“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.”
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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news release September 27, 2020 ITEP: New York Times’ Trump Tax Revelation Confirms What We Already Know
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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.
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blog July 21, 2020 New ITEP Report on Trump’s Payroll Tax Holiday
While the White House hasn’t clarified what it is proposing, we know that a payroll tax cut would not be well-targeted. In a new report, ITEP estimates the effects of suspending Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes for employees and employers from September 1 through the end of the year. We find that 64 percent of the benefits would go to the richest 20 percent of Americans while 24 percent of the benefits would go to the richest 1 percent.
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news release July 21, 2020 New Analysis: Payroll Tax Cut Would Cost $336 Billion, Benefit Top 1 Percent Most
Media contact Temporarily eliminating all federal payroll taxes through the end of the year would cost $336 billion, deliver 64 percent of its benefits to the richest 20 percent of… -
report July 21, 2020 An Updated Analysis of a Potential Payroll Tax Holiday
ITEP estimates that if Congress and the president eliminated all Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes paid by employers and employees from Sept. 1 through the end of the year, 64 percent of the benefits would go the richest 20 percent of taxpayers and 24 percent of the benefits would go to the richest 1 percent of taxpayers, as illustrated in the table below. The total cost of this hypothetical proposal would be $336 billion.
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blog July 17, 2020 SALT Cap Repeal Has No Place in COVID-19 Legislation: National and State-by-State Data
The Trump-GOP tax law enacted at the end of 2017 includes a $10,000 cap on the amount of state and local taxes (SALT) that people can deduct on their federal tax returns, and this is one of the few limits the law places on tax breaks for high-income people. Unfortunately, it is also the provision that some Democrats are most determined to remove.
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media mention July 14, 2020 The Epoch Times: Biden’s Progressive Tax Proposal Raises Rates on Wealthy and Corporations
“It’s probably one of the most progressive tax plans we’ve seen from a presidential nominee from one of the two major parties in many, many years,” Steve Wamhoff, director of federal… -
report July 14, 2020 Who Pays Taxes in America in 2020?
Having a sound understanding of who pays taxes and how much is a particularly relevant question now as the nation grapples with a health and economic crisis that is devastating lower-income families and requiring all levels of government to invest more in keeping individuals, families and communities afloat. This year, the share of all taxes paid by the richest 1 percent of Americans (24.3 percent) will be just a bit higher than the share of all income going to this group (20.9 percent). The share of all taxes paid by the poorest fifth of Americans (2 percent) will be just a bit lower than the share of all income going to this group (2.8 percent).
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blog July 9, 2020 Congressional Budget Office Confirms That IRS Budget Cuts Lose Money and Benefit the Rich
Lawmakers often claim that they are “saving” taxpayers money by slashing federal spending, but the truth is that these cuts often are counterproductive and costly in the long-term. One type of budget-cutting has costs that are immediate and obvious—cuts to the IRS, the agency that collects the revenue that pays for federal spending. A new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirms that lawmakers’ anti-government, IRS funding-cuts zeal has increased the deficit.
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media mention June 30, 2020 POLITICO Morning Tax: Welcome, commissioner
FOOT OFF THE ACCELERATOR, PLEASE: The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s Matthew Gardner and Steve Wamhoff maintain in a new paper that the proposals to allow companies to cash out… -
report June 30, 2020 Republican Tax Credit Proposal Would Provide New Breaks to Tax Avoiders Like Amazon and Netflix
While lawmakers of both parties and policy experts discuss various ways to respond to the continuing COVID-19 crisis and resulting economic downturn, Republicans in Congress are offering a new solution. Their idea, which is still being discussed, is to waive existing limits on business tax credits. This could benefit corporations that are profitable but that nonetheless pay no taxes or very little in taxes because of the many tax breaks and legal loopholes they already enjoy.
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blog June 18, 2020 National and State-by-State Estimates of House-Passed Improvements in Tax Credits for Workers and Children
Among other important provisions, the HEROES Act includes reforms to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) to make these tax credits more effective in helping working people and helping parents afford the costs of raising children.
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blog June 2, 2020 White House Incredibly Still Believes Tax Cuts Are the Answer to America’s Problems
White House officials continue to discuss tax cuts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Steve Wamhoff provides a roundup of these terrible ideas that would do little to boost investment or reach those who need it most.
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report June 2, 2020 Depreciation Breaks Have Saved 20 Major Corporations $26.5 Billion Over Past Two Years
The Trump administration and its congressional allies have proposed making permanent the expensing provision in the Trump-GOP tax law. Expensing is the most extreme form of accelerated depreciation, which allows businesses to deduct the cost of purchasing equipment more quickly than it wears out. But expensing and other types of accelerated depreciation already account for a very large share of corporate tax breaks and allows many companies to pay nothing at all.
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blog June 2, 2020 Trump-GOP Tax Law Encourages Companies to Move Jobs Offshore–and New Tax Cuts Won’t Change That
New tax cuts to incentivize bringing jobs back to the United States will fail. No new tax provisions can be more generous than the zero percent rate the 2017 law provides for many offshore profits or the loopholes that allow corporations to shift profits to countries with minimal or no corporate income taxes.
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media mention June 2, 2020 Minneapolis Star Tribune: Minnesota Companies Cashing in on CARES Act Business Tax Breaks
Other taxation watchdogs call it a windfall, and one that disproportionately benefits large companies with volatile earnings, not the neighborhood auto shop or hair salon whose business vanished in the…