Arkansas
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blog March 11, 2024 Recent Tax Cuts Have Expanded Inequality in the States
Some states have improved tax equity by raising new revenue from the well-off and creating or expanding refundable tax credits for low- and moderate-income families in recent years. Others, however,… -
media mention January 11, 2024 Video: ITEP’s Carl Davis Discusses Arkansas’ Upside-Down Tax Code
The “Who Pays?” report, a nationwide report that highlights the tax systems of each of the 50 states, shows Arkansas is one of the many states that “exacerbate inequality” for… -
January 8, 2024 Arkansas: Who Pays? 7th Edition
Arkansas Download PDF All figures and charts show 2024 tax law in Arkansas, presented at 2023 income levels. Senior taxpayers are excluded for reasons detailed in the methodology. Our analysis… -
media mention October 10, 2023 Arkansas Democrat Gazette: State’s Tax Relief Not Created Equal
For the second consecutive special session in about 13 months, the Arkansas General Assembly last month approved a temporary nonrefundable income tax credit for low-income and middle-income taxpayers as part… -
ITEP Work in Action September 12, 2023 Testimony of ITEP’s Neva Butkus Before the Arkansas Senate Revenue and Tax Committee
The corporate and personal income tax changes under Senate Bill 8 would cost the state more than $200 million, with 70 percent of the overall cuts benefiting Arkansans in the top 20 percent of households.
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ITEP Work in Action September 12, 2023 Arkansas Advocates for Children: Lawmakers Returning To Work This Week Should Reject Costly Tax Cuts For The Wealthy
In a dramatic development, Arkansas lawmakers are returning to work at the state Capitol this week, after Gov. Huckabee Sanders called for a special session of the Legislature last Friday.… -
ITEP Work in Action March 31, 2023 Arkansas Advocates for Children: Vital Services At Risk With Income Tax Elimination
We all want to live in a state with great schools, well-maintained infrastructure, thriving communities, and strong families. But Arkansas’s Governor and many legislative leaders have expressed their support for… -
ITEP Work in Action February 7, 2022 Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families: Tax Cut Plan Even More Expensive, Skewed Toward The Wealthy
The likely proposal for the long-discussed special session seems to have settled, and its main feature would be to cut the top personal and corporate income tax rates. This disproportionately… -
ITEP Work in Action October 8, 2021 Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families: Proposed Cuts to the Top Tax Rate Are Costly and Heavily Favor the Rich
As the Arkansas Legislature concludes the 2021 general session, our attention must turn to the special session they are preparing to begin to discuss personal income tax cuts. Although income… -
blog October 22, 2020 Voters Have the Chance in 2020 to Increase Tax Equity in Arizona, Illinois, and California, And They Should
There’s a lot at stake in this election cycle: the nation and our economy are reeling from the effects brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and states remain in limbo as they weigh deep budget cuts and rush to address projected revenue shortfalls.
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ITEP Work in Action January 31, 2019 Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families: Tax Cut Bill Filed: Plan Revised But Not Fixed
An analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows that the benefits of this proposal are even more heavily skewed towards the richest taxpayers than the previous… -
ITEP Work in Action November 15, 2018 The Governor’s Proposed Personal Income Tax Cut: Who Wins and Who Loses?
Governor Asa Hutchinson proposed a personal income tax cut as part of his balanced budget plan for the 2019 legislative session, released on November 14.
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ITEP Work in Action November 12, 2018 Tax Proposals Target Benefits to Those at the Top, Corporations
The Arkansas Legislative Tax Reform and Relief Task Force’s recommendations would make the state’s tax system even more regressive than it already is. According to a new analysis by Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and the Institute on Tax and Economic Policy, the net overall impact of the combined recommendations would actually raise taxes on the neediest Arkansans. At the same time, it would target a bigger share of the decrease to those with the highest incomes.
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ITEP Work in Action October 17, 2018 Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families: Arkansas Tax System Worsens Economic Inequality
Another key driver of inequality in Arkansas’s tax system is the preferential treatment given to capital gains income. Currently, half of all capital gains income is exempted, or ignored, from income taxes even though nearly no one makes a significant share of their income through capital gains (except for the top 1 percent). According to a report from the Congressional Budget Office, capital gains make up 38 percent of the income of the richest 1 percent of households in this country, compared to just 5 percent of the income for the poorest households.
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ITEP Work in Action October 17, 2018 Arkansas Times: Report: Arkansas Taxes Unfair ….. To the Poor
Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families is highlighting a new report relevant to ongoing legislative discussions of “tax reform.” It does not suggest the problem is taxation on the rich.
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October 17, 2018 Arkansas: Who Pays? 6th Edition
ARKANSAS Read as PDF ARKANSAS 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… -
September 26, 2018 Tax Cuts 2.0 – Arkansas
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… -
report August 23, 2018 ITEP Testimony “Regarding the Final Report of the Arkansas Tax Reform and Relief Legislative Task Force”
Read the testimony in PDF WRITTEN TESTIMONY SUBMITTED TO: THE ARKANSAS TAX REFORM AND RELIEF TASK FORCE Lisa Christensen Gree, Senior State Tax Policy Analyst Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy… -
ITEP Work in Action August 6, 2018 Itchy Tax Trigger Finger: Tax Foundation Says Aim Toward Foot
Accounting for all the possible curveballs the future economy might throw at our state is impossible. That’s why legislators bother coming together every year to assess our budget and make choices based on the best available, most current information. One dubious new style of tax change, “tax triggers”, attempts to base major future tax and revenue changes only on the information we have today. Tax triggers are dangerous and generally work by automatically kicking in a tax cut when revenue or some other metric reaches a certain level.
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ITEP Work in Action April 17, 2018 On Tax Day, a Look at How Federal Tax Changes Impact Arkansans
Taxes allow us to invest in public programs that help everyone, but recent federal tax cuts are shifting those dollars to the Arkansans who need it least. Those tax cuts are expensive–to the tune of $1.5 trillion dollars over 10 years. Nearly a third of Arkansas’s total operating budget is made up of federal revenue. This means that on top of federal budget changes, our state budget will also be forced to make cuts to things that Arkansas kids and families rely on today, like parks, community colleges, and firefighters.
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ITEP Work in Action March 16, 2018 E.I.T.C. Spells LOVE for Kids and Families in Arkansas
Many people in our state work at low-paying jobs. Arkansans who work hard for little money pay a much higher share of their income to state and local taxes compared to the wealthiest. That’s not the way it should be. Fortunately, there is a great option for Arkansas (just ask the 29 other states that are already using it!) that can help turn things around for working families. That option is a state-level Earned Income Tax Credit (or EITC). At Arkansas Advocates for Children and families, we are so in love with the Earned Income Tax Credit that we decided to sing about it.
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ITEP Work in Action January 31, 2018 Here’s Why Arkansas Needs a State EITC
Arkansas is part of a shrinking group of states that haven’t started using tax credits, like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), to build their middle class and help people move permanently out of poverty. Arkansas remains among the worst states for overtaxing the poor.
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ITEP Work in Action January 10, 2018 It’s All About the Context: A Closer Look at Arkansas’s Income Tax
The tax task force is rounding out its extensive review of the Arkansas tax code this week by looking at one of the most contentious tax topics these days: income taxes. So, are we a high-income-tax state or a low-income-tax state? In Arkansas, it depends a lot on how much money you make, and how you make it. For example, retirement income is exempt for the first $6,000; military retirement income is completely exempt; there are border-city exemptions if you work in Texarkana; and capital gains income from things like stocks or real estate sales is taxed much more leniently than wage income. To sort this all out, you have to look at the tax code as a whole.
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December 16, 2017 How the Final GOP-Trump Tax Bill Would Affect Arkansas Residents’ Federal Taxes
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-… -
December 6, 2017 How the House and Senate Tax Bills Would Affect Arkansas Residents’ Federal Taxes
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 Arkansas residents.