Recent Work

Apple’s Three-Month Tax Savings under President Trump’s New Tax Law: $1.68 Billion

May 2, 2018 • By Matthew Gardner

By now, it should come as no shock that profitable Fortune 500 corporations are reaping huge benefits from the corporate tax cuts enacted last December. But as first quarter earnings reports are released, we’re learning just how big.

Newly Unveiled Ballot Initiative Aims to Tax Arizona’s Top 1 Percent to Fund Education

May 1, 2018 • By Aidan Davis

Today marks Day 4 of the Arizona teachers’ walkout. After decades of tax cuts and underfunding of public education, education advocates are now driving the debate and urging lawmakers to act. Their newest proposal would raise taxes on incomes above half a million dollars for married couples, or above $250,000 for single taxpayers—that is, the same wealthy taxpayers that just received a generous tax cuts under last year’s federal tax overhaul.

No Need for the MythBusters, the Millionaire Tax Flight Myth is Busted Again

May 1, 2018 • By Dacey Anechiarico

One of the most repeated myths in state tax policy is called “millionaire tax flight,” where millionaires are allegedly fleeing states with high income tax rates for states with lower rates. This myth has been used as an argument in state tax debates for years but Cristobal Young argues in his book, “The Myth of the Millionaire Tax Flight,” that both Democrats and Republicans are “searching for a crisis that does not really exist,” and that there is no evidence to support this myth.

State & Local Tax Contributions of Young Undocumented Immigrants

April 30, 2018 • By Meg Wiehe, Misha Hill

This report specifically examines the state and local tax contributions of undocumented immigrants who are currently enrolled or immediately eligible for DACA and the fiscal implications of various policy changes. The report includes information on the national impact (Chart 1) and provides a state-by-state breakdown (Appendices 1 and 2).

State Rundown 4/27: Arbor Day Brings Some Fruitful Tax Developments, Some Shady Proposals

April 27, 2018 • By ITEP Staff

This Arbor Day week, the seeds of discontent with underfunded school systems and underpaid teachers continued to spread, with walkouts occurring in both Arizona and Colorado. And recognizing the need to see the forest as well as the trees, the Arizona teachers have presented revenue solutions to get to the true root of the problem. In the plains states, tax cut proposals continue to pop up like weeds in Kansas and threaten to spread to Iowa and Missouri, where lawmakers are running out of time but are still hoping their efforts to pass destructive tax cuts will bear fruit.

Trump Administration’s Spending Priorities Echo Tax Cut Priorities: Punish the Poor and Lavish the Rich

April 27, 2018 • By ITEP Staff, Jenice Robinson, Misha Hill

In 2017, the Trump Administration released a budget proposal filled with loaded language about “welfare reform” and moving able-bodied people from welfare to work. This narrative is designed to perpetuate the pernicious idea that poor people have personal shortcomings and are taking something that rightly belongs to others.

15 Companies Report Tax Savings of $6.2 Billion in First Three Months of 2018

April 26, 2018 • By Matthew Gardner

In reports released over the past week, covering the first three months of 2018, a few of the biggest and most profitable Fortune 500 corporations acknowledge receiving billions in tax cuts in the first quarter of 2018 alone. Fifteen of these companies collectively disclosed reducing their effective tax rates by $6.2 billion compared to the rates they faced in the first quarter of last year.

State Rundown 12/31/9999: IRS Glitch and Legislative Impasses Extend Tax Season

April 20, 2018 • By ITEP Staff

This week the IRS website asked some would-be tax filers to return after December 31, 9999. State legislators don't have quite that much time, but are struggling to wrap up their tax debates on schedule as well. Iowa legislators, for example, are ironically still debating tax cuts despite having run out of money to cover their daily expenses for the year. Nebraska's session wrapped up, but its tax debate continues in the form of a call for a special session and the threat of an unfunded tax cut going before voters in November. Mississippi's tax debate has been revived by…

Trends We’re Watching in 2018, Part 5: 21st Century Consumption Taxes

April 20, 2018 • By Misha Hill

We're highlighting the progress of a few newer trends in consumption taxation. This includes using the tax code to discourage consumption of everything from plastic bags to carbon and collecting revenue from emerging industries like ride sharing services and legalized cannabis sales.

Congressional Budget Office: New Tax Law Helps Foreign Investors Even More than You Thought

April 19, 2018 • By Steve Wamhoff

President Trump and his allies in Congress have made many wild claims about economic growth that would result from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. And the Congressional Budget Office just released a report revealing the TCJA will, in fact, create economic growth — for foreign investors.

Key Takeaways from John Oliver’s Segment on Corporate Tax Avoidance

April 16, 2018 • By Richard Phillips

The HBO television show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver has become known for its longer segments that examine important issues facing the country. In its latest segment on Sunday, the show took a deep dive into corporate taxes and how many companies manage to avoid paying their fair share. Between its hilarious interludes, the segment painted a striking portrait of problems in our corporate tax code and how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) failed to address them.

State Rundown 4/13: Teacher Strikes, Special Sessions, Federal Cuts Haunting States

April 13, 2018 • By ITEP Staff

This Friday the 13th is a spooky one for many state lawmakers, as past bad fiscal decisions have been coming back to haunt them in the form of teacher strikes and walk-outs in Arizona, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. Meanwhile, policymakers in Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, Oregon, and Utah all attempted to exorcise negative consequences of the federal tax-cut bill from their tax codes. And our What We're Reading section includes yet another stake to the heart of the millionaire tax-flight myth and other good reads.

10 Things You Should Know about the Nation’s Tax System

April 13, 2018 • By ITEP Staff

Everyone pays taxes, including those who earn the least. Our collective federal, state, and local tax system includes income taxes, payroll taxes (Social Security, Medicare), property taxes, sales and other excise taxes. The total share of taxes (federal, state, and local) that Americans across the economic spectrum will pay in 2018 is roughly equal to their total share of income.

Many Large Corporations Reporting Tax Cut-Inspired Employee Bonuses Were Paying Low Tax Rates to Begin With

April 12, 2018 • By Matthew Gardner

Since the corporate tax cut took effect at the beginning of 2018, a number of large corporations have announced plans to give bonuses or pay raises to some of their employees. Some of these companies have explicitly said that the new tax law, which sharply reduced the federal corporate income tax rate from 35 to 21 percent, made these moves possible. But an examination of the tax-paying habits of these corporations found that many of them used various tax breaks and accounting maneuvers to reduce their tax rates to below 21 percent year after year before the new tax law…

Trump Tax Cuts Likely Make U.S. Corporate Tax Level Lowest Among Developed Countries

April 11, 2018 • By Richard Phillips

U.S. corporate tax collection was equal to 2.2 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016, significantly less than the average 2.9 percent collected by the other 34 other OECD countries for which data were available.