Steve Wamhoff
Steve Wamhoff is ITEP’s director of federal tax policy. In this role, he is responsible for setting the organization’s federal research and policy agenda. He is the author of numerous reports and analyses of federal tax policies as well as in-depth policy briefs that outline how the federal income tax and corporate tax code can be overhauled to improve tax fairness.
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media mention October 23, 2023 TIME: How Giant Corporations Can Still Get Out of Paying Taxes
For decades, multinational corporations—especially those based in the U.S.—have funneled billions of dollars in profits to tax havens, earning even more money for their shareholders. Read more. -
media mention June 26, 2023 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The Next Tax Debates are Heating Up in Congress
Call it the battle of the tax cuts. Western Pennsylvania’s lawmakers are on opposite sides as the U.S. House debates whether — and how — to cut taxes. Read more. -
media mention June 15, 2023 Salon: GOP Follows Debt Fight with Bill to Give $24 billion Tax Cut to the Top 1 Percent
After spending months threatening to tank the economy over the federal deficit, Republicans have unveiled a set of new tax proposals that would cost the government billions of dollars —… -
media mention May 22, 2023 Washington Post: How California’s Wild Weather Brought the Debt-Ceiling ‘X Date’ Closer
As President Biden and lawmakers scramble to strike a debt ceiling deal before the government runs out of money, each day counts — to the tune of about $17 billion. That’s how… -
media mention March 10, 2023 MarketWatch: Biden’s Tax Hikes for the Rich are Unlikely to Pass. The Bigger Debate: Trump-era Tax Cuts that End in 2025.
For five years, most Americans have seen lower income-tax rates and tapped a bigger standard deduction, but without congressional action before the end of 2025, the rules could still revert… -
media mention February 7, 2023 Wall Street Journal: Top GOP Tax Legislator Says He’ll Boost Workers, Probe Companies
Rep. Jason Smith (R., Mo.), the House’s new top tax writer, is promoting an approach he says would favor working-class Americans over large corporations, a shift in tone from his predecessors that… -
media mention October 7, 2022 Financial Times: Wall Street Finds a Tax Silver Lining in Down Market
Wall Street banks have found a silver lining in this year’s market rout: making money by helping wealthy clients sell some investments at a loss to lighten their tax bills.… -
media mention August 19, 2022 Newsweek: Stimulus Check Update: Child Tax Credit Bill Faces Uphill Battle
Conversations on reviving the expanded child tax credit—which the White House credited as the main driver behind bringing child poverty to record lows in 2021—might not be finished yet. Read… -
media mention August 15, 2022 Marketwatch: Here’s How Private Equity Got Relief in Democrats’ Healthcare, Climate and Tax Package
The bipartisan duo of Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and John Thune helped private equity firms escape tens of billions of dollars in potential tax increases and instead walk away with relief… -
media mention August 11, 2022 Washington Post: With Sinema’s Help, Private Equity Firms Win Relief from Proposed Tax Hikes
Senate Democrats agreed Sunday to protect firms owned by the private equity industry from a new minimum tax on billion-dollar corporations, bowing to pressure from Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who… -
media mention August 2, 2022 Bloomberg Tax Op-Ed: Manchin-Schumer Deal Takes Sensible Aim at Corporate Tax Dodging
Revenue-raising provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act would bring long-overdue fairness to a tax system that for decades has been eroded by special breaks for the powerful and well-connected, says… -
media mention July 28, 2022 The Washington Post: How the Schumer-Manchin Climate Bill Might Impact You and Change the U.S.
“This would certainly be the biggest corporate tax increase in decades,” said Steve Wamhoff, a tax expert at Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “We’ve had decades of tax policy… -
media mention April 27, 2022 Bloomberg: Musk’s Untaxed Wealth Opens a Path to Twitter, Riling Democrats
“If you look at Musk’s ‘income’ as defined by our tax code, you see that the guy is really rich, but not rich enough to buy Twitter,” Steve Wamhoff, the… -
media mention April 19, 2022 McClatchy: A Republican senator has a plan to ‘Rescue America.’ Here’s what it could cost Californians
But it’s the lowest wage earners who would pay more taxes, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center reached the same conclusion. The… -
media mention March 29, 2022 Associated Press: How Would a Billionaire Tax Work?
Steve Wamhoff, director of tax policy at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, says the Democrats “have got this reconciliation vehicle that they can use that to pass legislation.”… -
media mention March 29, 2022 MarketWatch: Can Biden turn his ‘billionaire minimum income tax’ into law?
The minimum tax payments would count as a “prepayment,” credited against future capital-gains taxes, the Treasury Department said. That way, when the asset was finally sold off, it would not… -
media mention March 29, 2022 Fortune: President Biden says his ‘Billionaire Minimum Income Tax’ would raise $360 billion. How does it work?
The highest likelihood is through “reconciliation” — a budget process for passing fiscal legislation with a simple majority of Senate votes. That will require buy-in from West Virginia Sen. Joe… -
media mention March 11, 2022 McClatchy: Would a gas tax break help drivers save that much money? Here’s what experts say
According to the American Petroleum Institute, the federal tax on gas is about 18 cents per gallon. National gas prices average about $4 per gallon as of March 11, according… -
media mention February 25, 2022 Politifact: States’ Pursuit of Top-Heavy Tax Cuts Is Disconnected from Reality
Steve Wamhoff, the director of federal tax policy at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said that group includes many retirees or people with disabilities who are collecting Social Security benefits,… -
media mention November 8, 2021 Star-Ledger: On SALT, Dems push tax relief for the rich, not the middle class
It’s true: Eliminating the limit on the SALT deduction would be more costly than the other parts of Biden’s social spending agenda, including the extension of the child tax credit,… -
media mention November 3, 2021 Washington Post: Democrats look at expanding minimum tax on wealthy in exchange for state and local tax break
“The majority of benefits from repealing the SALT cap just go to the 1 percent,” said Steve Wamhoff, a tax expert at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “If… -
media mention November 3, 2021 Newsmax: Dems Consider Upping Minimum Tax on Rich in Exchange for SALT Deduction Cap
Steve Wamhoff, an expert on taxes with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said that “the majority of benefits from repealing the SALT cap just go to the 1… -
media mention October 30, 2021 CNBC: Democrats still weighing changes to limit on state and local taxes deduction
One proposal, for example, removes the cap for 2022 and 2023 and restores it for 2026 and 2027, after it’s scheduled to sunset per the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.… -
media mention October 28, 2021 Wall Street Journal: Corporate Minimum Tax Resurfaces
But there is little evidence that immediate expensing significantly encourages more investment, said Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a progressive… -
media mention October 28, 2021 The Wall Street Journal: Biden Stock Buyback Tax: What to Know About the Latest Proposal
Supporters of the buyback tax acknowledge companies can instead shift spending to regular or special dividends, which would be taxed to the recipients. “Isn’t that the issue with stock buybacks?”…