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2062 items
How to Think About the Problem of Corporate Offshore Cash: Lessons from Microsoft
August 4, 2017 • By Matthew Gardner
For a corporation with deeply American roots, Microsoft seems remarkably unable to turn a profit here. Against all odds, the Redmond, Washington-based company continues to claim that virtually all its earnings are in foreign countries. Microsoft’s latest annual report, released earlier this week, shows that over the past two years, the company enjoyed worldwide income of almost $43 billion. It claims to have earned just 0.3 percent of that—$128 million—in the United States.
Trump Administration May Make Corporate Inversions Great Again
August 4, 2017 • By Richard Phillips
During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump called out companies engaging in corporate inversions saying that one proposed inversion was “disgusting” and that “politicians should be ashamed” for allowing it to happen. Despite this rhetoric, the Trump Administration is considering rolling back critical anti-inversion rules as part of its broad regulatory review of recently issued Treasury Department regulations.
Comment Letter to Treasury on Earnings Stripping Regulations
August 4, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The following letter was submitted to U.S. Treasury as per their request for comment in Notice 2017–38 on Section 385 regulations.
State Rundown 8/2: Legislative Tax Debates Wind Down as Ballot Initiative Efforts Ramp Up
August 2, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Budget deliberations continue in earnest this week in Alaska, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. In South Dakota and Utah, the focus is on gearing up for ballot initiative efforts to raise needed revenue, though be sure to read about legislators nullifying voter-approved initiatives in Maine and elsewhere in our "what we're reading" section.
The Problems with the Multi-Million-Dollar Effort to Secure Millionaire and Corporate Tax Cuts
July 31, 2017 • By Alan Essig
Until GOP leaders put forth a detailed tax proposal, we will not know for certain whether the plan will focus on the middle-class and create jobs. But what we do know is that unless the plan is a radical departure from the principles outlined by President Trump earlier this year or laid out by Paul Ryan last year in his “Better Way,” plan, GOP-led tax “reform” efforts will be a tax break bonanza for the wealthiest Americans while delivering a pittance to working people.
Art Laffer and Stephen Moore’s Misleading Case for the Trump Tax Cuts
July 28, 2017 • By Nick Buffie
Art Laffer and Stephen Moore recently penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in which they called on state and local policymakers to support the Trump tax cuts. They claimed that the Trump plan would provide a significant boost to state and local tax revenues, thereby allowing states with large budget deficits to “regain fiscal health.” State and local lawmakers should not be fooled by these claims. The reality is that Trump’s tax cuts are more likely to worsen state and local fiscal health than improve it.
State Rundown 7/27: State Legislative Debates Winding Down but Tax Talk Continues
July 27, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
While only a few states still remain mired in overtime budget debates, there is plenty of budget and tax news from around the country this week. Efforts are underway to repeal gas tax increases in California and challenge a local income tax in Seattle, Washington. And New Jersey legislators' law to modernize its tax code to tax Airbnb rentals has been vetoed for now.
GOP Leaders in Congress and the White House Set Out Goals for Tax Reform that Their Plans Fail to Meet
July 27, 2017 • By Alan Essig
Today Republican leaders in Congress and officials from the White House released a joint statement on tax reform, claiming that “the single most important action we can take to grow our economy and help the middle class get ahead is to fix our broken tax code for families, small business, and American job creators competing at home and around the globe.” Unfortunately, the proposals they have put forward so far do not address any such goals.
Reviving U.S. Manufacturing, One Cheesecake Factory at a Time
July 27, 2017 • By Matthew Gardner
In the latest example of how the tax code has been abused and distorted, the Cheesecake Factory is claiming the manufacturing tax deduction, apparently for manufacturing cheesecakes, burgers, and other treats.
Trump Touts Tax Cuts for the Wealthy as a Plan for Working People
July 26, 2017 • By Steve Wamhoff
Unless the administration takes a radically different direction on tax reform from what it has already proposed, its tax plan would be a monumental giveaway to the top 1 percent. The wealthiest one percent of households would receive 61 percent of all the Trump tax breaks, and would receive an average of $145,400 in 2018 alone.
2017 marked a sea change in state tax policy and a stark departure from the current federal tax debate as dubious supply-side economic theories began to lose their grip on statehouses. Compared to the predominant trend in recent years of emphasizing top-heavy income tax cuts and shifting to more regressive consumption taxes in the hopes […]
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a policy designed to bolster the earnings of low-wage workers and offset some of the taxes they pay, providing the opportunity for struggling families to step up and out of poverty toward meaningful economic security. The federal EITC has kept millions of Americans out of poverty since its enactment in the mid-1970s. Over the past several decades, the effectiveness of the EITC has been magnified as many states have enacted and later expanded their own credits.
Tax Avoidance: Nike “Just Did It” Again, Moving $1.5 Billion Offshore Last Year
July 21, 2017 • By Matthew Gardner
The Nike Corporation’s annual financial disclosure of income tax payments is always notable for two recurring trends: the Oregon-based company’s steady shifting of profits into offshore tax havens, and Nike’s apparent effort to conceal how it’s achieving this tax avoidance. This year’s report, released earlier this week, is no exception.
States May Be Finally Learning Their Lesson on Back-To-School Sales Tax Holidays
July 21, 2017 • By Dylan Grundman O'Neill
State lawmakers face a dilemma when it comes to sales tax holidays, an attractive and popular policy that nonetheless proves to be a poor choice compared to developing thoughtful, targeted tax policies or investing in well-executed public services. Luckily, word seems to be getting out that the costs associated with these holidays far outweigh their purported benefits.
Trump’s $4.8 Trillion Tax Proposals Would Not Benefit All States or Taxpayers Equally
July 20, 2017 • By Matthew Gardner, Steve Wamhoff
The broadly outlined tax proposals released by the Trump administration would not benefit all taxpayers equally and they would not benefit all states equally either. Several states would receive a share of the total resulting tax cuts that is less than their share of the U.S. population. Of the dozen states receiving the least by this measure, seven are in the South. The others are New Mexico, Oregon, Maine, Idaho and Hawaii.
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