As Iowa lawmakers change the state’s graduated personal income tax to a single flat rate, they are designing a state tax code where the rich will pay a lower rate overall than families with modest means.
Iowa
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blog May 9, 2024 Iowa Flat Tax Shows Why Such Policies Are a Problem Everywhere
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blog March 20, 2024 Eliminating Income Taxes Would Be an Expensive Giveaway
Governors and legislative leaders in a dozen states have made calls to fully eliminate their taxes on personal or corporate income, after many states already deeply slashed them over the past few years. The public deserves to know the true impact of these plans, which would inevitably result in an outsized windfall to states’ richest taxpayers, more power in the hands of wealthy households and corporations, extreme cuts to basic public services, and more deeply inequitable state tax codes.
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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,… -
ITEP Work in Action February 12, 2024 Common Good Iowa: Both Governor’s, Senate Plans Worsen Tax Inequalities
Iowans have traditionally valued expanding opportunity, caring for neighbors and a strong sense of fair play. Tax-cut proposals at the Iowa Statehouse from Governor Kim Reynolds and legislative leaders turn these Iowa values upside down. They would drastically restrict revenue needed to fund critical services such as education, health care, public safety and environmental quality. The Senate bill, SSB 3141, would set out to fully eliminate the income tax, which until recently has funded roughly half of the state budget. By targeting benefits to the wealthiest Iowans, the plans would throw an already inequitable tax system further out of balance.
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January 9, 2024 Iowa: Who Pays? 7th Edition
Iowa Download PDF All figures and charts show 2024 tax law in Iowa, presented at 2023 income levels. Senior taxpayers are excluded for reasons detailed in the methodology. Our analysis… -
ITEP Work in Action January 4, 2024 Common Good Iowa: Tax Cuts: What’s At Stake for Iowans
The income tax is a way Iowans come together to lay strong foundations that create opportunity and help people thrive. Governor Reynolds and legislative leaders want to eliminate Iowa’s personal income… -
blog March 1, 2022 Taxes Should be Part of the State of the Union Agenda
President Biden should elevate his tax and revenue proposals which remain essential if we are to pay for environmental restoration, health priorities and peacekeeping, the front-burner items that may dominate the speech.
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ITEP Work in Action February 10, 2022 Common Good Iowa: New Income Tax Cuts – a Recipe for Disaster and Inequity
Iowa lawmakers have repeatedly cut taxes over the last three decades in ways that provide the greatest benefits to the highest-income taxpayers while ratcheting down investments that historically made the… -
ITEP Work in Action October 17, 2018 Iowa Fiscal Partnership: Tax Inequity: Iowa’s Continuing Story
Iowa taxes its middle- and low-income families more as a share of income than it does wealthy families, a long-term trend worsened by the 2018 tax overhaul.
The latest “Who Pays” report by the Washington-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), again shows the effect of sales taxes and property taxes on lower-income households tilts Iowa’s overall tax system so the poorest pay the highest percentage in taxes.
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October 17, 2018 Iowa: Who Pays? 6th Edition
IOWA Read as PDF IOWA 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 – Iowa
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… -
blog June 26, 2018 Gas Taxes Rise in Seven States, Including an Historic Increase in Oklahoma
A rare sight is coming to Oklahoma. The last time the Sooner State raised its gas tax rate, the Berlin Wall was still standing, and Congress was debating whether to ban smoking on flights shorter than two hours. Fast forward 31 years, and Oklahoma is finally at it again. On Sunday, the state’s gas tax rate will rise by 3 cents and its diesel tax rate by 6 cents. Both taxes will now stand at 19 cents per gallon—still among the lowest in the country. But Oklahoma isn’t the only state where gas taxes will soon rise.
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blog May 22, 2018 Most States Have Raised Gas Taxes in Recent Years
An updated version of this blog was published in April 2019.
State tax policy can be a contentious topic, but in recent years there has been a remarkable level of agreement on one tax in particular: the gasoline tax. Increasingly, state lawmakers are deciding that outdated gas taxes need to be raised and reformed to fund infrastructure projects that are vital to their economies.
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ITEP Work in Action May 5, 2018 Iowa Fiscal Partnership: Tax Plan Facts vs. Spin
As Iowa lawmakers consider the agreed-upon tax plan developed by Republican leadership and Governor Reynolds, sharp differences are clear from earlier proposals by the Governor and the House Ways and Means Committee.
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ITEP Work in Action April 29, 2018 Iowa Fiscal Partnership: IFP’s Tax Policy Kit
IFP’s Tax Policy Kit offers resources for the public, advocates and policy makers who want to better understand the stakes — and sort away the spin — on state tax debates.
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ITEP Work in Action March 19, 2018 Iowa Fiscal Partnership: Passing Through a Special Break for Wealthiest Filers
The tax bill that recently passed the Iowa Senate included a provision from the recent federal tax cut bill that provides preferential tax treatment for certain kinds of business income earned mostly by the highest income taxpayers. The “Qualified Business Income Deduction” (QBID) provides a 20 percent exemption of that income from the personal income tax.
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ITEP Work in Action March 19, 2018 Iowa Fiscal Partnership: Passing through a special break
The tax bill that recently passed the Iowa Senate included a provision from the recent federal tax cut bill that provides preferential tax treatment for certain kinds of business income… -
ITEP Work in Action March 16, 2018 Iowa Fiscal Partnership: Governor’s Plan Sets Stage For Service Cuts
Iowa’s General Assembly opened with promises from legislative leadership and the Governor for tax reform. We noted key opportunities to assure a fairer and sustainable system in a brief report last fall, “Introduction to 2018: What should be part of tax reform? And what should not?”[i] These options remain; some are gaining attention — such as the elimination of federal deductibility and the closing of sales tax loopholes — and some are not.
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ITEP Work in Action March 7, 2018 Iowa Fiscal Partnership: Governor’s Tax Cut Plan Sets Stage For Service Cuts
Governor Kim Reynolds’ tax proposal trades massive cuts in public services for small savings for lower-income taxpayers, larger savings for high-income taxpayers and few meaningful strides toward fairness in a system that already treats the poor poorly and raises too little revenue to avoid mid-year cuts.
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blog January 12, 2018 State Rundown 1/12: Tax Cut Tunnel Vision Threatens to Bore State Budget Holes Even Deeper
As states continue to sift through wreckage of the federal tax cut bill to try to determine how they will be affected, two things should be clear to everyone: the richest people in every state just got a massive federal tax cut, and federal funding for shared priorities like education and health care is certain to continue to decline. State leaders who care about those priorities should consider asking those wealthy beneficiaries of the federal cuts to pay more to the state in order to minimize the damage of the looming federal funding cuts, but so far policymakers in Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, South Carolina, and elsewhere are choosing instead to sing their same old tax-cutting tune. As the facts come into better focus, hopefully these leaders will change that tune.
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December 16, 2017 How the Final GOP-Trump Tax Bill Would Affect Iowa 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 Iowa 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 Iowa residents.
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November 13, 2017 How the Revised Senate Tax Bill Would Affect Iowa 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 Iowa, 34 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 Iowa 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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October 4, 2017 GOP-Trump Tax Framework Would Provide Richest One Percent in Iowa with 50.2 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 Iowa equally. The richest one percent of Iowa residents would receive 50.2 percent of the tax cuts within the state under the framework in 2018. These households are projected to have an income of at least $440,800 next year. The framework would provide them an average tax cut of $50,050 in 2018, which would increase their income by an average of 4.3 percent.