A rare sight is coming to Oklahoma. The last time the Sooner State raised its gas tax rate, the Berlin Wall was still standing, and Congress was debating whether to ban smoking on flights shorter than two hours. Fast forward 31 years, and Oklahoma is finally at it again. On Sunday, the state’s gas tax rate will rise by 3 cents and its diesel tax rate by 6 cents. Both taxes will now stand at 19 cents per gallon—still among the lowest in the country. But Oklahoma isn’t the only state where gas taxes will soon rise.
Carl Davis
Carl Davis is the research director at ITEP, where he has worked since 2008. Carl works on a wide range of issues related to both state and federal tax policy. He has advised policymakers, researchers, and advocates on tax policy issues in nearly every state. Much of his work relates to the link between taxes and economic growth, and the shortcomings of dynamic scoring and supply-side economic theories.
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blog June 26, 2018 Gas Taxes Rise in Seven States, Including an Historic Increase in Oklahoma
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media mention June 22, 2018 NPR: Supreme Court Ruling Means Some Online Purchases Will Cost More
While the court made clear that the states do not have unlimited power to require sales tax collection, “The court blessed South Dakota’s law,” said Carl Davis, research director for… -
media mention June 22, 2018 New York Times: Supreme Court Widens Reach of Sales Tax for Online Retailers
The decision, in South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc., was a victory for brick-and-mortar businesses that have long complained they are put at a disadvantage by having to charge sales taxes… -
media mention June 22, 2018 CNBC: Here’s What That Supreme Court Sales Tax Decision Means for You
If you haven’t been doing this, you might get a nasty surprise at checkout if your state successfully pushes online merchants to collect those taxes. “This is about improved enforcement… -
media mention June 22, 2018 CNBC: Trump Celebrates Supreme Court Decision that Could Force His Online Store to Collect More Taxes
The store, which brands itself as “the official retail website of The Trump Organization,” currently names just four states in which it collects sales taxes. Before April, only two were… -
media mention June 22, 2018 Buffalo News: Sales Tax Ruling Will Help Stores Compete Against Online Retailers
Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington think tank, was quoted in The New York Times saying, “State and local governments have really… -
media mention June 22, 2018 Market Insider: Trump Praises Supreme Court Decision on Sales Tax
A Trump Organization representative did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on how the Supreme Court decision could affect TrumpStore.com. When New York was added to… -
blog June 21, 2018 Supreme Court Decision in Wayfair Is a Leap Forward for Sales Tax Modernization
For years, state and local governments have been dealing with a tax enforcement nightmare as out-of-state Internet retailers have refused to collect sales tax. That non-collection was facilitated by a… -
news release June 21, 2018 South Dakota v. Wayfair Decision Brings Overdue Fairness to Retail Sales Tax
Following is a statement by Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding the Supreme Court’s decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair. Mr. Davis has authored numerous policy briefs regarding how online retailers that fail to collect sales taxes deprive states of necessary sales tax revenue and maintain an unfair advantage over bricks and mortar retailers.
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media mention June 9, 2018 Springfield (Mass) Republican: Tax Breaks That Help Students Attend Private School Could Be Repealed
“This is a brand new tax break that was created automatically by an obscure linkage to federal law, and whether lawmakers want to offer it or not is worth discussing,”… -
media mention June 4, 2018 CNBC: Donate to charitable funds and nab a tax break in these states — for now
How the IRS will ultimately proceed remains to be seen, but experts agree that the agency may take a closer look at programs with generous tax credits. “It’s when you… -
blog May 24, 2018 As IRS Prepares to Act, Red-State Taxpayers Profit from Use of SALT “Workaround Credits”
A new ITEP report explains the close parallels between the new workaround credits and existing state tax credits, including those benefiting private schools. The report comes the same day that the IRS and Treasury Department announced they would seek new regulations related to these tax credits. It notes that the SALT workarounds are emblematic of a broader weakness with the federal charitable deduction. And it cautions regulators to avoid a “narrow fix” that will only address the newest SALT workarounds (which, so far, have only been enacted in blue states) without also addressing other abuses of the deduction, which have long been employed by red states.
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media mention May 24, 2018 Reuters: U.S. Treasury Readies Crackdown on SALT Workarounds
But the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, or ITEP, warned that narrow action could have unintended consequences for federal charitable donations if the government imposes arbitrary distinctions between… -
media mention May 24, 2018 New York Times: I.R.S. Warns States Not to Circumvent State and Local Tax Cap
Carl Davis, the research director for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington, said that Alabama provides a 100 percent state tax credit for taxpayers who donate money… -
media mention May 24, 2018 Washington Times: Treasury Department Warns States over SALT Workarounds
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank, issued a new report Wednesday warning the Treasury not to single out the blue states, saying if they’re going… -
news release May 23, 2018 State Efforts to Shield Taxpayers From SALT Cap Expose Deeper Flaws with Tax Incentives for Charitable Contributions
Long before the tax law passed, some states abused the idea of charitable giving to funnel public money to various activities, such as private K-12 education, by reimbursing up to 100 percent of their taxpayers’ donations with tax credits. The flimsy, hastily-written SALT deduction cap enacted last year made this type of gaming even easier than before, and it was entirely predictable that states would respond by enacting more tax credits of this type.
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report May 23, 2018 SALT/Charitable Workaround Credits Require a Broad Fix, Not a Narrow One
The federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) enacted last year temporarily capped deductions for state and local tax (SALT) payments at $10,000 per year. The cap, which expires at the end of 2025, disproportionately impacts taxpayers in higher-income states and in states and localities more reliant on income or property taxes, as opposed to sales taxes. Increasingly, lawmakers in those states who feel their residents were unfairly targeted by the federal law are debating and enacting tax credits that can help some of their residents circumvent this cap.
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blog May 22, 2018 Most States Have Raised Gas Taxes in Recent Years
An updated version of this blog was published in April 2019.
State tax policy can be a contentious topic, but in recent years there has been a remarkable level of agreement on one tax in particular: the gasoline tax. Increasingly, state lawmakers are deciding that outdated gas taxes need to be raised and reformed to fund infrastructure projects that are vital to their economies.
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blog May 9, 2018 New Tax Subsidy for Private K-12 Tuition in Massachusetts Creates a Host of Problems
Last year’s federal tax cut bill changed 529 college savings accounts in a major way, expanding them so that they can be used as tax shelters by higher-income families who… -
media mention May 8, 2018 Bloomberg BNA: Federal Tax Law May Spur Business Relocations Among States
Such migration concerns are “overblown,” Carl Davis, research director at the liberal-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, told Bloomberg Tax. “High-income earners tend to move less often than everyone… -
media mention May 4, 2018 Politico: Trump Store Collecting Online Sales Tax after Criticism
The research director of the liberal-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Carl Davis, said in a blog post Thursday that “the Trump Organization quietly updated TrumpStore.com’s sales tax information… -
media mention May 4, 2018 Business Insider: The Trump Org Just Quietly Announced It Is Collecting Sales Tax in a New State
New York’s addition to the list of states where TrumpStore.com collects sales tax, which previously included Louisiana, Florida, and Virginia, was first spotted Thursday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic… -
blog May 3, 2018 Under Pressure, Trump Organization Abandons Risky Sales Tax Avoidance Strategy in New York. Will It Face Penalties for Taxes it Did Not Collect?
While President Trump was busy publicly shaming Amazon for failing to collect some state and local sales taxes, his own business’s online store was not only failing to collect the same taxes, but was arguably more aggressive than Amazon in refusing to do so. As of last month, TrumpStore.com was not even collecting sales tax in New York State despite having a “flagship retail store” inside Trump Tower, in Manhattan. As ITEP pointed out at that time: “It seems likely that the presence of a New York location should be enough to put TrumpStore.com within reach of New York’s sales tax collection laws.”
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media mention May 1, 2018 Bloomberg BNA: Higher Gas Prices May Mean Paying States More in Taxes
As a result, a few states will see revenue gains from higher prices because their tax rates are tied to the price of fuel, rather than its volume, Carl Davis,… -
blog April 11, 2018 ITEP Resources on Amazon and the Online Sales Tax Debate
The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to consider a case next week (South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc.) that has the potential to significantly improve states and localities’ ability to enforce their sales tax laws on Internet purchases.