• blog  August 12, 2019

    The Mortgage Interest Deduction Is a House of Cards

    Given how much more exclusively this deduction now benefits the highest-income households, its continued existence is hard to justify. Even when the credit was available to a larger swath of families, it was ineffective at promoting homeownership.

  • blog  August 9, 2019

    Taxing Offshore Profits and Domestic Profits Equally Could Curb Corporate Tax Dodging

    In recent days, presidential candidates Sen. Kamala Harris and New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio have called for taxing corporate profits the same whether they are…
  • ITEP Work in Action  August 8, 2019

    Policy Matters Ohio: Ohio Tax Shift Away From the Wealthy: The Pattern Repeats

    The main tax measures in Ohio’s new budget bills will bring tax increases on average for lower- and middle-income taxpayers, while those at the top…
  • blog  August 7, 2019

    State and Local Cannabis Tax Revenue on Pace for $1.6 Billion in 2019

    Cannabis tax revenue is becoming more significant as legal sales grow. The tax is far from a budgetary panacea, but an ITEP analysis of revenue data reported by the seven states with legal cannabis sales underway suggests that excise and sales tax revenues from the sale of the drug could reach $1.6 billion this year.

  • news release  August 7, 2019

    Leadership Transition Announcement

    Notes from Alan Essig, Executive Director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and Citizens for Tax Justice, and Joan Entmacher, Board Chair of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, and Ed Jayne, Board Chair of Citizens for Tax Justice, announcing leadership transition.

  • report  August 7, 2019

    Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: A Timeline

    In December 2017, federal lawmakers hastily enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. So rushed was its passage that provisions of the legislative text were scrawled in the margins. Scroll through this timeline for an in-depth look at the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the impact since its passage.

  • blog  August 2, 2019

    Opportunity Zones Have Nothing to Do with Reparations, Except …

    Among other things, this blog highlights how federal, state and local policies systematically work to reinforce the racial wealth gap by, for example, using the tax code to redistribute the nation’s wealth to billionaire developers and keeping low-income people of color in a perpetual cycle of debt through fines and fees to fund local governments. Opportunity zones and the top-heavy 2017 tax law are emblematic of a long history of policymaking that advantages wealthy white families.

  • blog  July 31, 2019

    A Wealth Tax Might Be Easier to Implement than You Think

    A direct federal tax on wealth, as described in a January report from ITEP and proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, could raise substantial revenue to make public investments, curb rising inequality, and is supported by a large majority of Americans. But would it work? Recent research highlighted in a new academic paper outlines approaches that would make it easier than you might think.

  • blog  July 26, 2019

    State Rundown 7/26: The Dog Days of Tax

    OHIO legislators passed a budget with unfortunate income tax cuts for high-income households. Other states turned their attention to unconventional ideas during their legislative off-seasons, for better and for worse. And there are many gems to be found in our “What We’re Reading” section below, including new research on the racial inequities that continue to pervade our communities and schools.

  • brief  July 26, 2019   

    Election 2020: Tax Policy Essentials

    The nation’s tax policies and their role in economic inequality are front and center during this election cycle. For those interested in how the nation can move toward a fairer tax system and or more detailed information about progressive tax policy ideas, ITEP created this quick guide.