Recent Work by ITEP

Sales Tax Holidays Miss the Mark When it Comes to Effective Sales Tax Reform

July 17, 2025 • By Miles Trinidad

Sales tax holidays are often marketed as relief for everyday families, but they do little to address the deeper inequities of regressive sales taxes. In 2025, 18 states offer these holidays at a collective cost of $1.3 billion.

States Should Move Quickly to Chart Their Own Course on SALT Deductions

July 17, 2025 • By ITEP Staff

While a federal SALT cap is hotly debated, capping deductibility at $10,000 was an unambiguously good idea at the state level. States would be smart to stick with the current cap or, better yet, go even farther and repeal SALT deductions outright. Going along with a higher federal SALT cap would double down on a regressive tax cut that will mostly benefit a small number of relatively wealthy state residents and cost states significant revenue.

Two in Three Americans Live in States with Variable-Rate Gas Taxes

July 16, 2025 • By Carl Davis

As inflation and fuel efficiency undercut traditional gas tax revenue, many states are rethinking how they fund transportation. Lawmakers across the country are beginning to modernize outdated gas tax systems to keep pace with rising infrastructure costs and changing driving habits.

June Budget Report Doesn’t Erase Our Nation’s Fiscal Challenges

July 15, 2025 • By Joe Hughes

Nobody should be too excited and think this means our country is headed toward lower deficits - especially when the administration recently signed one of the most expensive budget reconciliation bills in history.

Anti-Tax Revolts Backfire: What We’ve Learned from 50 Years of Property Tax Limits

July 15, 2025 • By Rita Jefferson

Across-the-board property tax cuts create less fair local tax systems in the long run. State legislators and local governments should prioritize the residents who can least afford their property taxes, not the residents and businesses who can.

How Much Would Every Family in Every State Get if the Megabill’s Tax Cuts Given to the Rich Had Instead Been Evenly Divided?

July 14, 2025 • By Michael Ettlinger

If instead of giving $117 billion to the richest 1 percent, that money had been evenly divided among all Americans, we'd each get $343 - or nearly $1,400 for a family of four.

GOP Megabill Breaks America’s Promise to Future Generations

July 10, 2025 • By Amy Hanauer

This country’s biggest historical challenge has been delivering this progress to all Americans, but Republicans have cut it back for everyone, retreating from many 20th century achievements in ways that will slam doors, rather than opening them, for the next generation.

10 Crazy Comparisons Showing How Much Trump and Congress Just Cut Taxes for the Rich

July 10, 2025 • By ITEP Staff

$117 billion is a big number, so we thought it could use a little context.

There Were Far Cheaper and Fairer Options Than the Trump Megabill

July 8, 2025 • By Steve Wamhoff, Joe Hughes, Jessica Vela

Congress and the president could have spent less than half that much money on a tax bill that does more for working-class and middle-class households.

State Rundown 7/8: State Tax Cuts Continue Despite Federal Megabill Passing

July 8, 2025 • By ITEP Staff

The last states are wrapping up legislative sessions, and some are crossing the finish line with major income tax cuts.