These forward-thinking states are demonstrating the wide variety of options for policymakers who want to raise more from the wealthiest people, rein in corporate tax avoidance, create fair tax codes and build strong communities.
New Jersey
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blog March 20, 2024 States Move to Tax the Top in 2024
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January 9, 2024 New Jersey: Who Pays? 7th Edition
New Jersey Download PDF All figures and charts show 2024 tax law in New Jersey, presented at 2023 income levels. Senior taxpayers are excluded for reasons detailed in the methodology.… -
ITEP Work in Action June 28, 2023 New Jersey Policy Perspective: StayNJ 2.0: Senior Tax Cut Still 2 Regressive and 2 Expensive
Updated StayNJ senior tax cut proposal would still send the biggest benefits to already-wealthy households. Read more. -
ITEP Work in Action June 9, 2023 New Jersey Policy Perspective: Stay Away from StayNJ: Proposal Cuts Taxes for the Rich, Leaves Low-Income Seniors Behind
Housing affordability is one of the most pressing challenges facing New Jersey, but not all policies aimed at making the state affordable are equally effective, efficient, or equitable. When evaluating… -
blog February 28, 2023 New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut Should Keep Corporate Taxes Strong, Extend Surcharges
At a time when corporations are seeing record profits while not paying their fair share of federal taxes, state corporate income taxes can and should play a role in raising sustainable revenue and adding progressivity to state tax codes. Right now, lawmakers in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut have a unique opportunity to extend targeted tax changes that have raised billions of dollars from profitable corporations for meaningful public investments.
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ITEP Work in Action January 31, 2023 New Jersey Policy Perspective: How an Expanded Child Tax Credit Would Help More Hard-Working New Jersey Families
Doubling the maximum credit amount would help hundreds of thousands of children and their families pay for basic needs. Read more. -
ITEP Work in Action February 23, 2022 New Jersey Policy Perspective: Making New Jersey Affordable for Families – The Case for a State-Level Child Tax Credit
A state-level child tax credit would recognize the unique costs of raising children and the support that most families need to care for their kids and set them up for… -
ITEP Work in Action June 16, 2021 The Rockefeller Foundation: The Untold Benefits of State EITCs on Child Welfare
With the passing of the American Rescue Plan in March, more than 5 million children are projected to be lifted out of poverty this year, cutting child poverty by more… -
ITEP Work in Action April 24, 2021 New Jersey Policy Perspective: Blueprint to Secure a Just Recovery
In 2017, New Jersey Policy Perspective released the Blueprint for Economic Justice and Shared Prosperity. It charted a course forward for the state after decades of short-sighted policymaking that exacerbated… -
blog January 12, 2021 New Jersey Leads by Example with Its New Cannabis Tax
New Jersey lawmakers passed an innovative tax design that other states debating cannabis legalization should look to for inspiration. The state officially legalized cannabis in November when voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment by a margin of 67 to 33 percent. The amendment applied the state’s general sales tax to cannabis and allowed local governments to create their own taxes on the industry. The legislature added the most notable part of the tax structure last month with a Social Equity Excise Fee.
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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
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.
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blog September 3, 2020 The Rich Are Weathering the Pandemic Just Fine: Tax Them
Reductions in critical state and local investments, including health care and education, would only exacerbate the economic crisis brought on by COVID-19 and worsen racial and income inequality for years to come. Higher taxes on top earners are among the best options for addressing pandemic-related state revenue shortfalls in the coming months.
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ITEP Work in Action June 17, 2020 New Jersey Policy Perspective: Unemployment Insurance Taxes Paid by Undocumented Workers Top $1 Billion
Over the past ten years, unemployment insurance taxes paid based on undocumented immigrants’ work in New Jersey added more than $1.36 billion to state and federal unemployment insurance trust funds,… -
ITEP Work in Action June 9, 2020 New Jersey Policy Perspective: Road to Recovery: Reforming New Jersey’s Income Tax Code
A sensible way to address revenue shortfalls and an unfair tax code is to raise income taxes on the state’s wealthiest households. By reforming New Jersey’s income tax, our recovery… -
media mention October 29, 2018 NJ Spotlight: GOP Leaders Call on NJ Democrats to Reconsider Middle-class Tax Cuts
The related tax-cut bills — and another that would shield most retirement-savings contributions from state income taxes — were introduced at the start of the year but have not been posted for votes by the Democratic leaders who control the Assembly’s agenda. Bucco suggested a report released earlier this month by the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that found middle-income taxpayers in New Jersey pay a higher effective tax rate than any other group — including the top 1 percent of earners — as a reason to begin prioritizing adoption of the GOP bills.
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ITEP Work in Action October 22, 2018 NorthJersey.com: 2018 Elections: Candidates Taking Wait-and-See Approach to SALT Deductions
A study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a non-partisan think tank, found that a majority of New Jersey taxpayers in every income group will pay less taxes next year than they did in 2017 as a result of last year’s federal tax-code overhaul.
The cap is expected to affect those in high-income brackets the most. Thousands of New Jersey homeowners rushed to prepay their 2018 taxes in December to take advantage of bigger deductions on their 2017 returns before the cap took effect.
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ITEP Work in Action October 18, 2018 NJ Spotlight: New Jersey’s Tax System Ranked Among Fairest in the Country
A report on the fairness of state and local tax policy that was released yesterday by the Washington, D.C.-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy ranked New Jersey among the… -
media mention October 17, 2018 NJ BIZ: Report: NJ’s Top Earners Pay Lower Tax Share Than Middle-Income Families
New Jersey’s top earners enjoy vastly more wealth than the majority of New Jersey residents but pay a much lower percentage of taxes than middle-income families in the state. That’s according to a nationwide analysis released Wednesday by New Jersey Policy Perspective and the Institution of Taxation and Economic Policy.
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ITEP Work in Action October 17, 2018 Insider NJ: New Analysis: Middle Class Taxpayers in New Jersey Still Paying More Than Tax Rate Paid by Richest 1 Percent of New Jerseyans
A new study released today by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP) finds that New Jersey’s middle class families pay more in taxes as a percent of their income compared to the state’s wealthiest residents.
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October 17, 2018 New Jersey: Who Pays? 6th Edition
According to ITEP’s Tax Inequality Index, New Jersey’s state and local tax system does not worsen income inequality and ranks 46th on the index. The large income gap between lower- and middle-income taxpayers, as compared to the wealthy, is somewhat narrower after state and local taxes than before.
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September 26, 2018 Tax Cuts 2.0 – New Jersey
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 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:
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ITEP Work in Action June 28, 2018 Washington Post: N.J. Approaches a Government Shutdown as Democrats Feud Over Tax on Millionaires
New Jersey is just days away from a government shutdown over a plan to raise taxes on the rich that has divided Democrats and revealed the political difficulty of raising funds for the party’s ambitious social spending goals.
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ITEP Work in Action May 24, 2018 New Jersey Policy Perspective: Fast Facts: Proposed Tax Changes Would Bring More Balance to New Jersey’s Tax Code
The tax changes proposed in Gov. Murphy’s first budget would bring more balance to New Jersey’s tax code by raising taxes on the wealthiest one percent while reducing them for the lowest-income New Jerseyans.[1] Updating the tax code would also raise nearly $2 billion in new revenue for targeted investments in early education, public transit, health care and other essential public services.
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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.