Recent Work
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State Rundown 4/8: Budget and Tax Packages Take Shape as Sine Die Approaches in Many States
April 8, 2026 • By ITEP Staff
State legislative sessions are wrapping up, and final tax and budget packages are making their way to governors’ desks.
Despite Any Refunds, You’re Probably Paying More Taxes Under Trump While Richest Pay Less
April 8, 2026 • By Steve Wamhoff
For a large majority of Americans, the tax increase resulting from Trump’s tariffs, along with the ending of the health care tax credits, more than offsets any tax cuts provided by OBBBA. The exception is the richest 5 percent of Americans, for whom the net result is a tax cut on average.
State Tax Watch 2026
April 8, 2026 • By ITEP Staff
ITEP tracks tax discussions in legislatures across the country and uses our unique data capacity to analyze the revenue, distributional, and racial and ethnic impacts of many of these proposals. State Tax Watch offers the latest news and movement from each state.
Year One of Trump-Republican Tax Policy: The Consequences
April 6, 2026 • By Michael Ettlinger
President Trump has dramatically increased tariff taxes, enacted large tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy and corporations, dramatically curtailed IRS enforcement, and issued legally problematic regulations.
State Rundown 4/1: No Fooling Around Anymore in Washington, But Cruel Pranks in South Carolina
April 1, 2026 • By ITEP Staff
In Washington, Gov. Bob Ferguson and lawmakers decided to stop fooling around with one of the nation’s most upside-down tax codes and finally brought to life a new millionaires’ tax, the first new income tax created in a state since 1991.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom went to Texas recently and claimed: “Texas taxes poor folks more than we tax our richest." He’s right.
South Carolina’s Expensive, Regressive Tax Law Will Eliminate State’s Income Tax
March 31, 2026 • By Neva Butkus, Dylan Grundman O'Neill
South Carolina signed into law a regressive tax cut that will disproportionately benefit the state’s highest-income residents while simultaneously jeopardizing the state’s ability to pay for basic public services in the years to come.
Video: ITEP’s Amy Hanauer Discusses How to Make the Federal Tax Code Fairer on WHYY
March 30, 2026 • By Amy Hanauer
You can also see the segment here
Travelers’ Checks: How to Tax Tourists in States and Localities
March 30, 2026 • By Rita Jefferson
Taxing tourists is a relatively efficient way to ensure that visitors are paying a share of essential government services. Places with a modest number of tourists should limit general sales tax rates to minimize the effect on the full-time population. Places with higher proportions of tourists may have higher sales tax rates to better capture the economic behavior of tourists.
The Progress of Tax Policy: Q&A With Vanessa Williamson, Author of ‘The Price of Democracy’
March 30, 2026 • By Brakeyshia Samms
Williamson speaks about why tax politics has long been tied to questions of democratic inclusion, what history can teach us about today’s tax debates, and how tax policy shapes the future of American democracy.
State Rundown 3/26: Sobering Revenue Projections Keep States on Their Toes
March 26, 2026 • By ITEP Staff
This week, troubling revenue projections are making headlines, with many lawmakers scrambling to determine how the tax changes at the federal level, plus price hikes driven by national policy decisions, will impact their states.
How to Make the Rich and Corporations Pay for This Unpopular War
March 25, 2026 • By Michael Ettlinger
The war is widely unpopular. Whether the cost of the war ends up being $200 billion, more than that amount, or less, let’s at least have it paid for by those who can most afford it.
States Like Missouri Are Seeking to Raise Taxes on the Working Class to Cut Taxes for the Rich
March 25, 2026 • By Eli Byerly-Duke
A proposal to replace the Missouri personal income tax with a higher sales tax would increase costs for low- and middle-income households while giving the richest Missourians an average annual tax cut of almost $40,000.
The recent spike in gasoline prices is on pace to cost American drivers an extra $9.4 billion per month. Gas prices are up dramatically across the country, but the South has been hit hardest and is on pace to pay $4.2 billion more per month.
We Must Focus on Black Women to Reduce Inequity in the Tax Code
March 19, 2026 • By Brakeyshia Samms, Francine Lipman
As nice as it is to celebrate Women’s History Month, if we want a brighter future for women, we need to forge public policies that reduce inequity and include all of us.
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