Personal Income Taxes
Alabama Sunsets its Expensive ‘No Tax on Overtime’ Policy
June 18, 2025 • By Neva Butkus
The idea of exempting overtime pay from income tax has gained traction, but there's little evidence it's an effective policy. Alabama tried it in 2023 but ended the policy after just two years. Their reversal highlights how exempting overtime is an expensive gimmick and a distraction from real worker issues.
North Carolina Tax Proposal Prioritizes Millionaires Over Everyone Else
June 11, 2025 • By Dylan Grundman O'Neill, Miles Trinidad
North Carolina Senators are proposing to yet again ignore the core needs of the majority of North Carolinians in favor of more income tax cuts for the wealthy few. The Senate's budget would take the personal income tax rate to 1.99 percent as soon as 2031 if certain revenue triggers are met, once again delivering billions of dollars in tax cuts mostly to the rich. And the cost of those tax cuts for North Carolina will be steep cuts to the state’s future, including public education and community colleges.
Amid Economic Uncertainty, Delaware Lawmakers Should Consider Progressive Revenue Proposals
June 4, 2025 • By Miles Trinidad
Delaware leaders cited the ongoing federal tax debate and economic uncertainty amid the Trump administration's tariffs and trade wars as reasons to delay pursuing some of the progressive tax increases that Gov. Matt Meyers proposed in recent months. But just the opposite is needed. Delaware lawmakers should advance tax policies that can simultaneously protect state revenue to fund important priorities and improve tax equity in the state ahead of the approaching fiscal storm.
Maryland’s New Budget Boosts Tax Revenue and Equity
May 6, 2025 • By Miles Trinidad
The final budget adopted by the Maryland General Assembly shows progress in advancing tax equity in the state while boosting state revenues to address the state’s budget deficit. To help close a $3.3 billion budget deficit, Maryland legislators enacted much-needed tax reforms and progressive revenue raisers that help meet the state’s needs while making the […]
A Windfall for the Wealthy: A Distributional Analysis of Mississippi HB 1
April 8, 2025 • By Aidan Davis, Dylan Grundman O'Neill, Neva Butkus
Mississippi lawmakers have approved the most radical and costly change to the state’s personal income tax system to date. House Bill 1 ultimately eliminates the state's personal income tax and cuts state revenues by nearly $2.7 billion a year when fully implemented. This deeply regressive legislation will create a windfall for the wealthiest residents of the poorest state in the nation while simultaneously jeopardizing the state’s ability to fund public services that support Mississippians and the state’s economy.
Advantaging Affluence: A Distributional Analysis of Missouri HB 798’s Uneven Tax Cuts for Wealth and Work
March 28, 2025 • By Aidan Davis, Carl Davis, Dylan Grundman O'Neill, Eli Byerly-Duke, Matthew Gardner
Missouri House Bill 798 would reduce personal and corporate income tax rates, fully eliminate taxes on capital gains income from sale of assets, and eliminates the state’s modest Earned Income Tax Credit that assists many working people in lower-paid jobs. HB 798 would radically transform Missouri’s income tax code into a system that privileges income from wealth over income from work, leaving many middle-income families to pay a higher income tax rate than wealthy people living off their investments.
Tip Exemptions Have No Place in State Income Tax
March 25, 2025 • By Eli Byerly-Duke, Nick Johnson
Creating a special tax break for tipped income – as at least 20 states are considering this spring – would harm state budgets, encourage tax avoidance, and fail to reach the vast majority of low- and middle-income workers.
Proposed Missouri Tax Shelter Would Aid the Wealthy, Anti-Abortion Centers Alike
March 6, 2025 • By Carl Davis
In Missouri, donations to anti-abortion pregnancy resource centers come with state tax credits valued at 70 cents on the dollar. One bill currently being debated in the state would increase that matching rate to 100 percent—that is a full, state-funded reimbursement of gifts to anti-abortion groups.
Mississippi Considers Deep Tax Cuts Amidst Budget and Economic Uncertainty
February 26, 2025 • By Neva Butkus
At a time when states across the country are forecasting deficits or anticipating slowing revenue growth, Mississippi lawmakers are debating deeply regressive and expensive tax cuts that would overwhelmingly benefit their state’s richest residents.
Turning IRS Agents to Deportation Will Reduce Public Revenues
February 11, 2025 • By Carl Davis, Jon Whiten
The Trump Administration’s plan to turn IRS agents into deportation agents will result in lower tax collections in addition to the harm done to the families and communities directly affected by deportations.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s Tax Plan Boosts Revenue, Increases Fairness
January 30, 2025 • By Miles Trinidad
Maryland’s Gov. Wes Moore put forward a tax reform plan that would make the tax system fairer, simpler, and better able to meet the state’s needs. The proposed changes to the income tax ask more of those at the top and provide an average tax cut for those earning less.
State Tax Watch 2025
January 28, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
ITEP tracks tax discussions in legislatures across the country and uses our unique data capacity to analyze the revenue, distributional, and racial and ethnic impacts of many of these proposals. State Tax Watch offers the latest news and movement from each state.
The Pitfalls of Flat Income Taxes
January 6, 2025 • By Carl Davis, Eli Byerly-Duke
While most states have a graduated rate income tax, some state lawmakers have recently become enamored with the idea of moving toward flat rate taxes instead. What’s the difference? And are states well served by the transition? In short: A flat tax is one where each taxpayer pays the same percentage of their income whereas […]
Louisiana Lawmakers Pass Deeply Regressive Tax Plan
November 26, 2024 • By Neva Butkus
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry called the legislature back to the capitol the day after the national election to take up his plan to overhaul the state’s tax system during a 20-day special session. Our analysis shows the tax overhaul would worsen the inequity already rampant in Louisiana’s tax system while potentially shortchanging essential services for families across the state.
Average Louisianans Will Pay for Gov. Landry’s Tax Break for the Rich
November 26, 2024 • By Neva Butkus
Tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations will not make Louisiana more competitive. Rather, they will blow a hole in the state budget while asking low- and middle-income working families to make up the difference. Gov. Landry and the Louisiana legislature would make much better use of their time looking for ways to make Louisiana’s tax structure fairer and more capable of adequately funding important priorities.
State Tax Policy Should Adopt the Principles of ‘Black Women Best’
November 20, 2024 • By Brakeyshia Samms
Focusing policy analysis on Black women illustrates how Black women have long shouldered the shortcomings of the economy and clearly points to solutions that work for all. Black women are at their best when they are financially secure, healthy, and free – and our economy is at its best when all people can thrive and benefit.
Tax Payments by Undocumented Immigrants
July 30, 2024 • By Carl Davis, Emma Sifre, Marco Guzman
Undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022. Providing access to work authorization for undocumented immigrants would increase their tax contributions both because their wages would rise and because their rates of tax compliance would increase.
Five Tax Takeaways from 2024 State Legislative Sessions
July 18, 2024 • By Aidan Davis
Major tax cuts were largely rejected this year, but states continue to chip away at income taxes. And while property tax cuts were a hot topic across the country, many states failed to deliver effective solutions to affordability issues.
Reality Interrupts the Fever Dream of Income Tax Elimination in Kentucky
June 27, 2024 • By Eli Byerly-Duke
Keeping the Kentucky income tax on a march to zero would mean tax hikes for working families or widespread cuts to education, health care, and other public services. Reversing course is certainly the wiser course of action.
States Should Opt Into IRS Direct File as the Program is Made Permanent
May 30, 2024 • By Jon Whiten
While there is plenty of room to expand Direct File at the federal level, states can take matters into their own hands and bring this benefit to their residents by opting into the program.
Better Tax Codes Help Boost Teacher Pay
May 16, 2024 • By Alex Welch
There are a variety of factors that affect teacher pay. But one often overlooked factor is progressive tax policies that allow states to raise and provide the funding educators and their students deserve.
Iowa Flat Tax Shows Why Such Policies Are a Problem Everywhere
May 9, 2024 • By Eli Byerly-Duke
As Iowa lawmakers change the state’s graduated personal income tax to a single flat rate, they are designing a state tax code where the rich will pay a lower rate overall than families with modest means.
Is California Really a High-Tax State?
April 16, 2024 • By Carl Davis, Eli Byerly-Duke
Key Findings For families of modest means, California is not a high-tax state. California taxes are close to the national average for families in the bottom 80 percent of the income scale. For the bottom 40 percent of families, California taxes are lower than states like Florida and Texas. The highest earners usually pay higher […]
Fairness Matters: A Chart Book on Who Pays State and Local Taxes
April 11, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
State and local tax codes can do a lot to reduce inequality. But they add to the nation’s growing income inequality problem when they capture a greater share of income from low- or moderate-income taxpayers. These regressive tax codes also result in higher tax rates on communities of color, further worsening racial income and wealth divides.
States Move to Tax the Top in 2024
March 20, 2024 • By Marco Guzman, Miles Trinidad
These forward-thinking states are demonstrating the wide variety of options for policymakers who want to raise more from the wealthiest people, rein in corporate tax avoidance, create fair tax codes and build strong communities.
The personal income tax is typically the fairest revenue source relied on by federal and state governments. A properly structured personal income tax could offer an important boost in progressivity to what are otherwise overwhelmingly regressive state tax structures.
Forty-one states and the District of Columbia levy broad-based personal income taxes. ITEP’s personal income tax resources provide both general and state-specific information about the impact as well as the mechanics and merits of personal income taxes.
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