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President’s Budget Would Strengthen Medicare Taxes Paid by the Wealthy
March 8, 2023 • By Joe Hughes
As part of his new budget plan, President Biden is asking the richest Americans to pay a little bit more to strengthen Medicare. The proposal includes raising taxes related to Medicare very slightly for the highest earners and closing a loophole that some wealthy individuals use to avoid Medicare taxes altogether.
In recent years, lawmakers have been quick to push for phased-in tax cuts or cuts attached to trigger mechanisms. These policy tools push the implementation of tax cuts outside of the current budget window with a predetermined phase-in schedule or a mathematical formula tied to state revenue trends.
Wealthy families are overwhelmingly the ones using school voucher tax credits to opt out of paying for public education and other public services and to redirect their tax dollars to private and religious institutions instead. Most of these credits are being claimed by families with incomes over $200,000.
This week, several big tax proposals took strides on the march toward becoming law...
New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut Should Keep Corporate Taxes Strong, Extend Surcharges
February 28, 2023 • By Marco Guzman
At a time when corporations are seeing record profits while not paying their fair share of federal taxes, state corporate income taxes can and should play a role in raising sustainable revenue and adding progressivity to state tax codes. Right now, lawmakers in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut have a unique opportunity to extend targeted tax changes that have raised billions of dollars from profitable corporations for meaningful public investments.
The flat tax plan and others being discussed that would cut even deeper would be windfalls for the wealthy, and expensive ones at that. Families with incomes over $300,000 per year, for example, could expect to gain, as a group, about a billion dollars annually under the flat tax plan. If you asked Ohio families about their top priorities for this legislative session, it’s a safe bet that very few of them would choose a billion-dollar tax cut for this group over funding for schools, parks, and infrastructure.
State Rundown 2/23: Tax Dominos Take Shape, Begin to Fall as Session Heats Up
February 23, 2023 • By ITEP Staff
The 2023 legislative session is in full swing, and dominos continue to be set up as others fall...
The word “tax” appears 97 times and counting in one recent summary of governors’ addresses to state legislators so far this year. The policy visions that governors are bringing, however, vary enormously. While there's good reason to worry about tax cuts for wealthy families and the flattening or elimination of income taxes, there are at least five great tax ideas coming directly out of governors’ offices this year.
This week, a fresh bouquet of tax proposals was delivered by state lawmakers, but not all of them have left us with that warm, fuzzy feeling in our stomachs...
The No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act Is Needed More than Ever
February 14, 2023 • By Steve Wamhoff
The new corporate minimum tax enacted as part of last year’s Inflation Reduction Act will address some of the worst corporate tax dodging, but what else is needed? A group of Democrats have answered this question with the No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act.
Biden Says the Stock Buyback Tax Should Be Higher. Here are Three Reasons Why He’s Right.
February 13, 2023 • By Joe Hughes
A higher tax on stock buybacks would reduce the tax disparity between dividends and buybacks, raise more revenue for productive public investments, and recoup some of Trump's corporate tax cuts that went to wealthy shareholders.
Higher Stock Buyback Tax Would Raise Billions by Tightening Loophole for the Wealthy
February 13, 2023 • By Joe Hughes
A higher excise tax rate on buybacks is completely reasonable. Quadrupling the rate, as the President proposes, would raise more revenue and cut into the tax advantage buybacks have over dividends. When a company uses their cash holdings to repurchase their own stock, it is an admission that they have few productive investment opportunities. The public does have productive uses for the tax revenue like infrastructure and schools that create value for the entire economy.
The great women’s philosopher, Pat Benatar, once said “love is a battlefield,” and there’s no greater test of our love for state tax policy than following the ups and downs of state legislative sessions...
Why the States Have a Major Role to Play If We Want Tax Justice
February 9, 2023 • By Amy Hanauer
With fears of gridlock in a divided Washington, tax justice champions are building momentum in other places where there's dire need for better tax policy: the states. We can upgrade communities across the country by making 2023 a year to win tax improvements in statehouses.
State of the Union Likely to Continue Progress on Tax Justice
February 7, 2023 • By Amy Hanauer
After decades of Presidents who ran away from taxes, it’s a sea change to have a chief executive who understands that the rich should pay their fair share, extremely profitable corporations should pay their fair share, and the public sector should have revenue to invest in problems – like climate change and healthcare – that will only be solved with pathbreaking public action.
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