Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

Publication Search Results

March 4, 2020

ITEP Testimony Regarding Connecticut Senate Bill 16, An Act Concerning the Adult Use of Cannabis

This testimony explains the advantages of the cannabis tax structure proposed in Connecticut’s Senate Bill 16 and offers additional background information as well as ideas for potential changes to the bill.

report   February 18, 2020

Expanding State EITCs: Age Enhancements and a Credit Increase for Workers without Children in the Home

For 45 years, the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has benefited low- and moderate-income workers. Yet, throughout its history, the EITC has provided little or no benefit to workers without children in the home—a group that includes noncustodial parents whose children live the majority of the year with another parent.

February 12, 2020

ITEP Testimony In Support of H.B. 222 Income Tax Rates – Capital Gains Income & H.B. 256 Maryland Estate Tax – Unified Credit

Read as PDF Testimony of Kamolika Das, State Policy Analyst, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Submitted to: Ways and Means Committee, Maryland General Assembly Thank you for this opportunity…
report   February 5, 2020

State Itemized Deductions: Surveying the Landscape, Exploring Reforms

State itemized deductions are generally patterned after federal law, though nearly every state makes significant changes to the menu of deductions available or the extent to which those deductions are allowed. This report summarizes the key details of each state’s itemized deduction policies and discusses various options for reforming those deductions with a focus on lessening their regressive impact and reducing their cost to state budgets.

January 29, 2020

ITEP Comments and Recommendations on REG-107431-19

Comments regarding the possibility that owners of passthrough businesses may be able to circumvent the $10,000 SALT deduction cap of section 164(b)(6) by recharacterizing the nondeductible portion of their state and local income tax payments as deductible expenses associated with carrying on a trade or business.

report   December 19, 2019

Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s Proposed EITC Expansion

Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s proposal An Economic Agenda for American Families: Empowering Working and Middle Class Americans to Thrive would expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) as modeled by the Working Families Tax Relief Act.

report   December 16, 2019

Corporate Tax Avoidance in the First Year of the Trump Tax Law

Profitable Fortune 500 companies avoided $73.9 billion in taxes under the first year of the Trump-GOP tax law. The study includes financial filings by 379 Fortune 500 companies that were profitable in 2018; it excludes companies that reported a loss.

brief   December 12, 2019

Opportunity Zones Bolster Investors’ Bottom Lines Rather than Economic or Racial Equity

This policy brief provides an overview of how opportunity zones are designed and highlights some of the flaws of the policy, including the detrimental impact opportunity zones have on communities of color.

report   December 12, 2019

States Should Decouple from Costly Federal Opportunity Zones and Reject Look-Alike Programs

Post enactment of TCJA, lawmakers in most states needed to decide how to respond to the creation of this new program. Given the shortcomings of the federal Opportunity Zones program and its added potential costs to states, the most prudent course of action is three-pronged: States should move quickly to decouple; states should reject look-alike programs; and lawmakers should make investments directly into economically distressed areas.

report   December 10, 2019

How Congress Can Stop Corporations from Using Stock Options to Dodge Taxes

The stock option rules in effect today create a problem because they allow corporations to report a much larger expense for this compensation to the IRS than they report to investors. The result is that corporations can report larger profits to investors but smaller profits to the IRS, undermining the fundamental fairness of the tax system.

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