• report  October 28, 2019

    Benefits of a Financial Transaction Tax

    A financial transaction tax (FTT) has the potential to curb inequality, reduce market inefficiencies, and raise hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue over the next decade. Presidential candidates have proposed using an FTT to fund expanding Medicare, education, child care, and investments in children’s health. Any of these public investments would be progressive, narrowing resource gaps between the most vulnerable families and the most fortunate.

  • ITEP Work in Action  October 25, 2019

    Budget & Tax Center: A Costly Cover for More Business Tax Cuts in NC

    Analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows that 27 percent of the total net tax cut from the increase in the standard…
  • blog  October 24, 2019

    State Rundown 10/24: State Tax Talk Makes Like a Tree and Gets Colorful

    As autumn brings a colorful display of foliage to many states, so too are tax proposals taking on interesting hues as states move from the summer off-season toward 2020 legislative sessions. Ohio lawmakers are blue in the face from debating and re-debating tax and budget issues there. Maryland residents again showed they can’t be called yellow-bellied when it comes to footing the bill for needed education improvements, showing their broad support for higher taxes to fund those needs even despite a hefty price tag. Alaska, Michigan, and other states are giving the green light to laws implementing their new ability to collect sales taxes from online retailers, and Massachusetts came out of the blue with a proposal to apply that ability to its corporate income tax. Meanwhile, anti-tax interests showed their true colors in pushing for personal income and business tax cuts in North Carolina and Utah, though advocates for tax justice aren’t by any means waving white flags in those states.

  • blog  October 24, 2019

    House Passes Landmark Bipartisan Bill to Crack Down on Shell Companies Used for Tax Evasion and Other Crimes

    On Tuesday night, 25 Republicans joined nearly all the chamber’s Democrats to approve the Corporate Transparency Act, a bill that would require those creating a company to report its owners to the federal government. The White House expressed support but called for the House and Senate to work on certain details, creating the possibility that the measure could be enacted.

  • blog  October 18, 2019

    Depreciation Tax Breaks Are a Problem that Deserves More Attention

    Sen. Bernie Sanders’ recently released corporate tax plan would shut down the major breaks and loopholes that allow corporations to dodge taxes. The reforms in his plan that are most likely to get attention are proposals to shut down offshore tax dodging, as ITEP has long called for.

  • blog  October 15, 2019

    Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman’s New Book Reminds Us that Tax Injustice Is a Choice

    Cue Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman. In their new book, The Triumph of Injustice, the economists, who already jolted the world with their shocking data on exploding income inequality and wealth inequality, tell us to stop acting like we are paralyzed when it comes to tax policy. There are answers and solutions. And in about 200 surprisingly readable pages, they provide them.

  • blog  October 10, 2019

    State Rundown 10/10: Always Something Old, Something New in State Tax Debates

    Creative thinking from Pennsylvania lawmakers has helped them discover that the Wayfair ruling allowing states to collect sales tax from online retailers can also help them identify and tax corporate profits earned in their borders. Similarly, New York leaders had the vision to put bold environmental goals in place and identify a carbon price as a potential pay-for. Gubernatorial candidates in Mississippi and Kentucky showed less ingenuity, proposing tax cuts even though Mississippi is still phasing in a massive tax cut from a few years ago and Kentucky’s next election isn’t until 2020. Meanwhile, the old idea of eliminating income taxes is so strong in Texas that anti-tax interests have gotten a constitutional ban on income taxes onto the state ballot even though the state doesn’t have one. And “What We’re Reading” is stocked this week with good reading about the role tax policy can play in addressing inequities related to income, wealth, and race.

  • blog  October 2, 2019

    How a Federal Wealth Tax Can Help the Economy

    A New York Times article explained that proponents of a federal wealth tax hope to address exploding inequality but then went on to list the fears of billionaires and economic policymakers, finding that “the idea of redistributing wealth by targeting billionaires is stirring fierce debates at the highest ranks of academia and business, with opponents arguing it would cripple economic growth, sap the motivation of entrepreneurs who aspire to be multimillionaires and set off a search for loopholes.” A wealth tax will not damage our economy and instead would likely improve it. Here’s why.

  • ITEP Work in Action  October 1, 2019

    Urban Institute: Are States Betting on Sin? The Murky Future of State Taxation

    “Sin taxes” are often viewed as budget saviors, though they play a rather small role in state budgets. Although states raise revenue from sin taxes,…
  • blog  September 27, 2019

    The Nation’s Income Inequality Challenge Explained in Charts

    Income inequality has reached its highest level since the U.S. Census Bureau began tracking the measure more than 50 years ago, according to recent data. While recent Census data show modest increases in median household income and average hourly wages—numbers anti-tax politicians and pundits have used to deny rising inequality—a deeper look at some of the latest numbers reveals a decades-long trend of widening economic inequality.