Sales Taxes

This week a U.S. House of Representatives committee approved a bill that would effectively take away Washington, D.C.’s fiscal autonomy, requiring Congressional approval of any new D.C. laws that increase taxes or fees.

In 2026, cities, counties, and school districts must manage tax cuts coming from federal and state governments, the end of federal pandemic aid, rising costs, and a stagnant economy. This challenging environment is forcing municipalities of all types to ask how they can best fund core priorities and invest in communities in the long term.

Many states have repeatedly cut top personal and corporate income tax rates in recent years, sometimes while approving increased sales tax rates to push tax systems in a more regressive direction. Other states, however, have charted a very different course and have moved to increase taxes on higher income households to fund public services.

Twenty states have sales tax holidays in 2026. These sales tax holidays will cost states and localities nearly $600 million in lost revenue this year, and they're poorly targeted and too temporary to meaningfully change the regressive nature of a state’s tax system.

On August 4, Missouri voters will vote on whether to increase taxes on the middle class and seniors to fund tax cuts for the richest households in the state.

It's the first official week of summer, and while many of us are planning vacations, state lawmakers remain busy finalizing and debating tax proposals.

If Juneteenth is to mean anything beyond symbolism, it must also be a call to confront the policies that continue to shape racial inequities today. One of the most powerful drivers of that inequity is our tax system.

ITEP’s report on taxing advertising identifies some reasons why states are curtailing longstanding sales tax exemptions for the ad sector.

A veritable superbloom of tax and budget policies occurred over these last few weeks, including both flowers worth admiring and weeds worth fighting back.

Most states questionably exempt advertising from sales taxes. States that extend their sales taxes to advertising and/or enact an excise tax stand to raise billions in revenue while correcting a structural bias in their tax codes that implicitly subsidizes some of the most profitable corporations in human history.

The effects of last year’s federal tax and spending cuts continue to ripple through the states. With gas prices soaring due to the Iran war, some states are attempting to provide a bit of relief in the form of gas tax reductions and suspensions.

Missouri lawmakers passed legislation that will have residents vote on a proposal at the ballot box. The ask: for them to pay more in sales taxes to offset cuts – and the possible elimination – of the state's individual income tax, which makes up nearly two-thirds of Missouri’s general fund.

Yesterday was Tax Day, and with many state legislative sessions wrapping, some tax changes are gearing up or crossing over the finish line.

State legislative sessions are wrapping up, and final tax and budget packages are making their way to governors’ desks.

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.

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.

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.

As states lawmakers continue to weigh their linkages to the federal tax code in light of the recent federal tax law, New Mexico provides a blueprint for limiting multinational corporate tax avoidance.

Washington is on its way to making history after the legislature approved the “millionaires’ tax,” a 9.9 percent tax on income over $1 million. The bill, which is expected to raise more than $3 billion a year, making significant investments in public education and childcare, will also expand the Working Families Tax Credit – the […]

As many state legislative sessions near or cross the halfway point, lawmakers are facing tough choices.

National Sausage Month isn’t until October, but now is the time of year when state lawmakers are really diving into their sausage-making processes, as separate legislative houses and oftentimes political parties send competing bills, budgets, and visions back and forth to grind out their differences.

State lawmakers are grappling with a range of challenges as their fiscal outlooks deteriorate, federal tax enforcement wanes (after the Trump administration cut the IRS workforce by 25 percent), and a rewritten federal tax code sends states scrambling to decide what changes they might want to make in their own codes.

While some may be excited for a romantic Valentine’s Day this weekend, many state lawmakers are breaking up and decoupling from recent federal tax changes that are poised to leave states with revenue shortfalls – much like a bad date who forgets their wallet and asks you to pick up the tab.

The results are a mixed bag, with some states enacting promising policies that will improve tax equity and others going in the opposite direction.

Despite wintry conditions across much of the country, that hasn’t stopped state lawmakers from debating major tax policy changes.