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.
Arkansas
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blog October 22, 2020 Voters Have the Chance in 2020 to Increase Tax Equity in Arizona, Illinois, and California, And They Should
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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.
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November 14, 2017 How the Revised Senate Tax Bill Would Affect Arkansas Residents’ Federal Taxes
The Senate tax bill released last week would raise taxes on some families while bestowing immense benefits on wealthy Americans and foreign investors. In Arkansas, 42 percent of the federal tax cuts would go to the richest 5 percent of residents, and 9 percent of households would face a tax increase, once the bill is fully implemented.
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November 6, 2017 How the House Tax Proposal Would Affect Arkansas Residents’ Federal Taxes
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 tax, become more generous over time. The result is that by 2027, the benefits of the House bill become increasingly generous for the richest one percent compared to other income groups.
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blog October 13, 2017 State Rundown 10/13: Soda Taxes, Business Subsidies, and Gas Taxes Considered in Several States
A comprehensive tax study is underway in Arkansas this week as other states hone in on more specific issues. Soda taxes hit setbacks in Illinois and Michigan, business tax subsidies faced scrutiny in Iowa and Missouri, and gas tax update efforts are underway in Mississippi and North Dakota.
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October 4, 2017 GOP-Trump Tax Framework Would Provide Richest One Percent in Arkansas with 58.8 Percent of the State’s Tax Cuts
The “tax reform framework” released by the Trump administration and congressional Republican leaders on September 27 would not benefit everyone in Arkansas equally. The richest one percent of Arkansas residents would receive 58.8 percent of the tax cuts within the state under the framework in 2018. These households are projected to have an income of at least $490,000 next year. The framework would provide them an average tax cut of $51,370 in 2018, which would increase their income by an average of 3.8 percent.
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ITEP Work in Action September 5, 2017 Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families: The Trump Tax Plan: What Would It Mean for Arkansas?
Who benefits and who loses under the Trump tax plan? An analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) estimates that Arkansas would fare worse under the plan compared to other states. Relative to our share of the U.S. population, we would be one of the 12 states receiving the lowest share of the total Trump tax cut.
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August 17, 2017 In Arkansas 40.0 Percent of Trump’s Proposed Tax Cuts Go to People Making More than $1 Million
A tiny fraction of the Arkansas population (0.3 percent) earns more than $1 million annually. But this elite group would receive 40.0 percent of the tax cuts that go to Arkansas residents under the tax proposals from the Trump administration. A much larger group, 53.2 percent of the state, earns less than $45,000, but would receive just 7.1 percent of the tax cuts.
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July 20, 2017 Trump Tax Proposals Would Provide Richest One Percent in Arkansas with 49.5 Percent of the State’s Tax Cuts
Earlier this year, the Trump administration released some broadly outlined proposals to overhaul the federal tax code. Households in Arkansas would not benefit equally from these proposals. The richest one percent of the state’s taxpayers are projected to make an average income of $1,340,600 in 2018. They would receive 49.5 percent of the tax cuts that go to Arkansas’s residents and would enjoy an average cut of $80,800 in 2018 alone.
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ITEP Work in Action January 25, 2017 Gov. Hutchinson’s low-income tax plan: A good start, but needs work
Governor Asa Hutchinson’s new tax cut proposal includes a break, at long last, for some of the lowest income working families in our state. The bones of this plan are… -
ITEP Work in Action January 25, 2017 Statement on Governor Hutchinson’s Low-Income Tax Plan
The following is a statement from Rich Huddleston, executive director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families: Read more here