Recent Work

The Federal Gas Tax Holiday is Not a New Idea, Just a Bad One

February 17, 2022 • By Steve Wamhoff

The argument for suspending the gas tax, which would cost $20 billion, is weaker than ever.

State Rundown 2/16: Spending Priorities Emerge as the Votes Are Counted

February 16, 2022 • By ITEP Staff

State lawmakers have been busy working out deals and negotiating how best to use excess revenues, and as the votes are beginning to come in, spending priorities are becoming clearer...

Imagine a Better Tax Code, Use Evidence to Make It Real

February 16, 2022 • By Amy Hanauer

It’s become popular to urge people to imagine a better world. But on tax policy, the last year gives us ample evidence that lets us move far beyond imagining.

West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy: House Personal Income Tax Cut Plan Largely Benefits Wealthy, Not Fiscally Sustainable

February 15, 2022 • By ITEP Staff

The West Virginia Legislature has introduced a bill to cut and eventually eliminate the state’s personal income tax. The House Finance Committee voted to advance that bill to the House floor with no discussion or questions asked. Like previous attempts to eliminate the state’s income tax, HB 4007 would lead to major revenue losses for the […]

Oklahoma Policy Institute: Strengthening the Grocery Tax Credit Would Provide Fiscally Smart Tax Relief to Working Oklahomans

February 14, 2022 • By ITEP Staff

Oklahoma can effectively eliminate the state and local sales tax on groceries for most low-income families by strengthening the Sales Tax Relief Credit. At a time when many Oklahomans are struggling to put food on the table and are at risk of eviction, a more robust Sales Tax Relief Credit can help put money back into the pockets […]

State Rundown 2/10: Dems Also Set Sights on Tax Cuts

February 10, 2022 • By ITEP Staff

While record state revenue surpluses have led to big pushes in red states to make unnecessary permanent income and corporate tax cuts, Democrats are also getting in on the tax-cut mania...

Common Good Iowa: New Income Tax Cuts – a Recipe for Disaster and Inequity

February 10, 2022 • By ITEP Staff

Iowa lawmakers have repeatedly cut taxes over the last three decades in ways that provide the greatest benefits to the highest-income taxpayers while ratcheting down investments that historically made the state attractive to raise a family or do business — including public schools and public health. Now, within months of passing tax cuts that when […]

More Than One in Three Young Workers Would Benefit from EITC Reforms in Build Back Better Plan

February 8, 2022 • By Aidan Davis

Although the EITC expansion did not receive as much attention as the expanded Child Tax Credit, a new ITEP report shows the positive impact of allowing young workers without children in the home to maintain access to one of the nation’s most significant and effective anti-poverty programs.

Federal EITC Enhancements Help More Than One in Three Young Workers

February 8, 2022 • By Aidan Davis

More than one in three young adults would benefit from workers without children being eligible to receive the federal EITC. This policy change would bolster young adults’ economic security.

Amazon Avoids More Than $5 Billion in Corporate Income Taxes, Reports 6 Percent Tax Rate on $35 Billion of US Income

February 7, 2022 • By Matthew Gardner

Amazon avoided about $5.2 billion of federal income tax on its record $36 billion in U.S. pretax income for fiscal year 2021.

Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy: HB 436 Tax Cuts Benefit Wealthy Idahoans

February 7, 2022 • By ITEP Staff

The tax cuts proposed in HB 436 would benefit wealthy Idahoans the most. The bill would also collapse the state’s five tax brackets to four, and would lower the income tax rate on the wealthiest tax bracket from 6.5% to 6%. Read more

Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy: Idaho Families Would Benefit From Move to Include More Children in State’s Child Tax Credit

February 7, 2022 • By ITEP Staff

From housing to child care, hard-working Idaho families face high costs in our growing state. Since 2018, Idaho’s tax code has supported families through the state Child Tax Credit (CTC). In the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), Congress approved a temporary change to expand the definition of “child” to include 17-year-olds in tax year 2021. […]

Hawai’i Budget & Policy Center: Expanding Economic Opportunity with the Hawai’i EITC

February 7, 2022 • By ITEP Staff

Hawai’i’s working families continue to struggle with the nation’s highest gap between median earnings and the cost of living, and this difficult reality has only been made harsher by the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, more than a third of Hawai’i households had at least some difficulty paying for their monthly expenses in December of 2021. […]

Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families: Tax Cut Plan Even More Expensive, Skewed Toward The Wealthy

February 7, 2022 • By ITEP Staff

The likely proposal for the long-discussed special session seems to have settled, and its main feature would be to cut the top personal and corporate income tax rates. This disproportionately benefits the wealthy, and the corporate income tax cut will largely be captured by out-of-state shareholders, meaning the revenue will leave the state economy entirely. […]

Wisconsin Budget Project: Tax Shift Would Hike Taxes for People with Low Incomes and Give a Big Tax Cut to the Top 1%

February 7, 2022 • By ITEP Staff

Last month, an influential group of lobbyists released a proposal to raise Wisconsin’s sales tax to 8%, making it the highest state sales tax in the country, and eliminate the state individual income tax, Wisconsin’s biggest source of revenue. The plan would result in the largest tax cuts going to white households, with households of color […]