Maine
-
January 9, 2024 Maine: Who Pays? 7th Edition
Maine Download PDF All figures and charts show 2024 tax law in Maine, presented at 2023 income levels. Senior taxpayers are excluded for reasons detailed in the methodology. Our analysis… -
ITEP Work in Action March 30, 2023 Maine Center for Economic Policy: Impacts of Proposed Income Tax Rate Reduction
House and Senate Republicans are demanding income tax cuts be part of the budget, and Democrats in the legislature were right to make sure they didn’t have the tools to… -
ITEP Work in Action August 30, 2022 Maine Center for Economic Policy: New Tax Relief Plan Will Disproportionately Benefit Wealthy Seniors
This year, lawmakers included a tax change in the state’s budget that will significantly expand tax benefits for pension recipients in Maine. Beginning in 2023, pension recipients will be allowed… -
ITEP Work in Action January 27, 2021 Maine Center for Economic Policy: Tax Policy Options: Maine Needs Progressive Revenue Solutions to Build a Stronger, Fairer Future
Generally, the sales tax is regressive. The poorest one-fifth of families pay a share of their income in Maine sales taxes that is nearly nine times larger than the top… -
blog September 26, 2019 Maine Reaches Tax Fairness Milestone
Lawmakers in Maine this year took bold steps toward making the state’s tax system fairer. Their actions demonstrate that political will can dramatically alter state tax policy landscape to improve economic well-being for low-income families while also ensuring the wealthy pay a fairer share.
-
ITEP Work in Action September 4, 2019 MECEP: NEW REPORT: Maine reaches new milestone on the road to tax fairness
Starting in 2020 and for the first time in decades, the Mainers who earn the least will no longer pay a larger share of their income to state and local taxes than those who earn the most, according to a policy brief published today by the Maine Center for Economic Policy.
-
blog July 18, 2019 Many States Move Toward Higher Taxes on the Rich; Lower Taxes on Poor People
Several states this year proposed or enacted tax policies that would require high-income households and/or businesses to pay more in taxes. After years of policymaking that slashed taxes for wealthy households and deprived states of revenue to adequately fund public services, this is a necessary and welcome reversal.
-
ITEP Work in Action February 6, 2019 Maine Center for Economic Policy: To Fund Shared Prosperity, We Must End LePage-Era Tax Cuts for the Wealthiest
For years under Gov. Paul LePage, budget-busting tax cuts robbed our state of the revenue we need to build a stronger, fairer economy. Tax cuts delivered windfalls to the wealthiest… -
ITEP Work in Action January 15, 2019 Maine Center for Economic Policy: The Prosperity Budget
Where State of Working Maine 2018 investigated the nature of work in the modern economy and made recommendations to reaffirm our values of fairness and respect in the workplace, the… -
ITEP Work in Action October 17, 2018 Maine Center for Economic Policy: Maine Still Has Work to Do in Building a Balanced and Adequate Tax Code
Building an inclusive economy requires tax policy that meets two conditions. The first is that those with the most are asked to pay more, or at the very least pay as great a share of their income in taxes as everyone else. The second is that enough shared resources are raised through the tax code to invest adequately in foundations of a strong economy including good schools, access to health care, and safe and modern infrastructure.
-
October 17, 2018 Maine: Who Pays? 6th Edition
MAINE Read as PDF MAINE 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 – Maine
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… -
media mention September 20, 2018 The Free Press: Think Tank Releases Blueprint to Fully Fund Education, Medicaid & Lower Property Taxes
Tax cuts passed by the Maine Legislature and Gov. Paul LePage over the past eight years will cost the state $864 million in revenue in the next biennium, according to an analysis by the Maine Center for Economic Policy and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. At the same time the state continues to ignore its legal obligations to fully fund education, Medicaid expansion and revenue sharing.
-
media mention August 17, 2018 Press Herald: Will Maine Referendum On Home Care Result In ‘Marriage Penalty’ Tax?
Aidan Davis, senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, wrote a letter to the Secretary of State’s Office on June 15 stating that the income… -
blog July 10, 2018 Building on Momentum from Recent Years, 2018 Delivers Strengthened Tax Credits for Workers and Families
Despite some challenging tax policy debates, a number of which hinged on states’ responses to federal conformity, 2018 brought some positive developments for workers and their families. This post updates a mid-session trends piece on this very subject. Here’s what we have been following:
-
ITEP Work in Action April 17, 2018 Maine Center for Economic Policy: Comparing the Democratic and GOP tax bills
Because of the federal tax overhaul spearheaded by President Trump and Congressional Republicans, the Maine Legislature is considering two competing proposals to change its own tax code. Lawmakers face a… -
ITEP Work in Action March 9, 2018 Maine Center for Economic Policy Policy Brief: The LePage Tax Bill
On March 1, Gov. Paul LePage’s Administration presented a tax bill to the Legislature designed to mirror at the state level some of the reforms enacted by passage of the… -
December 16, 2017 How the Final GOP-Trump Tax Bill Would Affect Maine 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 Maine 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 Maine residents.
-
November 13, 2017 How the Revised Senate Tax Bill Would Affect Maine 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 Maine, 37 percent of the federal tax cuts would go to the richest 5 percent of residents, and 11 percent of households would face a tax increase, once the bill is fully implemented.
-
November 6, 2017 How the House Tax Proposal Would Affect Maine 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.
-
October 4, 2017 GOP-Trump Tax Framework Would Provide Richest One Percent in Maine with 38.8 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 Maine equally. The richest one percent of Maine residents would receive 38.8 percent of the tax cuts within the state under the framework in 2018. These households are projected to have an income of at least $473,000 next year. The framework would provide them an average tax cut of $30,390 in 2018, which would increase their income by an average of 2.5 percent.
-
ITEP Work in Action August 17, 2017 Maine Center for Economic Policy: Maine Millionaires Primary Recipients of Proposed Trump Tax Breaks
New analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows Maine’s millionaires would get an average tax cut of $135,220 under President Trump’s proposed tax plan. Maine millionaires represent only 0.3 percent of all Maine households, yet would receive more than a quarter of all tax breaks.
-
August 17, 2017 In Maine 28.6 Percent of Trump’s Proposed Tax Cuts Go to People Making More than $1 Million
A tiny fraction of the Maine population (0.3 percent) earns more than $1 million annually. But this elite group would receive 28.6 percent of the tax cuts that go to Maine residents under the tax proposals from the Trump administration. A much larger group, 47.5 percent of the state, earns less than $45,000, but would receive just 8.1 percent of the tax cuts.
-
ITEP Work in Action July 20, 2017 Maine Center for Economic Policy: Trump Tax Plan Would Give Richest Maine Taxpayers an Average $53,000 Tax Cut and Trigger Deep Cuts to Federal Dollars for Maine
A new analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reveals a federal tax reform plan based on President Trump’s April outline would fail to deliver on its promise of helping middle-class taxpayers, showering three out of every five dollars of the total tax cut on the richest 1 percent nationwide. In Maine, the top 1 percent of the state’s residents would receive an average tax cut of $53,000 compared with an average tax cut of $400 for the bottom 60 percent of taxpayers in the state.