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.
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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news release May 23, 2018 State Efforts to Shield Taxpayers From SALT Cap Expose Deeper Flaws with Tax Incentives for Charitable Contributions
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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 Increasingly, state lawmakers are deciding that outdated gas taxes need to be raised and reformed to fund infrastructure projects that are vital to their economies.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.
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blog April 11, 2018 What to Expect if the Supreme Court Allows for Online Sales Tax Collection
Online shopping is hardly a new phenomenon. And yet states and localities still lack the authority to require many Internet retailers to collect the sales taxes that their locally based, brick and mortar competitors have been collecting for decades.
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media mention April 9, 2018 CNBC: Trump Organization’s Online Store Adds Virginia to Short List of States Collecting Tax on Its Sales, Bringing Total to 3
“You have Trump Tower New York and the Trump Store in Trump Tower pointing people to the site, essentially being salespeople,” Carl Davis, research director of the nonpartisan Institute on… -
blog April 6, 2018 Is the Trump Organization’s Sales Tax Avoidance More Aggressive Than Amazon’s?
In recent weeks, President Trump has been raking Amazon over the coals for failing to collect state and local sales taxes on many of the company’s sales—a criticism that has some merit. But a new story first reported by James Kosur at RedStateDisaster, and then picked up today by the Wall Street Journal, provides fascinating insight into the sales tax collection habits of the Trump Organization’s “official retail website,” TrumpStore.com.
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media mention March 30, 2018 New York Times: The Facts Behind Trump’s Tweet on Amazon, Taxes and the Postal Service
Mr. Trump has made similar claims before about Amazon’s tax payments, both as president and a private citizen. After he mentioned it in August 2017, The New York Times reported:… -
media mention March 30, 2018 ABC News: President Trump Attacks Amazon in New Tweet
Earlier this week, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan organization, released a report saying that Amazon has an advantage over brick-and-mortar businesses because Amazon does not collect… -
media mention March 30, 2018 Bloomberg Law: Trump’s Amazon Tweet Comes at Eventful Time for State-Local Taxes
Meanwhile, Amazon may not be paying its share of local sales taxes. A report released March 26 by the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said Amazon either doesn’t… -
media mention March 30, 2018 Dallas Morning News: Texas Was Tougher Than Other States in Dealing with Amazon on Sales Taxes
When a Dallas resident or shopper in College Station or Lubbock makes a purchase from Amazon or any other online retailer with a physical presence in Texas such as Wayfair… -
media mention March 28, 2018 Bond Buyer: Why Cities in Some States Aren’t Getting E-Commerce Taxes from Amazon
Local governments in seven states are not getting a share of the sales taxes Amazon is collecting for e-commerce transactions because of gaps in state and local laws, according to… -
media mention March 27, 2018 New York Times: As Amazon Steps Up Tax Collections, Some Cities Are Left Out
When Amazon agreed last year to begin collecting sales tax in New Mexico, state officials celebrated what they said could be tens of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue.… -
media mention March 27, 2018 Seattle Times: As Amazon steps up tax collections, some cities are left out
Thanks in part to a series of deals with state governments in recent years, Amazon is collecting sales tax in every state that has one. But those deals do not… -
media mention March 27, 2018 Bloomberg BNA: Tax Breaks Plentiful for Second Amazon HQ Even Without Bids
Amazon also benefits at the state and local level when it comes to sales tax, according to a report released March 26 by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy… -
blog March 26, 2018 Amazon and Other E-Retailers Get a Free Pass from Some Local-Level Sales Taxes
A new ITEP analysis reveals that in seven states (Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania), the nation’s largest e-retailer, Amazon.com, is either not collecting local-level sales taxes or is charging a lower tax rate than local retailers. In other states, such as Colorado and Illinois, Amazon is collecting local tax because it has an in-state presence, but localities cannot collect taxes from other e-retailers based outside the state.
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brief March 26, 2018 Many Localities Are Unprepared to Collect Taxes on Online Purchases: Amazon.com and other E-Retailers Receive Tax Advantage Over Local Businesses
Online retailer Amazon.com made headlines last year when it began collecting every state-level sales tax on its direct sales. Savvy observers quickly noted that this change did not affect the company’s large and growing “marketplace” business, where it conducts sales in partnership with third-parties and rarely collects tax. But far fewer have noticed that even on its direct sales, Amazon is still not collecting some local-level taxes.
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media mention February 20, 2018 New York Times: When Calling an Uber Can Pay off for Cities and States
The new fees and taxes are often part of broader regulatory measures as states and localities scramble to update tax codes and laws that have not kept up with the… -
media mention February 18, 2018 Concord Monitor: NH School Choice Bill Could Create a Tax Shelter for the Rich
Carl Davis, the research director at the Washington-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, has written extensively about ETCs as tax shelters. Nationwide, about $1 billion in potential tax dollars…