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.
-
media mention January 6, 2020 Capital and Main: Two Years Later: What Has Trump’s Tax Law Delivered?
Promise: “We’re also going to eliminate tax breaks and complex loopholes taken advantage [of] by the wealthy.” – President Trump, November 29, 2017. Reality: The law kept tax loopholes in place and added new… -
media mention December 22, 2019 Quartz: Two Years into Trump’s Tax Cut, the Results Are Not Promising
Despite what the Democrats claimed, most people did actually pay less tax. But the wealthy got a far bigger cut than the rest of society, according to various studies. Next… -
blog December 19, 2019 Corporate Tax Avoidance Is Mostly Legal—and That’s the Problem
As usual, corporate spokespersons and their allies are trying to push back against ITEP’s latest study showing that many corporations pay little or nothing in federal income taxes. One way they respond is by stating that everything they do is perfectly legal. This is an attempt by the corporate world to change the subject. The entire point of ITEP’s study is that Congress has allowed corporations to avoid paying taxes, and that this must change.
-
media mention December 19, 2019 Washington Post: House Narrowly Passes Bill That Would Restore SALT Tax Benefits to Higher-income Americans
“This mostly benefits rich people,” Steve Wamhoff, a tax analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a left-leaning think tank, said of repealing the SALT cap. “There’s… -
media mention December 17, 2019 Bloomberg Tax: Tax Perk to Boost Investment May Work—For Small Businesses
The 2017 tax law allowed businesses to use full expensing, or 100% bonus depreciation, for both new and used assets, a benefit that begins phasing out in 2023. Republicans heralded… -
report December 16, 2019 Corporate Tax Avoidance in the First Year of the Trump Tax Law
Profitable Fortune 500 companies avoided $73.9 billion in taxes under the first year of the Trump-GOP tax law. The study includes financial filings by 379 Fortune 500 companies that were profitable in 2018; it excludes companies that reported a loss.
-
blog December 11, 2019 House Democrats’ Latest Bill on SALT Deductions Would Mean Bigger Tax Cuts for the Rich
ITEP estimates show that if the House Democrats’ proposal was in effect in 2022, it would have a net cost of $81 billion in that year alone. The estimates also show that 51 percent of the benefits would go to the richest 1 percent of taxpayers in the U.S. Clearly, lawmakers concerned about the SALT cap need to go back to the drawing board.
-
media mention November 26, 2019 The News Tribune: How Did Tacoma Do Under Trump Tax Cuts? You Can Calculate it for Yourself
President Donald Trump has said it’s time to consider another tax cut — as evidence mounts that wealthier taxpayers in the Tacoma area and around the nation benefited a lot… -
media mention November 14, 2019 USA Today: Trump Is Floating Another Tax Cut. But the Last Thing We Need Is More Breaks for the Rich.
Why is it so important that the rich pay more? Those at the top benefit much more from all the public investments we finance with our tax dollars. President Donald… -
media mention November 7, 2019 Capitol and Main: Trump Boasts of Economic Growth as Inequality Deepens
A second term for Trump would likely mean a doubling down on his inequality exacerbating tax and regulatory agenda. “There will be more tax cuts and further inequality,” said Steven… -
media mention November 7, 2019 Fast Company: While Trump Boasts of Economic Growth, Inequality Deepens
“There will be more tax cuts and further inequality,” said Steven Wamhoff, the director of federal tax policy at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Republicans have already proposed… -
blog November 1, 2019 Sen. Warren Proposes Sweeping Tax Changes to Finance Medicare for All
Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren released a plan today to offset the costs of Medicare for All, a publicly funded single-payer health care program. While ITEP has not crunched the numbers, it seems likely overall that her proposals would raise trillions of dollars and leave costs and taxes either unchanged or lower for most low- and middle-income people.
-
blog October 28, 2019 A Financial Transaction Tax Could Raise Revenue, Curb Inequality
A new report from ITEP explains the potential benefits of a financial transaction tax (FTT), which is supported by several presidential candidates. Few proposals can be said to raise revenue for public investments, make our tax code more progressive, and improve the efficiency of our financial system all at the same time. An FTT can do all of that.
-
report October 28, 2019 Benefits of a Financial Transaction Tax
A financial transaction tax (FTT) has the potential to curb inequality, reduce market inefficiencies, and raise hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue over the next decade. Presidential candidates have proposed using an FTT to fund expanding Medicare, education, child care, and investments in children’s health. Any of these public investments would be progressive, narrowing resource gaps between the most vulnerable families and the most fortunate.
-
blog October 24, 2019 House Passes Landmark Bipartisan Bill to Crack Down on Shell Companies Used for Tax Evasion and Other Crimes
On Tuesday night, 25 Republicans joined nearly all the chamber’s Democrats to approve the Corporate Transparency Act, a bill that would require those creating a company to report its owners to the federal government. The White House expressed support but called for the House and Senate to work on certain details, creating the possibility that the measure could be enacted.
-
media mention October 24, 2019 ProPublica: How a Tax Break to Help the Poor Went to NBA Owner Dan Gilbert
The upside for an investor such as Gilbert “could be huge,” said Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a liberal-leaning think… -
media mention October 23, 2019 The Hill: Senate Rejects Dem Measure to Overturn IRS Rules on SALT Deduction Cap
Lawmakers will have a major opportunity to revisit the GOP tax law at the end of 2025, when the SALT deduction cap and the law’s other tax changes to the… -
blog October 18, 2019 Depreciation Tax Breaks Are a Problem that Deserves More Attention
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ recently released corporate tax plan would shut down the major breaks and loopholes that allow corporations to dodge taxes. The reforms in his plan that are most likely to get attention are proposals to shut down offshore tax dodging, as ITEP has long called for.
-
blog October 15, 2019 Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman’s New Book Reminds Us that Tax Injustice Is a Choice
Cue Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman. In their new book, The Triumph of Injustice, the economists, who already jolted the world with their shocking data on exploding income inequality and wealth inequality, tell us to stop acting like we are paralyzed when it comes to tax policy. There are answers and solutions. And in about 200 surprisingly readable pages, they provide them.
-
media mention October 3, 2019 The Fiscal Times: Would a Warren/Sanders Wealth Tax Kill the Economy?
Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the liberal Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said Wednesday cited the public investments that could be financed with revenues from the… -
blog October 2, 2019 How a Federal Wealth Tax Can Help the Economy
A New York Times article explained that proponents of a federal wealth tax hope to address exploding inequality but then went on to list the fears of billionaires and economic policymakers, finding that “the idea of redistributing wealth by targeting billionaires is stirring fierce debates at the highest ranks of academia and business, with opponents arguing it would cripple economic growth, sap the motivation of entrepreneurs who aspire to be multimillionaires and set off a search for loopholes.” A wealth tax will not damage our economy and instead would likely improve it. Here’s why.
-
blog September 25, 2019 Wealth Tax Proposals from Warren and Sanders: What You Should Know
Earlier this year, Sen. Elizabeth Warren proposed a federal wealth tax on a handful of U.S. households with the highest net worth. Sen. Bernie Sanders has just announced his own wealth tax proposal, which is similar to Warren’s. A few other presidential candidates say they support the concept although they have not provided any details. Here’s what you need to know about the potential for a federal wealth tax.
-
blog September 19, 2019 Capital Gains Tax Breaks Are Finally on the Defensive
One of the most glaring sources of unfairness in the federal tax code are rules that tax capital gains, which mostly go to the rich, less than wages and other types of income that most of us depend on. The capital gains tax breaks have for decades been comfortably ensconced behind trenches filled with special interests who would defend them until the end. But the end is now conceivable.
-
blog September 17, 2019 Julián Castro Provides the Latest Proposal to Expand Refundable Tax Credits
New estimates from ITEP show that Julián Castro’s refundable tax credit proposal would mostly benefit the bottom 60 percent of households and would have a cost ($195 billion in 2020) that places it roughly in the middle of the different tax credit proposals that Democrats have offered over the past several months.