Special interests lobbying against President Joe Biden’s tax agenda claim that his proposed corporate income tax rate hike will harm small businesses and that his proposed capital gains tax reforms will hurt family farms. Both claims are absurd attempts by powerful interests to pretend they are defending the little guy.
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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blog July 16, 2021 Opposition to Biden’s Tax Plan Has Nothing to Do with Small Businesses or Family Farms
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blog July 16, 2021 Washington Post Confirms that Corporations Are Bolder than Ever in Claiming Dubious Tax Breaks
IRS budget cuts starting in 2010 have forced the agency to reduce its audit rate for corporations with $20 billion or more in assets from 98 percent to 50 percent. The Washington Post found that during the decade, the amount of “uncertain tax benefits” claimed by corporations increased 43 percent, from $164 billion in 2010 to $235 billion in 2020.
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blog June 25, 2021 When Tax Breaks for Retirement Savings Enrich the Already Rich
Members of Congress frequently claim they want to make it easier for working people to scrape together enough savings to have some financial security in retirement. But lawmakers’ preferred method to (ostensibly) achieve this goal is through tax breaks that have allowed the tech mogul Peter Thiel to avoid taxes on $5 billion. This is just one of the eye-popping revelations in the latest expose from ProPublica.
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media mention June 25, 2021 NBC News: Billionaire investor Peter Thiel has $5B in his tax-free retirement account, report finds
“It’s a wildly inappropriate use of the Roth IRA, even if it’s legal,” said Steve Wamhoff, the director of federal tax policy at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy… -
media mention June 10, 2021 Market Watch: How would Biden’s tax hikes hit the wealth of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and other billionaires? First, they’d have to die, experts say
“The whole exposé is really an argument for the Biden proposal to tax unrealized capital gains at death,” said Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the left-leaning Institute… -
media mention June 9, 2021 Fortune: Biden’s plan will stop Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk from avoiding billions in taxes
FORTUNE: COMMENTARY | TAXES BY STEVE WAMHOFF It is no surprise that billionaires pay little in federal taxes relative to their incomes, but the level of detail provided by ProPublica Tuesday about how… -
blog June 9, 2021 U.S. Should Pursue Biden’s Tax Legislation and International Tax Agreement on Separate Tracks
The agreement announced over the weekend from the finance leaders of the Group of 7 (G7) countries to allow governments to tax some corporate profits based on the location of sales and to implement a 15 percent global minimum tax is a major step forward—but in no way changes the need for Congress to enact President Joe Biden’s tax reforms right now.
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media mention June 8, 2021 New York Times: Investors Fret as Biden Takes Aim at a 100-Year-Old Tax Loophole
In this congressional session, Democrats appear to be placing enormous emphasis on creating a fairer tax code along with investing in infrastructure and social programs, said Steve Wamhoff, director of… -
blog May 25, 2021 How Biden’s Plan Would Crack Down on Wealthy Tax Evaders
The Treasury Department released a report explaining what the administration’s tax enforcement plan would do—and how it fits into the president’s overall plan to collect more revenue from profitable corporations and individuals making more than $400,000 a year.
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brief May 25, 2021 Income Tax Increases in the President’s American Families Plan
President Biden’s American Families Plan includes revenue-raising proposals that would affect only very high-income taxpayers.[1] The two most prominent of these proposals would restore the top personal income tax rate to 39.6 percent and eliminate tax breaks related to capital gains for millionaires. As this report explains, these proposals would affect less than 1 percent of taxpayers and would be confined almost exclusively to the richest 1 percent of Americans. The plan includes other tax increases that would also target the very well-off and would make our tax system fairer. It would raise additional revenue by more effectively enforcing tax laws already on the books.
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blog May 18, 2021 IRS Clock Runs Out, Saving 14 Large Companies $1.3 Billion
Each year, corporations publicly state that some of the tax breaks they claim are unlikely to withstand scrutiny from tax authorities. And each year, corporations report that they will keep some of the dubious tax breaks they declared in previous years simply because the statute of limitations ran out before tax authorities made any conclusions. This suggests that, perhaps because of cuts to its enforcement budget, the IRS is not even investigating corporations that publicly announce they have claimed tax breaks that tax authorities would likely find illegal.
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media mention May 15, 2021 Associated Press: IRS to the rescue? Tax audits eyed for infrastructure cash
The Internal Revenue Service has estimated the tax gap is $440 billion per year. But IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig stunned his audience at a recent Senate hearing when he offered… -
brief May 6, 2021 Effects of the President’s Capital Gains and Dividends Tax Proposals by State
President Biden’s proposal to eliminate the lower income tax rate on capital gains (profits from selling assets) and stock dividends for millionaires would affect less than half of one percent (0.4 percent) of U.S. taxpayers if it goes into effect in 2022. The share of taxpayers affected would be less than 1 percent in every state.
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media mention May 4, 2021 Daily Kos: Study: Non-wealthy to benefit most from Biden’s tax and spending plans, especially in red states
For those who aren’t policy wonks—and who somehow can’t decide whether Joe Biden is a compassionate family man or a rapacious baby’s blood aficionado—it can be difficult to suss out… -
media mention April 30, 2021 NBC News: Venture capitalists spar over Biden plan to raise their taxes
President Barack Obama’s White House put out a proposal similar to the one Biden’s White House is now offering, according to Steve Wamhoff, the director of federal tax policy at… -
media mention April 29, 2021 USA TODAY: Biden cites left-leaning study that 55 of top U.S. companies paid no federal income taxes
The ITEP report was based on a review of annual financial records by the nation’s largest publicly traded companies for their most recent fiscal year. Wamhoff noted that Biden on… -
media mention April 22, 2021 The Hill: Progressives Divided over Efforts to Repeal SALT Cap
Outside liberal groups are also criticizing the push to repeal the SALT deduction cap. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released a report Tuesday that said repealing the cap… -
media mention April 11, 2021 The Hill: White House sends mixed message on higher taxes
According to a report released Thursday by the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), the personal income tax increases in Biden’s campaign plan would impact only 1.9 percent… -
blog April 8, 2021 What to Expect from Biden and Congressional Democrats on Tax Increases for Individuals
The Biden administration has already provided details on its corporate tax proposals and in the next couple of weeks is expected to propose tax changes for individuals. Meanwhile, congressional Democrats have some ideas of their own. What should we expect?
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report April 8, 2021 National and State-by-State Estimates of President Biden’s Campaign Proposals for Revenue
During his presidential campaign, Joe Biden proposed to change the tax code to raise revenue directly from households with income exceeding $400,000. More precisely, Biden proposed to raise personal income taxes on unmarried individuals and married couples with taxable income exceeding $400,000, and he also proposed to raise payroll taxes on individual workers with earnings exceeding $400,000. Just 2 percent of taxpayers would see a direct tax hike (an increase in either personal income taxes, payroll taxes, or both) if Biden’s campaign proposals were in effect in 2022. The share of taxpayers affected in each state would vary from a low of 0.6 percent in West Virginia to a high of 3.5 percent in New Jersey.
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report April 8, 2021 A Proposal to Simplify President Biden’s Campaign Plan for Personal Income Taxes and Replace the Cap on SALT Deductions
In this paper, we describe a tax policy idea that would simplify the proposals President Biden presented during his campaign to raise personal income taxes for those with annual incomes greater than $400,000. Our proposal would replace the cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions with a broader limit on tax breaks for the rich that would raise more revenue than the personal income tax hikes that Biden proposed during his campaign. Our proposal would also achieve Biden’s goals of setting the top rate at 39.6 percent and raising taxes only on those with income exceeding $400,000.
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media mention April 7, 2021 Salon: America’s Biggest Corporations Paid No Federal Income Taxes Last Year: Study
According to a new study, conservative policies look to have helped a handful of large companies mooch off the federal government in 2020. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy,… -
media mention April 6, 2021 (Connecticut) Middletown-Press: Stamford-based Charter Communications Paid No Federal Income Taxes in 2020, New Report Shows
The treatment of Charter and the 54 other companies “continues a decades-long trend of corporate tax avoidance by the biggest U.S. corporations, and it appears to be the product of… -
media mention April 5, 2021 Washington Post: Dozens of America’s Biggest Businesses Paid No Federal Income Tax Again
Fifty-five of the nation’s largest corporations paid no federal income tax on more than $40 billion in profits last year, according to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and… -
media mention April 2, 2021 Associated Press: Even with Pretax Profits, Many Big Companies Pay Zero US Tax
Just as President Joe Biden is pushing to raise taxes on companies to help pay for his infrastructure plan, a report from a Washington policy group is highlighting how many…