Matthew Gardner
Matt Gardner is a senior fellow at ITEP where he has worked since 1998. He previously served as ITEP’s executive director from 2006 to 2016. Matt’s work focuses on federal, state and local tax systems, with a particular emphasis on the impact of tax policies on low- and moderate-income taxpayers. He uses ITEP’s microsimulation model to produce economic projections and analyses on the effects of current and proposed federal and state tax and budget policies.
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media mention September 6, 2017 Politico: Why Corporate Tax Reform Is So Messy
There is even greater variation among individual companies. Eighteen of the 258 Fortune 500 companies that were consistently profitable between 2008 and 2015 did not pay any federal taxes during… -
report September 6, 2017 Turning Loopholes into Black Holes: Trump’s Territorial Tax Proposal Would Increase Corporate Tax Avoidance
The problem of offshore tax avoidance by American corporations could grow much worse under President Donald Trump’s proposal to adopt a “territorial” tax system, which would exempt the offshore profits of American corporations from U.S. taxes. This change would increase the already substantial benefits American corporations obtain when they use accounting gimmicks to make their profits appear to be earned in a foreign country that has no corporate income tax or has one that is extremely low or easy to avoid.
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media mention September 1, 2017 Fact Check.org: Trump’s Tax Speech
U.S. companies with business overseas do keep some profits in offshore accounts, where it isn’t subject to U.S. corporate taxes until it is repatriated to this country. The profits are declared indefinitely,… -
media mention September 1, 2017 The Columbian: Republicans should stick to facts, not rhetoric, on topic of corporate taxes
House Speaker Paul Ryan’s visit to the Boeing plant in Everett last week contained plenty of ideology, politicking, and lobbying for Republican efforts to reconfigure the U.S. tax code. But… -
media mention August 31, 2017 Politico: Trump Wants to Slash America’s Corporate Tax Rate, But That Rate Is a Myth
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy examined 258 Fortune 500 companies that were profitable from 2008 to 2015 and found 100 companies paid zero — or less — in… -
media mention August 31, 2017 Slate: Our Corporate Tax System Is a Mess. Republicans Might Just Make It Worse
Earlier this year, the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released a report in which it analyzed the tax rates paid by members of the Fortune 500 between 2008… -
media mention August 31, 2017 Irish Times: Dublin Watches Nervously as Trump Pushes U.S. Tax Reform Agenda
A proposal to encourage companies to repatriate the trillions of dollars that are resting offshore is also up for discussion between the White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill, perhaps… -
blog August 31, 2017 Trump (Sort of) Used Our Data on Corporate Tax Avoidance, But He Missed the Point
On Wednesday, reporters waiting to write about President Trump’s much-ballyhooed tax reform speech in Missouri received a fact sheet from the White House informing them that, “Fortune 500 corporations are holding more than $2.6 trillion in profits offshore to avoid $767 billion in Federal taxes, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.”
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media mention August 31, 2017 HuffPost: Here Are 4 Populist Tax Reforms Trump Could Adopt If He Really Cared About Working People
In fact, the evidence suggests that Trump’s tax cuts would line corporate CEOs’ pockets, while depleting the Treasury and doing little, if anything, to boost working class Americans’ bottom line.“Trump’s… -
media mention August 30, 2017 The New York Times: Trump Tax Plan May Free Up Corporate Dollars, but Then What?
But skeptics worry that making the system airtight is impossible. “It’s an endless cat-and-mouse game,” said Matthew Gardner, senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a research… -
media mention August 30, 2017 The Columbian: A Taxing Debate
The awe actually should be over Ryan’s selective use of facts. As Danny Westneat of The Seattle Times reported: “Not only is Boeing gushing cash, but its own financial documents… -
media mention August 25, 2017 Politico: Here We Go Again
House tax writers have been doing their part to drum up support over the recess, with Ryan stopping by Boeing on Thursday. Critics were quick to note that Boeing is… -
media mention August 25, 2017 The Seattle Times: Paul Ryan Picked the Most Awkward Spot in America to Argue for Corporate Tax Cuts
“The question with Boeing isn’t whether high taxes are hurting them, because that’s ludicrous on the face of it,” says Matt Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation… -
media mention August 25, 2017 The Fiscal Times: Why Boeing Isn’t the Best Poster Child for Corporate Tax Reform
Critics have been lighting up the internet pointing out that Boeing isn’t the ideal poster child for corporate tax reform since it and many other major corporations don’t pay anything… -
blog August 23, 2017 GOP Leaders Tout Corporate Tax Cuts at Boeing and AT&T, Companies that Already Have Single-Digit Tax Rates
House Speaker Paul Ryan plans to visit a Boeing factory in Washington State tomorrow to promote the GOP’s ideas for tax reform, which include a deep cut in the corporate tax rate, while House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady is bringing the same message today to employees of AT&T in Dallas. What is unclear is how much lower taxes for these companies can possibly go.
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media mention August 18, 2017 Journal Transcript: Apple Inc., Microsoft Corporation and Cisco Systems, Inc. Buoyed By Trump Proposed 10% Tax Rate
The fact that the 5.25% one-time rate in 2004 failed to have the desired impact on American job growth is another headwind that could hinder the proposed 10% rate from… -
media mention August 17, 2017 The Atlantic: The Tax Break Dividing the Republican Party
“You can never really know if they’re changing people’s behavior,” said Matt Gardner, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Gardner pointed me to a… -
media mention August 14, 2017 USA Today Network: Gov. Rick Scott Wants Super Majority Vote for Tax Hikes
But one tax policy expert said future lawmakers will eventually find ways around the super majority requirement. Matt Gardner, senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute on Taxation and Economic… -
blog August 4, 2017 How to Think About the Problem of Corporate Offshore Cash: Lessons from Microsoft
For a corporation with deeply American roots, Microsoft seems remarkably unable to turn a profit here. Against all odds, the Redmond, Washington-based company continues to claim that virtually all its earnings are in foreign countries. Microsoft’s latest annual report, released earlier this week, shows that over the past two years, the company enjoyed worldwide income of almost $43 billion. It claims to have earned just 0.3 percent of that—$128 million—in the United States.
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media mention August 3, 2017 Between the Lines: Trump Tax Plan Would Benefit the Wealthiest Americans
Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Matthew Gardner, senior fellow with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, who discusses his group’s analysis of the Trump administration’s tax reform… -
media mention July 31, 2017 Utah Public News Service: Trump’s Economic Policies to Increase Economic Inequality
The Trump administration’s tax proposals would not benefit all taxpayers or states equally, according to new analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Matt Gardner, a senior fellow with… -
media mention July 29, 2017 San Francisco Chronicle: Should We Fear Big Tech?
Many tech companies have avoided taxes by placing intangibles such as patents and copyrights in subsidiaries in low- or no-tax countries, then attributing income likely generated elsewhere to those subsidiaries.… -
blog July 27, 2017 Reviving U.S. Manufacturing, One Cheesecake Factory at a Time
In the latest example of how the tax code has been abused and distorted, the Cheesecake Factory is claiming the manufacturing tax deduction, apparently for manufacturing cheesecakes, burgers, and other treats.
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blog July 21, 2017 Tax Avoidance: Nike “Just Did It” Again, Moving $1.5 Billion Offshore Last Year
The Nike Corporation’s annual financial disclosure of income tax payments is always notable for two recurring trends: the Oregon-based company’s steady shifting of profits into offshore tax havens, and Nike’s apparent effort to conceal how it’s achieving this tax avoidance. This year’s report, released earlier this week, is no exception.
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report July 20, 2017 Trump’s $4.8 Trillion Tax Proposals Would Not Benefit All States or Taxpayers Equally
The broadly outlined tax proposals released by the Trump administration would not benefit all taxpayers equally and they would not benefit all states equally either. Several states would receive a share of the total resulting tax cuts that is less than their share of the U.S. population. Of the dozen states receiving the least by this measure, seven are in the South. The others are New Mexico, Oregon, Maine, Idaho and Hawaii.