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 December 16, 2020 The American Prospect: The Day One Agenda for Corporate Taxes
Even without Congress, President-elect Biden’s regulatory agencies can fix a lot of problems with the corporate tax code. BY STEVE WAMHOFF, MATTHEW GARDNER The public has long told pollsters that… -
media mention November 10, 2020 CNBC: Here’s What’s Ahead for President-elect Biden’s Tax Plan
Another idea that might stand a chance in a split Congress could be to properly fund the IRS so it can pursue larger targets, rather than going through the contentious… -
media mention October 30, 2020 Yahoo! Finance: Here’s How the Biden Tax Plan Would Affect Each State
Biden’s plan would generate over $289 billion in tax revenue, according to research from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). About 1.9% of the U.S. population would see… -
blog October 22, 2020 Trump Says Taxes Will Be Too High on the 2% Who Pay More Under Biden’s Plan
The Trump campaign has failed to convince the public that large numbers of Americans would face tax hikes under Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s tax plan. The claim has been widely discredited. For example, ITEP found that the federal taxes that people pay directly would rise for just 1.9 percent of taxpayers in the U.S., and that number does not vary much by state. So, Fox News and other conservative voices are trying out a new argument: Biden’s tax plan would be too burdensome for that 1.9 percent.
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blog October 13, 2020 Supreme Court Would Provide Massive Tax Cut for the Rich if It Strikes Down Affordable Care Act
If the Supreme Court strikes down the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as argued for by the Trump administration and the president’s nominee to the court, Amy Coney Barrett, one under-appreciated result will be a tax break of roughly $40 billion annually for about 3 percent of Americans, who all have incomes of more than $200,000.
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media mention October 13, 2020 Washington Times: Spending plans by Biden, Trump would hike federal debt by $5 trillion over 10 years
Under his plan, 97% of the tax increases would fall on the top 1% of earners, according to new projections from the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “Only… -
blog October 7, 2020 New ITEP Report Shows Few Taxpayers in Each State Paying More Under Biden’s Tax Plan
An ITEP report finds that taxes that people pay directly would stay the same or go down in 2022 for 98.1 percent of Americans under President-elect Joe Biden’s tax plan.
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media mention October 3, 2020 FAIR: Steve Wamhoff on Trump’s Taxes
We’ll talk about takeaways from Trump’s taxes with Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Listen -
blog September 29, 2020 A 2017 Tax Provision Could Have Restrained Trump’s Tax Dodging, But Congress Just Weakened It
President Trump and Republicans in Congress passed up almost every opportunity to shut down special tax breaks and loopholes for real estate investors when they enacted their 2017 tax law. They did, however, include some welcome provisions to limit how business owners use losses to avoid taxes, and these provisions could potentially limit the sort of tax dodging perfected by Trump. Unfortunately, Congress temporarily reversed these limits with some provisions tucked into the CARES Act that was enacted in March, and this may help Trump and others like him to continue avoiding taxes.
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blog September 29, 2020 Real Tax Reform Never Had a Chance Under Trump
Congress is certainly to blame both for providing a ridiculously lenient tax code for the super-wealthy and for preventing the IRS from enforcing even the existing weak limits in the law on tax avoidance. But make no mistake, one person is primarily responsible for the farce that is Donald Trump’s tax dodging, and that is Donald Trump. For years, he has actively and loudly supported special tax breaks and tax shelters, making him anything but a passive bystander to their creation.
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media mention September 29, 2020 Marketwatch: Trump’s 2017 tax bill was reportedly $750 — here’s how that stacks up against the average American’s taxes
That’s according to an analysis from Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the left-leaning Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy. (Wamhoff looked at income tax liabilities by adjusted… -
media mention September 29, 2020 Scoop: ‘The American People Should Be Pissed Off’: Critics Say Trump Tax Dodging Exposes System Rotten to the Core
Steve Wamhoff, federal policy director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, noted in a statement that the Times reporting does “not include Trump’s tax returns for 2018 and… -
media mention September 29, 2020 Associated Press: Trump Went Even Further Than Other Uber-rich to Shrink Taxes
So say tax experts in the wake of a New York Times report Sunday that found that Trump paid only $750 in taxes in both 2016 and 2017 — and… -
media mention September 29, 2020 Common Dreams: The American people should be angry’: Critics say Trump tax dodging exposes a system rotten to the core
Steve Wamhoff, federal policy director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, noted in a statement that the Times reporting does “not include Trump’s tax returns for 2018 and… -
news release September 27, 2020 ITEP: New York Times’ Trump Tax Revelation Confirms What We Already Know
“The New York Times revelation of Trump’s years of dodging taxes confirms something we already know. There are two tax systems: one that most of us follow, and another far more generous one for the very rich.”
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blog September 18, 2020 New ITEP Estimates on Biden’s Proposal to Expand the Child Tax Credit
On Thursday, former Vice President Joe Biden announced that his tax plan would include a provision passed by House Democrats to temporarily expand the Child Tax Credit (CTC), potentially lifting millions of children out of poverty.
Estimates from ITEP show that this change would benefit most families with children—more than 83 million children live in households that would benefit if this was in effect in 2020—but the most dramatic boost would go to low-income families.
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news release August 31, 2020 Trump’s Payroll Tax Executive Order Creates Problems, Fails to Help Those Most in Need
Media contact Following is a statement by Steve Wamhoff, federal policy director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, regarding President Trump’s executive order that would suspend the employee… -
blog August 18, 2020 Analysis: Trump’s Proposed Capital Gains Break Almost Exclusively Benefits Top 1 Percent
On Aug. 13, President Trump pledged to cut the top federal income tax for capital gains to 15 percent. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that 99 percent of the benefits would go to the richest 1 percent of taxpayers. This is unsurprising given that only those with taxable income of nearly half a million dollars are subject to a capital gains tax rate higher than 15 percent.
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blog August 17, 2020 Trump’s Executive Order on Social Security Payroll Taxes Is a Mess
President Trump’s executive order that would supposedly allow workers to delay paying Social Security taxes, along with his related public statements, have created a situation that is bizarre even by 2020 standards.
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media mention August 10, 2020 Politico Morning Tax: All about the payroll tax executive order
Experts say there would still be a slight hit to the Social Security trust fund if the payroll tax payments don’t end up getting excused. That would mean companies would… -
media mention August 2, 2020 The Hill: Stimulus checks debate now focuses on size, eligibility
An analysis from the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) found that the HEROES Act would provide more assistance to low- and moderate-income families than the HEALS Act… -
blog July 29, 2020 Biden’s Minimum Corporate Tax Proposal: Yes, Please Limit Amazon’s Tax Breaks
A large majority of Americans want corporations to pay more taxes and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has several proposals to achieve that. The newest idea is to require corporations to pay a minimum tax equal to 15 percent of profits they report to shareholders and to the public if this is less than what they pay under regular corporate tax rules. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal quotes several critics of the proposal, but none of their points are convincing.
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brief July 28, 2020 New Analysis Compares HEROES Act and HEALS Act, Disaggregates Data by Race and Income
The Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools (HEALS) Act released by Senate Republicans Monday includes a tax rebate that is slightly more generous than the one provided under the March CARES Act, but fails to correct most of the earlier act’s problems. House Democrats addressed these shortcomings in the May HEROES Act, a better starting place for negotiations over the next round of COVID-19 relief. ITEP has analyzed both acts to provide a detailed comparison of how the tax rebate provisions would affect families across the income spectrum and by race. Both measures would provide cash payments to a majority of individuals and families, but the HEROES Act goes farther and is more inclusive.
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media mention July 22, 2020 Bloomberg: Biden Attacks $50 Billion Real Estate Tax Break in Jab at Trump
On its merits, the like-kind exchange — sometimes referred to as a “1031” exchange for its tax code designation — is difficult to defend, according to some tax experts. “There… -
blog July 21, 2020 Biden Proposes to Fund Child Care and Elder Care by Shutting Down Tax Breaks for Real Estate Investors
On Tuesday, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden announced a $775 billion proposal to expand care options for children and elderly people, suggesting that the cost would be at least partly offset by paring back tax breaks for real estate investors.
Bigtime real estate investors are simply unaccustomed to operating without government subsidies provided through the tax code.