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 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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blog September 12, 2019 Sen. Wyden’s Anti-Deferral Accounting Proposal Could Be a Game-Changer
Today, Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, fulfilled a promise he made several months ago to release a proposal that could fundamentally transform how the… -
September 12, 2019 Comments on Senate Finance Committee Paper on Anti-Deferral Accounting
Comments on Senate Finance Committee Paper on Anti-Deferral Accounting
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blog August 28, 2019 Updated Estimates from ITEP: Trump Tax Law Still Benefits the Rich No Matter How You Look at It
President Trump’s allies in Congress continue to defend their 2017 tax law in misleading ways. Just last week, Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee stated that most “of the tax overhaul went into the pockets of working families and Main Street businesses who need it most, not Wall Street.” ITEP’s most recent analysis estimates that in 2020 the richest 5 percent of taxpayers will receive $145 billion in tax cuts, or half the law’s benefits to U.S. taxpayers.
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media mention August 23, 2019 The Hill: Conservatives Push Trump Tariff Relief over Payroll Tax Cuts
And conservatives aren’t the only critics of a potential payroll tax reduction. Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said there… -
media mention August 22, 2019 BBC: Three Ways Trump Could Juice the Economy
The policy was last used during the Obama administration in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis when it faced huge pushback from Congressional Republicans. In 2011 and 2012, the… -
blog August 20, 2019 White House Considers Payroll Tax Cut that GOP Opposed During Obama Years
The Trump Administration is considering cutting the Social Security payroll tax to prevent an economic downturn, something that seemed more justified when enacted in the aftermath of the Great Recession—when congressional Republicans largely opposed it. Here are some things to remember about this tax.
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blog August 9, 2019 Taxing Offshore Profits and Domestic Profits Equally Could Curb Corporate Tax Dodging
In recent days, presidential candidates Sen. Kamala Harris and New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio have called for taxing corporate profits the same whether they are earned in the United States… -
media mention August 1, 2019 Wall Street Journal: Going Out of Style: Tax-Driven Deals to Move Corporate HQs Outside U.S.
Through mergers, companies such as Allergan, Mylan, Medtronic and Johnson Controls PLC moved tax addresses abroad. The companies were often managed from the U.S. “It was always a fiction that they… -
media mention July 31, 2019 Washington Times: 2020 Democratic Candidates Put Trump’s Corporate Tax Rate Cut in Crosshairs
Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, agreed that the rate alone isn’t enough. “If we raise the corporate income tax rate…