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 June 13, 2019 KEYE TV: Colorado made $1B in marijuana tax revenue: What could this mean for federal legalization?
Tax experts explained that government revenue from cannabis is not a panacea for solving the country’s budget issues, but it could certainly help. According to a study by Carl Davis,… -
media mention June 12, 2019 CNBC: Feds block tax breaks for donating to these charitable state funds
These programs range from conservation easements to private school tuition scholarships. “The private school organizations were asking for full-scale carveouts for themselves; they wanted to be exempt if the program… -
news release June 11, 2019 Treasury Regulations Address Long-Standing Tax Loophole
Following is a statement by Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding Department of Treasury regulations released today to address state policies that allow… -
blog June 11, 2019 New SALT Workaround Regulations Narrow a Tax Shelter, but Work Remains to Close it Entirely
Today the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released its final regulations cracking down on a tax shelter long favored by private and religious K-12 schools, and more recently adopted by some… -
blog June 5, 2019 ITEP Resources on Proposed SALT Workaround Regulations
After states implemented laws that allow taxpayers to circumvent the new $10,000 cap on deductions for state and local taxes (SALT), the IRS has proposed regulations to address this practice. It’s a safe bet the IRS will try to crack down on the newest policies that provide tax credits for donations to public education and other public services, but it remains to be seen whether new regulations will put an end to a longer-running practice of exploiting tax loopholes in some states that allow public money to be funneled to private schools.
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blog May 21, 2019 Gas Taxes Have Gone Up in Most States, but Decades-Long Procrastinators Remain
The upcoming Memorial Day weekend marks the start of the traditional summer driving season. In most states, summer road-trippers are paying more gas tax than they did a few years ago and are benefiting from smoother and safer roads as a result. In total, 30 states have raised or reformed their gas taxes in the last six years.
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May 10, 2019 Presentation: NCSL Task Force on State and Local Taxation, Taxing Cannabis
ITEP Research Director Carl Davis presented to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Task Force on State and Local Taxation on approaches to cannabis taxation and the recent report Taxing Cannabis.
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media mention May 5, 2019 Crain’s Detroit Business: If Whitmer’s Gas Tax Increase Is Dead, Sales Tax on Services, Anyone?
Car rentals at Detroit Metro Airport are subject to the sales tax. But ordering a ride from an Uber driver at the airport is exempted from sales tax because it’s… -
media mention April 30, 2019 Washington Post: Democrats Said a GOP Tax Law Provision Would Devastate Blue States. That’s Not Happening.
“A lot of these claims were knee-jerk, political reactions,” said Carl Davis, a tax analyst for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank. “Some perspective is needed on some of the wild claims about how it would damage blue states’ economies.”
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media mention April 15, 2019 Minnesota Public Radio: Are Minnesotans Happy with President Trump’s Tax Cuts?
Carl Davis, ITEP’s research director, participated in this half-hour segment on how the public feels about the 2017 Trump-GOP tax cuts. Listen here or get more info here: https://www.mprnews.org/listen?name=/minnesota/podcasts/kerri-miller/2019/04/15tax_day_20190415_64.mp3 -
media mention April 14, 2019 Connecticut Post: Pot Tax Rate Key to Driving Down Illegal Market in Conn.
But potency-based taxation requires good laboratories and technology to accurately test THC levels, said Uetake who teaches marketing at Yale’s School of Management. “Reliability and replicability of testing remain problematic,”… -
media mention April 6, 2019 Crain’s Detroit: Legal Pot v. Black Market
“When you have so many communities opting out, you could have less quantity being sold in the legal market,” said Carl Davis, research director for Washington D.C.-based Institute on Taxation… -
media mention April 2, 2019 Bloomberg: Tax-the-Rich Fervor Builds in Statehouses After Trump’s Big Cut
The tax-the-rich proposals pending in states are “a reflection of a broader national trend towards recognizing what voters have felt for a long time — that high income individuals and… -
blog April 1, 2019 What to Watch for When the IRS Releases Its SALT Workaround Regulations
The Treasury Department and IRS last summer proposed regulations that would make it more difficult for taxpayers to avoid the $10,000 cap on deductions for state and local taxes (SALT). Now, likely days away from the unveiling of the final version of IRS regulations on SALT cap workarounds, Carl Davis recaps the finer points ITEP will be watching for when the regulations become public.
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media mention March 6, 2019 Washington Post: State and Local Tax Laws Are Making the Rich Richer
State and local taxes effectively redistribute national income from the poor to the very rich, according to data released this week by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a… -
blog March 6, 2019 How State Tax Systems Worsen the Economic Divide – in Charts
The nation is currently engaging in serious discourse about how to expand economic opportunity and remedy income inequality via the federal tax code. State tax systems are also important and have a dismal effect on the growing economic divide. In a new report, Fairness Matters: A Chart Book on Who Pays State and Local Taxes, we further parse our Who Pays? data.
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media mention March 1, 2019 Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Tax Avoidance Might Make Financial Sense, but Is It Fair?
One feature of sales taxes is that they cost lower-income people a bigger chunk of what they take in than is the case for more affluent people. In Minnesota the… -
media mention March 1, 2019 Bloomberg: Democrats In the Home of Hedge Funds Are Divided Over Tax Plans Sparing Rich
“Most public finance experts will tell you if you have sales tax it should be applied to a broad base,” said Carl Davis, the research director at the Institute on… -
media mention February 28, 2019 New York Times: Betsy DeVos Backs $5 Billion in Tax Credits for School Choice
Carl Davis, the research director for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, noted that the new tax credit would be extremely generous in providing a 100 percent tax break,… -
media mention February 28, 2019 Marketplace: Devos Proposes $5B in Tax Credits for Scholarship Donations
This new segment features ITEP’s research director Carl Davis: -
news release February 28, 2019 Education Department Tax Credit Proposal Would Undermine Public Schools
The Education Department today announced a proposed new federal tax credit for so-called school choice. The $5 billion proposal would give those who donate to private school voucher programs a tax credit. Following is a statement by Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
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blog February 26, 2019 Overdue Gas Tax Hikes are Back on the Agenda in Statehouses
State tax policy can be a contentious topic, but one issue on which lawmakers largely agree is that higher gas tax rates are necessary to keep our nation’s infrastructure operating safely and efficiently. Lawmakers in 27 states have approved gas tax increases since 2013.
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media mention February 17, 2019 The Hill: Tech Looks for Lessons From Amazon HQ2 Fight
Amazon’s decision to scrap its plans for a second headquarters in New York City, dubbed HQ2, stunned both the tech world and its critics this week, raising new questions about the industry’s ambitious expansion plans and their dealings with state and local governments.
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report February 14, 2019 The Illusion of Race-Neutral Tax Policy
It is well known that the bulk of the federal tax cuts flowed to the highest-earning households, who received the largest tax cut both in terms of real dollars and also as a share of income. But as our analysis with Prosperity Now reveals, solely examining the tax law in the context of class misses a bigger-picture story about how the nation’s public policies not only perpetuate widening income and wealth inequality, they also preserve historic and current injustices that continue to allow white communities to build wealth while denying the same level of opportunity (and often suppressing it) to communities of color.
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blog February 13, 2019 Fact-Checking on Trump Tax Law Needs a Fact Check
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), enacted by President Trump and Congressional Republicans at the end of 2017, has caused quite a bit of confusion, and a recent “Fact Checker” column by the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler does not help. TCJA created real problems that can’t be resolved without real tax reform. To begin that process fact checkers, lawmakers, and everyone else need to be clear about what TCJA did, and did not, do to our tax system.