Recent Work
2085 items
Tax Justice Digest: A Visual Tour of Who Pays, 2017 State Tax Trends
January 26, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
In the Tax Justice Digest we recap the latest reports, blog posts, and analyses from Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Here’s a rundown of what we’ve been working on lately. New! A Visual Tour of Who Pays State and Local Taxes To help inform 2017 statehouse debates, ITEP […]
Fairness Matters: A Chart Book on Who Pays State and Local Taxes
January 26, 2017 • By Carl Davis, Meg Wiehe
When states shy away from personal income taxes in favor of higher sales and excise taxes, high-income taxpayers benefit at the expense of low- and moderate-income families who often face above-average tax rates to pick up the slack. This chart book demonstrates this basic reality by examining the distribution of taxes in states that have pursued these types of policies. Given the detrimental impact that regressive tax policies have on economic opportunity, income inequality, revenue adequacy, and long-run revenue sustainability, tax reform proponents should look to the least regressive, rather than most regressive, states in crafting their proposals.
This week brings more news of states facing budget crunches, a new state looking to eliminate income taxes, and plans to raise gas taxes to fund transportation projects. Be sure to check out the What We’re Reading section for a look at how repealing federal health reform could add to those crunches and a review […]
47 Years Later, Alaska Considers Playing Catch-Up with its Motor Fuel Tax
January 25, 2017 • By Carl Davis
Alaska Gov. Bill Walker recently proposed tripling the gasoline and diesel tax rates paid by Alaska motorists to generate funding for the state’s infrastructure. In a different state, tripling the motor fuel tax might be a radical policy change. But Alaska’s tax has not been updated since 1970 and because of those 47 years of […]
Alaska Gov. Bill Walker recently proposed tripling his state's motor fuel tax rates.[1] While a variety of fuel types would be affected by this proposal, three-fourths (or $60 million) of the revenue raised each year would come from higher taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel--sometimes referred to as highway fuels--purchased by Alaska motorists. Absent any national or historical context, tripling Alaska's gasoline and diesel fuel tax rates may sound like a radical policy change. But an adjustment of this size is necessary because Alaska lawmakers have not updated the state's basic highway fuel tax rate since May 1970--almost 47 years…
Gov. Hutchinson’s low-income tax plan: A good start, but needs work
January 25, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Governor Asa Hutchinson’s new tax cut proposal includes a break, at long last, for some of the lowest income working families in our state. The bones of this plan are good – it isn’t too expensive, and it includes a portion of the families making less than $21,000 a year who were left out of […]
Statement on Governor Hutchinson’s Low-Income Tax Plan
January 25, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The following is a statement from Rich Huddleston, executive director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families: Read more here
The Arizona Center for Economic Progress: Questions and Answers About Arizona’s State Budget and Taxes 2017
January 24, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
State budgets and taxes are the foundation for achieving our common priorities that will lead to more quality jobs, a strong economy, and thriving communities. This publication provides information and analysis to help policymakers, community leaders, and community-based organizations make good decisions about Arizona’s state budget and taxes to reach those goals. These questions and […]
Tax Justice Digest: Kansas again, state budget woes, and corporate tax cuts
January 19, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
In the Tax Justice Digest we recap the latest reports, blog posts, and analyses from Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Here’s a rundown of what we’ve been working on lately. Trickle-down policies did not and will not work In December, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback told the Wall Street Journal that […]
Trump Plan to Give Billions in Tax Breaks to Multinational Corporations May Have Bipartisan Support
January 18, 2017 • By Richard Phillips
There are a lot of troubling components of the tax reform packages being proposed by President-Elect Donald Trump and the House GOP, but one that especially stands out is the push to give companies a tax break on the earnings they are holding offshore. Unfortunately, proposals rewarding the nation’s most egregious tax dodging multinational corporations […]
Back in December, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback gave an interview with the Wall Street Journal and suggested President-elect Trump should follow his state’s example and cut taxes as well as spending. The sheer gall of the suggestion belies the fact that Kansas’s tax cuts have resulted in credit downgrades, lack of adequate funding for essential […]
State Rundown 1/18: Revenue Woes Piling Up Faster Than Solutions
January 18, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
This week we continue to track revenue shortfalls, governors’ budget proposals, and other tax news around the country, finding most proposals to be focused on slashing taxes and reducing public investments despite public opinion and economic research showing the benefits of well-funded state services and progressive tax policies. — Meg Wiehe, ITEP State Policy Director, […]
Multinational Corporations Would Receive Half a Trillion in Tax Breaks from Trump’s Repatriation Tax Proposal
January 18, 2017 • By Richard Phillips
One of the central questions for lawmakers looking to reform the federal tax code this year is how to address the $2.5 trillion in earnings that U.S. companies are holding offshore to avoid taxes. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have supported proposals that would either require or allow companies to repatriate these earnings to the United States at a discounted tax rate. These proposals have ranged from letting companies repatriate their earnings tax-free to requiring them to immediately pay a discounted rate of 20 percent. All of the proposals would give corporations a substantial tax discount and forego…
Congress Shouldn’t Defy Public Opinion and Good Policy by Cutting Taxes for Corporations and the Wealthy
January 17, 2017 • By Richard Phillips
Members of Congress have floated fundamental changes to the tax code for years, but last week marked a ramping up of these efforts as Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan met with President-elect Donald Trump and his advisors to discuss how to move forward with tax reform in 2017. Plans floated by the incoming […]
State of Play: The Coming Debate Over the Ryan and Trump Tax Plans
January 17, 2017 • By Richard Phillips
If the incoming Trump Administration and Republican-lead Congress have their way, fundamental changes to the tax code are afoot. The most important similarity between the Ryan and Trump tax plans are dramatic reductions in the corporate tax rate and across-the-board tax cuts whose benefits primarily flow to the richest Americans. Because of their potentially catastrophic […]
Institute on Taxation
and Economic Policy
ITEP is a non-profit, non-partisan tax policy organization. We conduct rigorous analyses of tax and economic proposals and provide data-driven recommendations to shape equitable and sustainable tax systems.
Subscribe to ITEP Emails
Tax research and policy news in your inbox.
Promote Fair Tax Policy
Your gift to ITEP promotes tax justice. With your help, we do research that supports taxing millionaires and billionaires, taxing big corporations and raising revenue for the things our people, our communities and our planet need.
Together, we can create a country with more economic justice, more racial justice, more climate justice… and more tax justice.