President Biden’s latest budget plan includes proposals that would raise $2.5 trillion in new revenue. While many of these reforms appeared in his previous budget, some of them are brand new, such as his proposal to prevent basis-shifting in partnerships and his Billionaires Minimum Income Tax.
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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report April 26, 2022 Revenue-Raising Proposals in President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Plan
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blog April 21, 2022 Biden’s Proposals Would Fix a Tax Code that Coddles Billionaires
Billionaires can afford to pay a larger share of their income in taxes than teachers, nurses and firefighters. But our tax code often allows them to pay less, as demonstrated… -
blog April 6, 2022 President Biden’s Proposed Billionaires’ Minimum Income Tax Would Ensure the Wealthiest Pay a Reasonable Amount of Income Tax
The Billionaires’ Minimum Income Tax included in President Biden’s budget plan would limit an unfair tax break for capital gains income and complement proposals the president has offered previously to limit other tax breaks for capital gains.
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blog April 6, 2022 Frequently Asked Questions and Concerns About the President Billionaires’ Minimum Income Tax
Find the answers to some frequently asked questions about President Biden’s Billionaires’ Minimum Income Tax, which would limit very wealthy individuals’ ability to put off paying income taxes on capital gains until they sell assets.
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blog March 25, 2022 New ITEP Report Explains How the Biden Administration Can Act on Its Own to Fix Our Tax Code
The Biden administration should revise regulations from the TCJA to enforce the law as it was written and passed by Congress, not as big banks and multinational corporations have lobbied for it to be enforced.
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blog March 25, 2022 Excess Profits Tax Proposals Meet the Moment, But Lawmakers Should Keep Their Eye on Fundamentally Fixing Our Corporate Tax
New corporate tax proposals address the current situation, but ultimately leaders in Washington must fix federal law to tax all corporate profits and stop the tax dodging that is rampant today.
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report March 25, 2022 What the Biden Administration Can Do on Its Own, Without Congress, to Fix the Tax Code
The Biden administration has several options to address tax reform even when Congress is unable or unwilling to help.
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blog March 11, 2022 What We Can Learn Today from the American Rescue Plan – and Sen. Rick Scott’s Proposed Tax Increases
The success of the American Rescue Plan Act is worth revisiting today. Instead of pursuing Sen. Rick Scott’s agenda of making life more difficult for those already working the hardest, Congress should extend or make permanent some of the beneficial policies in ARPA.
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report March 7, 2022 State-by-State Estimates of Sen. Rick Scott’s “Skin in the Game” Proposal
A proposal from Sen. Rick Scott would increase taxes for more than 35% of Americans, with the poorest fifth of Americans paying 34% of the tax increase.
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blog February 22, 2022 Senate Republicans Revive the Myth of the Takers
Sen. Scott and others who favor shifting taxes away from the rich and down the income distribution often focus solely on the federal personal income tax and ignore all the other taxes that Americans pay.
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blog February 17, 2022 The Federal Gas Tax Holiday is Not a New Idea, Just a Bad One
The argument for suspending the gas tax, which would cost $20 billion, is weaker than ever.
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report January 25, 2022 Revenue-Raising Proposals in the Evolving Build Back Better Debate
The United States needs to raise more tax revenue to fund investments in the American people. This revenue can be obtained with reforms that would require the richest and wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share to support the society that makes their fortunes possible.
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blog December 14, 2021 ITEP Data on Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit Provisions Before Congress
Congress expanded the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP). The additional benefits that millions of… -
blog December 7, 2021 Latest Proposal from Senate Democrats Would Bar the Rich from SALT Cap Relief
Richest taxpayers would receive $0 benefit under new compromise compared with 51 percent of the benefit of House-passed SALT provision DOWNLOAD NATIONAL AND STATE-BY-STATE ESTIMATES In the latest chapter of… -
report November 18, 2021 Analysis of the House of Representatives’ Build Back Better Legislation
If the bill becomes law, in 2022 federal taxes would go up for the average taxpayer among the richest one percent and down for the average taxpayer in other income groups.
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blog November 3, 2021 Senators Menendez and Sanders Show the Way Forward on the SALT Cap
Amending the Build Back Better bill to fully repeal the SALT cap would mean that the richest 1 percent could pay less in personal income taxes than they do now, which goes against everything President Biden has said for the past year as he promoted this legislation.
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blog October 27, 2021 America’s Richest Would Finally Pay Taxes on Most of Their Income Under Wyden’s Billionaires Income Tax
While the Ways and Means bill includes many helpful tax reforms, people like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk would still pay an effective tax rate of zero percent on most of their income if it was enacted without this change. Sen. Wyden’s proposal would finally end this injustice.
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blog October 27, 2021 Senate Democrats’ Corporate Minimum Tax Could Address the Worst Corporate Tax Dodging
There is no reason corporations reporting hundreds of millions, but not billions, of dollars in profits to their shareholders should be allowed to avoid paying taxes. Nonetheless, the corporate minimum tax is a huge step forward and a valuable component of the Build Back Better plan.
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blog September 28, 2021 The Billionaires’ Income Tax Is the Latest Proposal to Reform How We Tax Capital Gains
When people first hear about proposals to tax unrealized capital gains, they often ask, “Is this income, and if so, should we tax it?” The answers to those questions are “yes” and “yes, when we are talking about the very rich.”
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report September 23, 2021 Repealing the SALT Cap Would Wipe Out Revenue Raised by the House Ways and Means Bill’s Income Tax Provisions
There are several ways that the House leadership could avoid this problem. One approach is for lawmakers to replace the SALT cap with a different kind of limit on tax breaks for the rich that actually raises revenue and avoids disfavoring some states compared to others as the SALT cap does. ITEP has suggested a way to do this.
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blog September 21, 2021 New ITEP Report Examines the Tax Changes in the House Ways and Means Build Back Better Bill
The vast majority of these tax increases would be paid by the richest 1 percent of Americans and foreign investors. The bill’s most significant tax cuts — expansions of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) — would more than offset the tax increases for the average taxpayer in all income groups except for the richest 5 percent.
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report September 21, 2021 Tax Changes in the House Ways and Means Committee Build Back Better Bill
This report finds that the vast majority of these tax increases would be paid by the richest 1 percent of Americans and foreign investors. The bill’s most significant tax cuts — expansions of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) — would more than offset the tax increases for the average taxpayer in all income groups except for the richest 5 percent.
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report September 17, 2021 Why Congress Should Reform the Federal Corporate Income Tax
It is reasonable for corporations (and, indirectly, their shareholders) to pay taxes to support the government investments that make their profits possible, such as the highways that facilitate the movement of goods and people, the education and health care systems that provide a productive workforce, the legal system and the protection of property, all of which are vital to commerce. Corporate tax avoidance allows wealthy and powerful individuals to reap enormous benefits from these investments without contributing their fair share to support them.
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blog September 15, 2021 House Ways and Means Provisions to Raise Revenue Would Significantly Improve Our Tax System But Fall Short of the President’s Plan
High-income people and corporations would pay more than they do today, which is a monumental change. But some wealthy billionaires like Jeff Bezos would continue to pay an effective rate of zero percent on most of their income, and American corporations would still have some incentives to shift profits offshore.
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blog September 3, 2021 Frequently Asked Questions about Proposals to Repeal the Cap on Federal Tax Deductions for State and Local Taxes (SALT)
Even though Democrats in Congress uniformly opposed the TCJA because its benefits went predominately to the rich, many Democratic lawmakers now want to give a tax cut to the rich by repealing the cap on SALT deductions.