• ITEP Work in Action  January 15, 2020

    Reforming Connecticut's Tax System: A Program to Strengthen Working- and Middle-Class Families

    Connecticut Voices for Children released a report that examined the state’s income and wealth inequality and the state’s regressive tax system that exacerbates these inequalities.

  • blog  January 15, 2020

    The 2013 Biden-McConnell “Fiscal Cliff” Deal Shows Why the Next President Needs a New Approach to Taxes

    Americans have long wanted more progressive tax policies and have told pollsters for years that they want wealthy individuals and big corporations to pay more, not less, in taxes. The only way forward is for lawmakers and the next president to take a dramatically different approach to tax policy.

  • blog  January 14, 2020

    White House Council of Economic Advisers Crows about Lowest-Income Americans Being Infinitesimally “Wealthier”  

    When the White House Council of Economic Advisors last week tweeted that the poorest 50 percent of Americans’ wealth is growing 3 times faster than the wealth of the top 1 percent, we were skeptical. As it turns out, the CEA’s tweet is a reminder that the poorest 50 percent wealth grew twice as fast during Barack Obama’s second term than it has under Trump, but to this day remains far below its pre-recession share and significantly less than what it was 30 years ago.

  • blog  January 13, 2020

    Time to Throw Cucumbers

    A basic understanding and idea of fairness is a trait we share with intelligent primates, which is precisely why more than two years ago as Congress was debating the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the American public disapproved of the tax bill.

  • blog  January 8, 2020

    State Rundown 1/8: States Need Clear Tax and Budget Policy Vision in 2020

    Happy New Year readers! The Rundown is back to our usual weekly schedule as state legislative sessions and governors’ budgets and State of the State Addresses begin in earnest. Here’s to clear-eyed 20-20 vision guiding state tax and budget decisions in 2020! So far this year, the harm of Colorado’s TABOR policy and Alaska’s lack of an income tax are coming into focus in big ways. Utah advocates are hoping the benefit of hindsight will help convince voters to overturn a recently enacted tax overhaul. Lawmakers in states including Iowa, Maryland, and Virginia can clearly see a need for revenues, but are looking at mostly regressive options so far. And eagle-eyed lawmakers are looking to the tax policy horizon for innovative ways to tax foreign corporations doing business in Michigan and ways to fund infrastructure needs in the era of electric vehicles in Utah.

  • blog  January 7, 2020

    Guilty, Not GILTI: Unclear Whether Corps Continue to Lower Their Tax Bills Via Tax Haven Abuse

    President Trump and GOP lawmakers often cited corporations’ abuse of tax havens, e.g. shifting profits offshore to avoid taxes, as justification for dramatically lowering the…
  • report  December 19, 2019

    Mayor Pete Buttigieg's Proposed EITC Expansion

    Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s proposal An Economic Agenda for American Families: Empowering Working and Middle Class Americans to Thrive would expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) as modeled by the Working Families Tax Relief Act.

  • blog  December 19, 2019

    Corporate Tax Avoidance Is Mostly Legal—and That’s the Problem

    As usual, corporate spokespersons and their allies are trying to push back against ITEP’s latest study showing that many corporations pay little or nothing in federal income taxes. One way they respond is by stating that everything they do is perfectly legal. This is an attempt by the corporate world to change the subject. The entire point of ITEP’s study is that Congress has allowed corporations to avoid paying taxes, and that this must change.

  • ITEP Work in Action  December 19, 2019

    Center for American Progress: The TCJA 2 Years Later: Corporations, Not Workers, Are the Big Winners

    Researchers at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) surveyed corporate financial reports for the first year that the TCJA was in effect and…
  • blog  December 18, 2019

    State Rundown 12/18: Utah's Tax Fight Wraps Up As Other States' Ramp Up

    With the new year and many state legislative sessions just around the corner, most state tax and budget debates are just getting started. Arkansas will be among the states working to improve their roads and other infrastructure. Massachusetts will have to deal with revenue losses due to a misguided tax-cut trigger put in place in prior years. Maryland and South Dakota will be two of many states facing teacher pay shortages and other education funding needs. And debates over the legalization and taxation of cannabis will likely continue in California, Kentucky, New Jersey, and beyond. Utah lawmakers, on the other hand, are just now putting their 2019 tax debates to bed, having touched on many of the major tax themes of the year, both good and bad: enacting and expanding Earned Income Tax Credits (EITCs) and other refundable tax credits, expanding the sales tax base and cutting the personal and corporate income tax rates, and more. We at ITEP will be back to our regular weekly Rundown schedule in the new year!