Alabama
Alabama Sunsets its Expensive ‘No Tax on Overtime’ Policy
June 18, 2025 • By Neva Butkus
The idea of exempting overtime pay from income tax has gained traction, but there's little evidence it's an effective policy. Alabama tried it in 2023 but ended the policy after just two years. Their reversal highlights how exempting overtime is an expensive gimmick and a distraction from real worker issues.
Alabama: Who Pays? 7th Edition
January 8, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
Alabama Download PDF All figures and charts show 2024 tax law in Alabama, presented at 2023 income levels. Senior taxpayers are excluded for reasons detailed in the methodology. Our analysis includes nearly all (99 percent) state and local tax revenue collected in Alabama. These figures depict Alabama’s grocery sales tax rate at its 2024 level […]
Alabama Arise: Eliminating State Grocery Tax Would Make Life Better for Alabama Families
February 7, 2022
Two bills in the 2022 regular session would end the state grocery tax while protecting school funding. The graph below shows how millions of Alabamians would benefit. Untaxing groceries quickly and responsibly would boost economic and food security for all Alabamians. That means replacing revenue for public schools in a way that doesn’t harm struggling […]
Alabama Arise: End Alabama’s state grocery tax and protect school funding
January 30, 2020
How to untax groceries without costing education a dime It’s crucial to replace the grocery tax revenue without hurting the people who would benefit most from the tax’s elimination. Fortunately, Alabama has a way to untax groceries while protecting both struggling families and education funding. That solution would be to end an unusual tax loophole […]
Alabama Arise: The Less You Make, the More You Pay: Alabama’s Taxes Remain Upside Down
October 17, 2018
Low-income Alabamians pay twice as much in state and local taxes as a share of their income compared to the state’s wealthiest residents, according to a study released Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C. The study, Who Pays?, analyzes major state and local taxes in all 50 states, including personal and corporate income taxes, property taxes, sales and other excise taxes.
Alabama: Who Pays? 6th Edition
October 17, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
ALABAMA Read as PDF ALABAMA STATE AND LOCAL TAXES Taxes as Share of Family Income Top 20% Income Group Lowest 20% Second 20% Middle 20% Fourth 20% Next 15% Next 4% Top 1% Income Range Less than $18,600 $18,600 – $32,000 $32,000 – $50,900 $50,900 – $86,100 $86,100 – $171,300 $171,300 – $448,000 More than […]
Twelve States Offer Profitable Tax Shelter to Private School Voucher Donors; IRS Proposal Could Fix This
October 2, 2018 • By Carl Davis
A proposed IRS regulation would eliminate a tax shelter for private school donors in twelve states by making a commonsense improvement to the federal tax deduction for charitable gifts. For years, some affluent taxpayers who donate to private K-12 school voucher programs have managed to turn a profit by claiming state tax credits and federal tax deductions that, taken together, are worth more than the amount donated. This practice could soon come to an end under the IRS’s broader goal of ending misuse of the charitable deduction by people seeking to dodge the federal SALT deduction cap.
Tax Cuts 2.0 – Alabama
September 26, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
The $2 trillion 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) includes several provisions set to expire at the end of 2025. Now, GOP leaders have introduced a bill informally called “Tax Cuts 2.0” or “Tax Reform 2.0,” which would make the temporary provisions permanent. And they falsely claim that making these provisions permanent will benefit […]
The Other SALT Cap Workaround: Accountants Steer Clients Toward Private K-12 Voucher Tax Credits
June 27, 2018 • By Carl Davis
On May 23, 2018, the IRS and Treasury Department announced that they “intend to propose regulations addressing the federal income tax treatment of certain payments made by taxpayers for which taxpayers receive a credit against their state and local taxes.” They made the announcement in response to new “workaround tax credits” enacted in New York […]
How the Final GOP-Trump Tax Bill Would Affect Alabama Residents’ Federal Taxes
December 16, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The final tax bill that Republicans in Congress are poised to approve would provide most of its benefits to high-income households and foreign investors while raising taxes on many low- and middle-income Americans. The bill would go into effect in 2018 but the provisions directly affecting families and individuals would all expire after 2025, with […]
Private Schools Donors Likely to Win Big from Expanded Loophole in Tax Bill
December 14, 2017 • By Carl Davis
For years, private schools around the country have been making an unusual pitch to prospective donors: give us your money, and you’ll get so many state and federal tax breaks in return that you may end up turning a profit. Under tax legislation being considered in Congress right now, that pitch is about to become even more persuasive.
Tax Bill Would Increase Abuse of Charitable Giving Deduction, with Private K-12 Schools as the Biggest Winners
December 14, 2017 • By Carl Davis
In its rush to pass a major rewrite of the tax code before year’s end, Congress appears likely to enact a “tax reform” that creates, or expands, a significant number of tax loopholes.[1] One such loophole would reward some of the nation’s wealthiest individuals with a strategy for padding their own bank accounts by “donating” to support private K-12 schools. While a similar loophole exists under current law, its size and scope would be dramatically expanded by the legislation working its way through Congress.[2]
How the House and Senate Tax Bills Would Affect Alabama Residents’ Federal Taxes
December 6, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The House passed its “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” November 16th and the Senate passed its version December 2nd. Both bills would raise taxes on many low- and middle-income families in every state and provide the wealthiest Americans and foreign investors substantial tax cuts, while adding more than $1.4 trillion to the deficit over ten years. The graph below shows that both bills are skewed to the richest 1 percent of Alabama residents.
How the Revised Senate Tax Bill Would Affect Alabama Residents’ Federal Taxes
November 14, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The Senate tax bill released last week would raise taxes on some families while bestowing immense benefits on wealthy Americans and foreign investors. In Alabama, 48 percent of the federal tax cuts would go to the richest 5 percent of residents, and 12 percent of households would face a tax increase, once the bill is fully implemented.
How the House Tax Proposal Would Affect Alabama Residents’ Federal Taxes
November 6, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was introduced on November 2 in the House of Representatives, includes some provisions that raise taxes and some that cut taxes, so the net effect for any particular family’s federal tax bill depends on their situation. Some of the provisions that benefit the middle class — like lower tax rates, an increased standard deduction, and a $300 tax credit for each adult in a household — are designed to expire or become less generous over time. Some of the provisions that benefit the wealthy, such as the reduction and eventual repeal of the estate…
GOP-Trump Tax Framework Would Provide Richest One Percent in Alabama with 56.2 Percent of the State’s Tax Cuts
October 4, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The “tax reform framework” released by the Trump administration and congressional Republican leaders on September 27 would not benefit everyone in Alabama equally. The richest one percent of Alabama residents would receive 56.2 percent of the tax cuts within the state under the framework in 2018. These households are projected to have an income of at least $501,800 next year. The framework would provide them an average tax cut of $49,830 in 2018, which would increase their income by an average of 3.5 percent.
In Alabama 41.5 Percent of Trump’s Proposed Tax Cuts Go to People Making More than $1 Million
August 17, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
A tiny fraction of the Alabama population (0.4 percent) earns more than $1 million annually. But this elite group would receive 41.5 percent of the tax cuts that go to Alabama residents under the tax proposals from the Trump administration. A much larger group, 48.4 percent of the state, earns less than $45,000, but would receive just 4.3 percent of the tax cuts.
Trump Tax Proposals Would Provide Richest One Percent in Alabama with 49.2 Percent of the State’s Tax Cuts
July 20, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Earlier this year, the Trump administration released some broadly outlined proposals to overhaul the federal tax code. Households in Alabama would not benefit equally from these proposals. The richest one percent of the state’s taxpayers are projected to make an average income of $1,393,900 in 2018. They would receive 49.2 percent of the tax cuts that go to Alabama’s residents and would enjoy an average cut of $83,090 in 2018 alone.
Investors and Corporations Would Profit from a Federal Private School Voucher Tax Credit
May 17, 2017 • By Carl Davis
A new report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and AASA, the School Superintendents Association, details how tax subsidies that funnel money toward private schools are being used as profitable tax shelters by high-income taxpayers. By exploiting interactions between federal and state tax law, high-income taxpayers in nine states are currently able […]
Public Loss Private Gain: How School Voucher Tax Shelters Undermine Public Education
May 17, 2017 • By Carl Davis, Sasha Pudelski
One of the most important functions of government is to maintain a high-quality public education system. In many states, however, this objective is being undermined by tax policies that redirect public dollars for K-12 education toward private schools.
AL.com: In immigration debate, Trump and Clinton voters tussle over term ‘illegal immigrant’
January 14, 2017
“Undocumented immigrants paid $13 billion in payroll taxes in 2010, according to an estimate by the U.S. Social Security Administration. At least 50 percent of undocumented immigrant households file tax returns using Individual Tax Identification Numbers, according to the non-partisan research Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The group also estimated undocumented immigrants pay $11.64 […]
CBS News: Is your state next to raise its gas tax?
October 14, 2016
“’There has been a lot of procrastination,’ said Carl Davis, research director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. ‘It’s an issue that the states cannot put off any longer. There are 21 states which have gone a decade or more since the last time they increased their gas tax rate. These states have […]
Birmingham Business Journal: How immigrants fit in to Alabama’s different employment sectors
December 22, 2015
“Data from The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy , or ITEP, highlights that undocumented workers contributed $10.6 billion in state and local taxes in 2010, but this money could slowly be leaving some states who continue to fight the inclusion of undocumented immigrants.” Read more
Alabama ARISE: 6 things to know about the FICA deduction
October 21, 2015
The Alabama Legislature may consider removing the state FICA income tax deduction during this month’s second special session. Without significant new General Fund revenue, the state may make enormous cuts to Medicaid, child care, public safety and other vital services. Read full fact sheet here
Slate: Don’t Fall for Back-to-School Tax Holidays
August 14, 2015
If shoppers are simply shifting their spending to save on taxes, that means the states are losing revenue. That’s certainly the position of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan think tank that estimates the popular break will cost the states offering it $300 million this year. “Revenues lost through sales tax holidays […]
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