Florida
Low Tax for Whom?: Florida is a “Low Tax State” Overall, But Not for Families Living in Poverty
September 17, 2015 • By Meg Wiehe
Annual data from the U.S. Census Bureau appear to lend support to Florida's reputation as a "low tax state," ranking it 48th nationally in taxes collected as a share of personal income.1 But focusing on the state's overall tax revenues has led many observers to overlook the fact that different taxpayers experience Florida's tax system very differently. In particular, the poorest 20 percent of Florida residents pay significantly more of their income (12.9 percent) in state and local taxes than any other group in the state. For low-income families, Florida is far from being a low tax state.2 In fact,…
Bloomberg BNA: Individual Income Tax Insights: Fifty States of Rates – State Tax Systems Don’t Play Fair
September 15, 2015
“All state tax systems are inherently unfair, at least that is the verdict issued by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). ITEP’s 2015 Who Pays: A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All Fifty States report analyzed state and local tax systems to assess the fairness with which each system is designed […]
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 […]
TJC News: State Sales Tax Holiday Begins Friday
August 7, 2015
“Paying more to skip the crowds is a back to school shopping strategy some embraced Thursday before the start of the Texas Sales Tax Holiday weekend. A few examples of exempt items include clothing, shoes, school supplies, backpacks, computers, printers, bedspreads and linens. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, sales-tax holidays cost […]
Sales Tax Holidays: An Ineffective Alternative to Real Sales Tax Reform
July 22, 2015 • By Lisa Christensen Gee
Lawmakers in many states have enacted "sales tax holidays" (at least 17 states will hold them in 2015), to provide a temporary break on paying the tax on purchases of clothing, computers and other items. While these holidays may seem to lessen the regressive impacts of the sales tax, their benefits are minimal. This policy brief examines the many problems associated with sales tax holidays and concludes that they have more political than policy benefits.
Sun Sentinel: Businesses Getting Bigger Breaks to Move or Expand
July 20, 2015
Broward and Palm Beach counties have awarded millions of taxpayer dollars for company relocations or expansions in recent months, including two major deals completed in just the past two weeks. Critics contend that the amount of money spent to lure employers is out of line. A 2013 report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic […]
Cheat Sheet: 10 Worst States in America for Fair Tax Systems
July 13, 2015
Americans generally believe that higher income households should pay a greater percentage of their incomes in taxes than lower income households. Yet the exact opposite occurs. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) finds the nationwide average effective state and local tax rates by income group are 10.9% for the poorest 20% of individuals […]
Read this report in PDF form Introduction For years, academics and transportation experts have been discussing the possibility of taxing drivers for each mile they travel on the nation’s roads. This “vehicle miles traveled tax” (VMT tax) could either supplement or replace the existing gas tax as the primary method of funding transportation infrastructure. To […]
Washington Post: States are Racing to See Who Can Give Rich People a Bigger Tax Break on Their Yachts
June 22, 2015
It’s true that lower taxes might bring new customers into the market, which would be great for the yacht industry. Yet every dollar spent on new boats is a dollar that a rich customer isn’t spending on something else. Favoritism for yacht manufacturers and dealers helps them only at the expense of all the other […]
The federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF) is the single most important mechanism for funding maintenance and improvements to the nation's transportation infrastructure. Absent Congressional action, however, the HTF will face insolvency at the end of July. Unfortunately, despite the critical importance of infrastructure to the U.S. economy, the condition of the HTF has been allowed to deteriorate to the point that imminent insolvency has become entirely normal.
The Toledo Blade: Ohio Readies for First Break on Sales Tax
May 28, 2015
However, Carl Davis, a senior analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit nonpartisan Washington think tank, said that while tax holidays help retailers, they don’t accomplish much else. “I think the major takeaway with sales tax holidays is they’re high profile and they get a lot of favorable attention for politicians, […]
San Antonio Express News: Real Question Is Whether to Cut Any Tax
May 6, 2015
But fairness hasn’t been Texas’ strong suit. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released its annual analysis of the states’ tax systems in January. Texas is in the top 10 most regressive, behind Washington state and Florida. A regressive tax is one that unduly burdens those least able to pay, while the wealthy pay […]
The Hill: Sanders Warns All 50 Governors about Effects of GOP Budget
April 28, 2015
Sanders told Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) that approximately 1.6 million people would lose health coverage next year. About 141,000 jobs could be eliminated by 2017, and 3.5 million people could be at risk of losing nutrition assistance because of food stamps cuts, Sanders said. The data was based on analyses of the GOP budgets […]
Integrity Florida: Subsidizing Corporate Tax Dodgers
April 21, 2015
Thanks to the data provided by CTJ/ITEP, Integrity Florida found that all of the profitable Fortune 500 corporations headquartered in Florida paid state governments in the U.S. on average a lower corporate profits tax rate than Florida’s 5.5 percent rate between 2011 and 2013. Most of these corporations have received taxpayer-funded subsidy deals and government […]
Orlando Business Journal: Florida One of the Most Tax-Friendly States to Earn High Incomes
March 25, 2015
The study used data from the Washington, D.C.-based Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy’s 2015 report to generate estimates of the state-specific tax burdens at three income levels $25,000 (low income), $50,000 (medium) and $150,000 (high) to rank the states. Read more
Florida Sun Sentinel: Florida’s gas, cell phone taxes among the highest in the nation
March 17, 2015
Another recent study found that Florida’s taxes hit the poor the most, largely through the sales tax. Those at the bottom fifth in income in Florida pay 13 percent of their income in state and local taxes, while the state’s top 1 percent pay only 2 percent, said the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, […]
The Daily Item: Tax the Rich More
March 16, 2015
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy ranks Pennsylvania at No. 6 in the Institute’s “Terrible 10” states that taxes low income earners up to seven times as much of their income in taxes as the top 1 percent are taxed on their income. Washington, Florida and Texas top the list of the “Terrible 10” […]
Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy: Tax Fairness: An Answer to Florida’s Budget Problems
March 12, 2015
“The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy ranks Florida as having the second most unfair (or “regressive”) tax system in the nation. High‐income residents pay a far smaller share of their income in state and local taxes than middle class residents. The high‐income one percent of Floridians pay just 1.9 percent of their income in […]
The Albany Times Union: Bad But Could Be Worse
March 11, 2015
New York is regularly ranked as one of the worst states in the nation for taxes. But a new study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that New York’s tax policies are actually some of the best for average people. That’s because some tax structures grab a larger percentage of take-home pay of middle- […]
The Patriot News: There’s a Reason Pennsylvania Makes the Top 10 Terrible Tax States
March 11, 2015
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy ranks Pennsylvania at number six in the its “Terrible 10” states that tax low income earners up to seven times as much, as a percentage of income, as the top one percent are taxed. Washington, Florida and Texas top the list of the “Terrible 10” states, and Delaware, Montana […]
The Florida Times Union: Good Idea to Lower Cell Phone Taxes
March 4, 2015
As Florida TaxWatch reports, “The high rate makes the tax punitive and distortionary, and makes the state less competitive than other states, particularly in terms of reducing investment in broadband network infrastructure.” Meanwhile, the poor in Florida bear some of the heaviest tax burdens in the nation, reports the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. […]
Orlando Sentinel: Affordable Housing Bears Higher Tax Burden
March 4, 2015
However, heavy reliance on property taxes and lack of an income tax were among the reasons a January report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy ranked Florida as one of the nation’s most regressive tax states. Only Washington had a tax structure that was more punitive on low-income families. The bottom 20 percent […]
Marketwatch: 10 Biggest Financial-Market Events This Week
March 2, 2015
One of the most popular MarketWatch articles this week was 10 states with the worst taxes for average Americans, based on a report called “Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States,” released by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). According to ITEP’s data, as reviewed by 24/7 […]
Dallas Business Journal: Texas Great for Businesses But Terrible for Most People
February 23, 2015
While many Lone Star State business organizations tout Texas’ tax climate when pitching corporate relocations, those same tax policies are among the worst in the nation when boiled down to the family level, according to a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Texas has the third-most regressive tax structure in the […]
Culture Map Houston: Texas Tax Myths Shattered
February 20, 2015
If you’re living in Texas and don’t fall within the wealthiest one percent of residents, chances are you’re paying some of the highest tax rates in the nation. According to “Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States,” a report recently released by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy […]
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