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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media mention February 2, 2021 Bloomberg: Vehicle Mile Tax Draws Fresh Attention as Buttigieg Takes Post
Large segments of the population are as skeptical of government as they’ve ever been, so asking them to install devices in their vehicles to determine how far and sometimes even… -
media mention January 29, 2021 Law 360: La. Gov. Won’t Support Gas Tax Hike This Year Due To Virus
A January report from the American Petroleum Institute said Louisiana’s total per-gallon state taxes and fees of 20.01 cents on fuel rank below the national average of 36.83 cents for… -
media mention January 27, 2021 The 74: With DeVos Out, Movement for Private School Choice Shifts to State Legislatures
The scholarship policies rely on tax credits — from 50 up to 100 cents on the dollar, depending on the state — in return for contributions to assist with private… -
blog January 12, 2021 New Jersey Leads by Example with Its New Cannabis Tax
New Jersey lawmakers passed an innovative tax design that other states debating cannabis legalization should look to for inspiration. The state officially legalized cannabis in November when voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment by a margin of 67 to 33 percent. The amendment applied the state’s general sales tax to cannabis and allowed local governments to create their own taxes on the industry. The legislature added the most notable part of the tax structure last month with a Social Equity Excise Fee.
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media mention December 28, 2020 Bloomberg Tax: Taxing Tech Giants on Cash-Strapped States’ Agendas in New Year
The spate of proposals could mean higher tax bills for tech titans Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Netflix, in addition to the millions of consumers using their services. Agencies… -
media mention December 10, 2020 Bloomberg: Musk Flees California. He Now Faces a Battle to Escape Its Taxes
Fear of rich people moving for tax reasons is overblown, says Carl Davis, research director at the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, or ITEP. Studies show the wealthy… -
media mention November 16, 2020 Marketplace: Could the success of ballot measures to legalize marijuana add pressure for federal legalization?
Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, studies states’ cannabis tax structures and he said one problem is that most states’ excise tax is based… -
blog October 14, 2020 A Conservative Supermajority on the Supreme Court Could Be a Boon to Wealthy Tax Cheats
By early next year, the Supreme Court could be operating under a 6-3 conservative supermajority that may unwind hard-fought progressive reforms across every area imaginable. While reproductive rights and health care are at the forefront of public discourse, the Court’s impact will extend far beyond these two areas. Voting rights, the battle against climate change, anti-discrimination laws, the separation of church and state and yes, even progressive taxation, are all at risk.
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blog September 23, 2020 Another Reason to Tax the Rich? States with High Top Tax Rates Doing as Well, if Not Better, than States Without Income Taxes
ITEP updated a 2017 study that examined the economic performance of the nine states with the highest top marginal tax rates compared to the nine states with no state income tax. Economies in states with the highest top marginal rates grew faster. States facing budget shortfalls should first look at raising taxes on those most able to pay (incomes at the top have grown during this economic crisis) before considering harmful budget cuts.
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media mention September 15, 2020 Yahoo! Finance: Salt Cap Isn’t Scaring Away Blue State Millionaires
The $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions imposed as part of the 2017 Republican tax law is not causing high-income taxpayers to flee high-tax blue states, according to… -
media mention September 14, 2020 Bloomberg: DeVos-Backed School-Choice Groups Hurt by SALT Rules Crackdown
Critics of state tax credits say the IRS workaround rules were a common-sense effort to address donors double-dipping on tax credits — essentially collecting state and federal tax benefits on… -
media mention September 8, 2020 Politico Morning Tax: They’re back, but stalemate continues
Carl Davis of the progressive Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy wrote a piece last week using new IRS data that specifically focused on the $10,000 cap on state and… -
blog September 3, 2020 Millionaire Population Swells in Blue States Despite Migration Fearmongering
Although the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has created a slew of problems, it is now clear that a mass migration of top earners out of higher-tax blue states is not one of them.
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blog September 3, 2020 The Rich Are Weathering the Pandemic Just Fine: Tax Them
Reductions in critical state and local investments, including health care and education, would only exacerbate the economic crisis brought on by COVID-19 and worsen racial and income inequality for years to come. Higher taxes on top earners are among the best options for addressing pandemic-related state revenue shortfalls in the coming months.
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blog August 12, 2020 IRS Rule Leaves the Door Open for Private/Religious School Voucher Donation Schemes, Broader SALT Cap Workarounds
An IRS regulation released last Friday sanctions a widely derided tax dodge that allows profitable businesses to avoid taxes by sending money to private and religious school voucher funds. It also leaves the door open to a brand of state and local tax (SALT) cap workaround that previously appeared to be on its way out.
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media mention July 14, 2020 Law 360: State And Local Tax Policy To Watch In The 2nd Half Of 2020
As states grapple with refilling their coffers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, tax policy debates in the second half of 2020 could center on revisiting conformity to the federal… -
media mention June 14, 2020 Crain’s New York Business: Legalizing Marijuana Can’t Cure Inequality, But It Will Ease Budget Crisis
My methodology is informed by the work of Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, who recently published a thoughtful blog post on per-capita cannabis excise tax… -
media mention June 5, 2020 POLITICO: States Move Cautiously in Contending With Huge Budget Gaps
“This crisis is still in its very early stages,” said Carl Davis of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Davis noted that the last recession began in December 2007,… -
media mention April 16, 2020 Politico Morning Tax: We Are Shut Down
In any event, there’s also agreement across the political spectrum that those six states should get rid of those policies. “That would fix this particular issue and could generate revenue… -
blog April 2, 2020 Sales Taxes and Social Distancing: State and Local Governments May Face Their Steepest Sales Tax Decline Ever
One pressing question is what will an economic downturn in which consumers are anxious, facing job loss, or simply spending their time sheltering in place and not spending money in typical ways, mean for states’ ability to raise revenue?
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blog March 18, 2020 It’s Time for Some State Fiscal Policy Triage
The COVID-19 novel coronavirus’s effects on public health and economies at all scales are creating a daunting situation for state budgets as well. Lawmakers can choose and prioritize their responses through a straightforward approach similar to that taken by health professionals: marshal and reinforce available resources, triage response options to prioritize the most vital services and most vulnerable people, and enact or strengthen the policies that will help address longer-term issues as well as immediate emergencies.
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media mention March 12, 2020 The Sacramento Bee: Trump has big plans for California highway repair, but no plan to pay for it
While there’s no way to know how much states increases would be curbed if federal taxes were higher, if at all, Carl Davis, research director at Washington, D.C., Institute on… -
media mention March 11, 2020 Politico: That’s a lot of tax relief
Just looking at sales and excise taxes, the eight states where recreational pot was legal in 2019 raised close to $2 billion in revenue, according to Carl Davis of the… -
blog March 10, 2020 State and Local Cannabis Tax Revenue Jumps 33%, Surpassing $1.9 Billion in 2019
Excise and sales taxes on cannabis raised more than $1.9 billion in 2019. This represents a jump of nearly half a billion dollars, or 33 percent, compared to a year earlier. These are the findings of an ITEP analysis of newly released tax revenue data from the eight states where legal sales of adult-use cannabis took place last year.
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blog March 6, 2020 Talking Taxes in Alaska
Alaska’s tax system underwent major changes in the 1970s when oil was found at Prudhoe Bay. Lawmakers repealed the state’s personal income tax (making Alaska the only state ever to do so) and began balancing the state’s budget primarily with oil tax and royalty revenue instead. But as oil prices and production levels have declined, a yawning gap has opened between state revenues and the cost of providing vital public services.