Recent Work
2048 items
Housing Affordability and Property Taxes: How to Actually Move the Needle
March 19, 2025 • By Kamolika Das, Rita Jefferson
Tax policy alone cannot solve the housing crisis but lawmakers who are focused on tax policy solutions have better options available than sweeping property tax cuts and caps: property tax circuit breakers, renter credits, vacancy taxes, land value taxes, and changes to existing property tax assessments can move the needle on the affordable housing crisis.
Shelter Skelter: How the Educational Choice for Children Act Would Use Tax Avoidance to Fuel School Privatization
March 18, 2025 • By Carl Davis
The Educational Choice for Children Act of 2025 would ostensibly provide a tax break on charitable donations to organizations that give out private K-12 school vouchers. Most of the so-called “contributions,” however, would be made by wealthy people solely for the tax savings, as those savings would typically be larger than their contributions.
A Revenue Impact Analysis of the Educational Choice for Children Act of 2025
March 18, 2025 • By Carl Davis
The Educational Choice for Children Act of 2025 would provide donors to nonprofit groups that distribute private K-12 school vouchers with a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit in exchange for their contributions. In total, the ECCA would reduce federal and state tax revenues by $10.6 billion in 2026 and by $136.3 billion over the next 10 years. Federal tax revenues would decline by $134 billion over 10 years while state revenues would decline by $2.3 billion.
Circuit Breakers Are a Better Option for Property Tax Relief
March 13, 2025 • By Brakeyshia Samms
To curb the impact of property taxes on working families, lawmakers should improve or implement a property tax circuit breaker program. The program works like this: when families are overloaded with their property taxes, the circuit breaker kicks in and helps alleviate the pressure these taxes put on family budgets.
State Rundown 3/12: Last-Minute Tax Cut Mayhem and New Progressive Revenue Raisers
March 12, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
A bevy of tax cut proposals sprung to life this week while others were signed into law. In Kentucky, lawmakers are working to make it easier for the legislature to enact income and business tax cuts. The governor in Idaho signed into law a personal and corporate income tax cut.
Many states with corporate income taxes include some amount of federally defined Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (GILTI) in their tax bases. Twenty-one states plus D.C. include some amount of GILTI in their tax calculations in 2025.
State Rundown 3/6: In the Shadow of Chaotic Federal Policymaking States Seek to Tax the Top, Cut Taxes
March 6, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
Proposals from governors in both New Jersey and Wisconsin include provisions to tax high-income earners. Meanwhile, several major tax proposals are advancing in the great plains, with Iowa considering a major cut to unemployment taxes, North Dakota advancing new benefits for private schools, and Wyoming cutting property taxes. The District of Columbia is facing a more than a $1 billion revenue shortfall over the next three years, compared to previous estimates, and a mild recession due in large part to the layoffs of federal workers.
Proposed Missouri Tax Shelter Would Aid the Wealthy, Anti-Abortion Centers Alike
March 6, 2025 • By Carl Davis
In Missouri, donations to anti-abortion pregnancy resource centers come with state tax credits valued at 70 cents on the dollar. One bill currently being debated in the state would increase that matching rate to 100 percent—that is a full, state-funded reimbursement of gifts to anti-abortion groups.
In last night’s address to Congress, President Trump spent more time insulting Americans, lying, and bragging than he did talking about taxes. But regardless of what President Trump and Elon Musk talk about most loudly and angrily, there is one clear policy that they and the corporations and billionaires that support them will try hardest […]
A Well Targeted Federal Renter Credit Could Help Reduce Wealth Gaps
March 3, 2025 • By Brakeyshia Samms
While lawmakers often speak about income inequality, less attention is paid to wealth inequality. Wealth is distributed even more unequally than income in the U.S. in ways that reinforce racial divides, leave some households with too little to handle unexpected expenses, and enable some households to pass down enormous intergenerational wealth. A renter tax credit is one tool lawmakers can use to reduce wealth inequalities both within racial and ethnic groups and between these groups. As we show in our new analysis, Black and Hispanic households are more likely to be renters and hold less wealth than white households.
High-Rent, Low-Wealth: Addressing the Racial Wealth Gap through a Federal Renter Credit
March 3, 2025 • By Brakeyshia Samms, Emma Sifre, Joe Hughes
While the federal tax code has some policies focused on raising income of low earners, it contains fewer provisions designed specifically to address wealth inequality. A renter tax credit offers a simple, administratively practical means of reaching low-wealth populations through the federal tax code without requiring a comprehensive measurement of every household’s wealth.
Below is a list of tax expenditure reports published in the states.
Mississippi Considers Deep Tax Cuts Amidst Budget and Economic Uncertainty
February 26, 2025 • By Neva Butkus
At a time when states across the country are forecasting deficits or anticipating slowing revenue growth, Mississippi lawmakers are debating deeply regressive and expensive tax cuts that would overwhelmingly benefit their state’s richest residents.
State Rundown 2/26: House Budget Plan Could Further Strain State Budgets
February 26, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
States would be wise to keep a close eye on happenings in Washington, D.C. Republicans in the House of Representatives recently passed their budget resolution, which could spell trouble for state budgets. The plan tees up major cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and college tuition assistance—all likely to allow for tax cuts that will overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy. If approved, trillions of dollars would be cut from programs supported by federal dollars and states and localities could bear the brunt of those shifting costs. Many states are already facing delicate fiscal outlooks and those considering cutting taxes further should seriously reconsider.…
The budget resolution passed by House Republicans will enrich the richest, blow up the deficit, and decimate vital public services. The budget resolution allows Congress to pass reconciliation legislation with $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that would mostly flow to the wealthiest families in the country. Congressional Republicans have no way to pay for the massive tax cuts promised by President Trump during his campaign other than to dismantle fundamental parts of the government and increase the federal budget deficit.
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