Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

Connecticut

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Our Taxes Can Set Kids Up for Success

• By Brakeyshia Samms

Every child deserves the opportunity to succeed in society – and tax policy has a huge role to play in making that happen. Better tax policy can help prepare our young children with skills to become successful and thriving adults.

ITEP’s Marco Guzman Testifies in Favor of Tax Fairness Bills in Connecticut

• By Marco Guzman

Good afternoon, Senator Fonfara, Representative Horn, and members of the Committee, and thank you for this opportunity to testify. My name is Marco Guzman and I'm a senior policy analyst with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, or ITEP, and we’re a nonprofit research organization that focuses on state, local, and federal tax policy issues. 

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State Rundown 3/6: Tax Cuts Aren’t Forever, or for Evers

• By ITEP Staff

Anti-tax interests finally found the end of the tax cutting appetite in a few states this week...

State Tax Watch 2024

• By ITEP Staff

Updated July 15, 2024 In 2024, state lawmakers have a choice: advance tax policy that improves equity and helps communities thrive, or push tax policies that disproportionately benefit the wealthy, drain funding for critical public services, and make it harder for low-income and working families to get ahead. Despite worsening state fiscal conditions, we expect […]

Connecticut: Who Pays? 7th Edition

• By ITEP Staff

Connecticut Download PDF All figures and charts show 2024 tax law in Connecticut, presented at 2023 income levels. Senior taxpayers are excluded for reasons detailed in the methodology. Our analysis includes nearly 100 percent of state and local tax revenue collected in Connecticut. State and local tax shares of family income Top 20% Income Group […]

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Hidden in Plain Sight: Race and Tax Policy in 2023 State Legislative Sessions

• By Brakeyshia Samms

Race was front and center in a lot of state policy debates this year, from battles over what’s being taught in schools to disagreements over new voting laws. Less visible, but also extremely important, were the racial implications of tax policy changes. What states accomplished this year – both good and bad – will acutely affect people and families of color.

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Far From Radical: State Corporate Income Taxes Already Often Look Beyond the Water’s Edge

• By Carl Davis, Matthew Gardner

State lawmakers are increasingly interested in reforming their corporate tax bases to start from a comprehensive measure of worldwide profit. This provides a more accurate, and less gameable, starting point for calculating profits subject to state corporate tax. Mandating this kind of filing system, known as worldwide combined reporting (WWCR), would be transformative, as it would all but eliminate state corporate tax avoidance done through the artificial shifting of profits into low-tax countries.

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State Rundown 10/26: Off-Year Ballot Measures and State & Local Tax Policy

• By ITEP Staff

November elections are creeping closer and closer and while that typically means a new batch of lawmakers are elected, it also means voters have another chance to help shape state and local tax policy...

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State Rundown 10/12: Tax Policy Debates Don’t Just Happen in the Statehouse

• By ITEP Staff

It may be the off-season for state legislatures, but tax policy changes could soon emerge from the ballot box or the courts. Advocates in Arkansas want voters to decide the future of taxing diapers and feminine hygiene products, and supporters of public education in Nebraska are working to make sure voters have a say on the state’s school choice tax credit. Meanwhile, cannabis firms in Missouri are suing the state over cities and counties stacking…

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State Tax Credits Have Transformative Power to Improve Economic Security

• By Aidan Davis

The latest analysis from the U.S. Census Bureau provides an important reminder of the compelling link between public investments and families’ economic well-being. Policy decisions can drastically reduce poverty and improve family economic stability for low- and middle-income families alike, as today’s data release shows.

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Boosting Incomes, Improving Equity: State Earned Income Tax Credits in 2023

• By Aidan Davis, Neva Butkus

Nearly two-thirds of states (31 plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico) have an Earned Income Tax Credit, an effective tool that boosts low-paid workers’ incomes and helps lower-income families achieve greater economic security. This year, 12 states expanded and improved EITCs.

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Gimmicky Sales Tax Holidays to Cost States & Localities $1.6 Billion This Year

• By ITEP Staff

Sales tax holidays are bad policies that have too often been used as a substitute for more meaningful, permanent reform.

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Sales Tax Holidays: An Ineffective Alternative to Real Sales Tax Reform

• By Marco Guzman

Nineteen states have sales tax holidays on the books in 2023, and these suspensions will cost nearly $1.6 billion in lost revenue this year. Sales tax holidays are poorly targeted and too temporary to meaningfully change the regressive nature of a state’s tax system. Overall, the benefits of sales tax holidays are minimal while their downsides are significant.

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The Highs and Lows of 2023 State Legislative Sessions

• By Aidan Davis

Nearly one-third of states took steps to improve their tax systems this year by investing in people through refundable tax credits, and in a few notable cases by raising revenue from those most able to pay. But another third of states lost ground, continuing a trend of permanent tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit high-income households and make tax codes less adequate and equitable.

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Refundable Credits a Winning Policy Choice Again in 2023

• By Neva Butkus

State lawmakers continue to make groundbreaking progress on state tax credits, with 17 states creating or enhancing Child Tax Credits or Earned Income Tax Credits so far this year. These policies have the potential to boost family economic security and dramatically reduce the number of children living below the poverty line.

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State Rundown 6/14: Summer Breeze & State Tax Policies

• By ITEP Staff

As the sweet days of summer pass, the scent of jasmine isn't the only thing blowing through the minds of state lawmakers, as tax policy discussions remain at the forefront...

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State Rundown 6/7: The Budget Race Continues

• By ITEP Staff

Across the country, the marathon budget season has held pace, with a steady stream of bills continuing to cross the finish line...

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Preventing an Overload: How Property Tax Circuit Breakers Promote Housing Affordability

• By Brakeyshia Samms, Carl Davis

Circuit breaker credits are the most effective tool available to promote property tax affordability. These policies prevent a property tax “overload” by crediting back property taxes that go beyond a certain share of income. Circuit breakers intervene to ensure that property taxes do not swallow up an unreasonable portion of qualifying households’ budgets.

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State Rundown 5/10: Momentum on State Tax Credits Continues to Build

• By ITEP Staff

This week, in states across the country the momentum to center improvements to family economic security remains strong...

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Extending Temporary Provisions of the 2017 Trump Tax Law: National and State-by-State Estimates

• By Joe Hughes, Matthew Gardner, Steve Wamhoff

The push by Congressional Republicans to make the provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent would cost nearly $300 billion in the first year and deliver the bulk of the tax benefits to the wealthiest Americans.

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State Rundown 5/3: Policy Debates Unfold from Capitol to Capital

• By ITEP Staff

While the conversations on the debt ceiling heat up in the nation's capital, debates on state tax policy also continue to unfold in capitol buildings across the nation...

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Deep Public Investment Changes Lives, Yet Too Many States Continue to Seek Tax Cuts

• By Aidan Davis

When state budgets are strong, lawmakers should put those revenues toward building a stronger and more inclusive society for the long haul. Yet, many state lawmakers have made clear that their top priority is repeatedly cutting taxes for the wealthy.

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State Rundown 4/6: More SALT, Please

• By ITEP Staff

This week, a bill out of Arkansas that would cut the top personal income tax rate and the corporate income tax rate found its way to the governor’s desk...

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State Rundown 3/30: A Win for Tax Equity in The Evergreen State

• By ITEP Staff

Over the past week Washington state saw a major victory for tax fairness after the state Supreme Court held the state’s capital gains tax—passed in 2021—constitutional...

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State Rundown 3/23: A Spring Awakening of Tax Proposals

• By ITEP Staff

As nature bursts into life and color with the arrival of spring, state tax proposals are doing the same as the legislative seeds planted by lawmakers earlier this year start to grow, blossom, and in some cases rot. However, some governors are not entirely happy with what state lawmakers have produced.