025 • By Sarah Austin
The House of Representatives’ recently passed tax bill changes course on taxing multinational corporations engaged in shifting U.S. profits overseas, offering massive tax giveaways that weaken American revenues and risk sending more American corporate investment offshore.
House Tax Bill Would Create a Parallel, Harsher Tax Code for Immigrant Filers and their Citizen Family Members
May 22, 2025 • By Carl Davis, Sarah Austin
Immigrant tax filers face a harsher tax code than citizens in some important respects. Sweeping tax legislation recently passed by the House of Representatives would apply new or stricter limits for immigrant tax filers to 10 additional areas of the tax code.
ITEP in the News
The Guardian: Washington State’s ‘Historic’ Millionaire Tax Takes Aim at Super-Rich – Will It Succeed?
Video: ITEP's Amy Hanauer Discusses How to Make the Federal Tax Code Fairer on WHYY
Politico: Governors Forgo Past Response to High Gasoline Prices
Stateline: Gas Prices Rise Again As Some States Consider Tax Holidays
USA Today: Californians Want To Tax Billionaires. They’re Threatening To Leave.
ITEP Work in Action
Brookings: The Caregiving Crisis and the 2026 Vote
Gov. Evers Vetoes Bill Requiring Wisconsin to Opt Into Nationwide Expansion of Private Voucher Schools
Oxfam: The Case for Fairly Taxing the Rich in New York
Economic Policy Institute: How ARPA State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Helped Ensure a Swift Post-COVID Recovery
Maine Center for Economic Policy: Nurses and Plumbers Shouldn’t Pay the Same Tax Rate As Multi-Millionaires. LD 229 and LD 1089 Change That.
Institute on Taxation
and Economic Policy
ITEP is a non-profit, non-partisan tax policy organization. We conduct rigorous analyses of tax and economic proposals and provide data-driven recommendations to shape equitable and sustainable tax systems.
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