New Jersey
States Move to Tax the Top in 2024
March 20, 2024 • By Marco Guzman, Miles Trinidad
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: Who Pays? 7th Edition
January 9, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
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. Our analysis includes nearly all (99.9 percent) state and local tax revenue collected in New Jersey. State and local tax shares of family income Top […]
New Jersey Policy Perspective: StayNJ 2.0: Senior Tax Cut Still 2 Regressive and 2 Expensive
June 28, 2023 • By ITEP Staff
Updated StayNJ senior tax cut proposal would still send the biggest benefits to already-wealthy households. Read more.
New Jersey Policy Perspective: Stay Away from StayNJ: Proposal Cuts Taxes for the Rich, Leaves Low-Income Seniors Behind
June 9, 2023 • By ITEP Staff
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 new proposals and changes to the tax code, it’s critical to consider who stands to benefit, by how much, and who is left behind. In […]
New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut Should Keep Corporate Taxes Strong, Extend Surcharges
February 28, 2023 • By Marco Guzman
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.
New Jersey Policy Perspective: How an Expanded Child Tax Credit Would Help More Hard-Working New Jersey Families
January 31, 2023 • By ITEP Staff
Doubling the maximum credit amount would help hundreds of thousands of children and their families pay for basic needs. Read more.
New Jersey Policy Perspective: Making New Jersey Affordable for Families – The Case for a State-Level Child Tax Credit
February 23, 2022 • By ITEP Staff
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 success. When families can pay for basic expenses and save for their children’s futures, it improves child well-being immediately by reducing key costs like food […]
The Rockefeller Foundation: The Untold Benefits of State EITCs on Child Welfare
June 16, 2021 • By ITEP Staff
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 than half, through Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) expansions. But what about state tax codes? What can states do to […]
New Jersey Policy Perspective: Blueprint to Secure a Just Recovery
April 24, 2021 • By ITEP Staff
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 racial disparities, spread economic inequality, and weakened our ability to address emergent problems. Now, as we begin to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and recession, […]
New Jersey Leads by Example with Its New Cannabis Tax
January 12, 2021 • By Carl Davis
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.
Voters Have the Chance in 2020 to Increase Tax Equity in Arizona, Illinois, and California, And They Should
October 22, 2020 • By Marco Guzman
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.
The Rich Are Weathering the Pandemic Just Fine: Tax Them
September 3, 2020 • By .ITEP Staff, Carl Davis, Meg Wiehe
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.
New Jersey Policy Perspective: Unemployment Insurance Taxes Paid by Undocumented Workers Top $1 Billion
June 17, 2020 • By ITEP Staff
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, according to a recent analysis conducted by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and the Fiscal Policy Institute. In addition to contributions to unemployment […]
New Jersey Policy Perspective: Road to Recovery: Reforming New Jersey’s Income Tax Code
June 9, 2020 • By ITEP Staff
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 can be strengthened by reducing the tax burden that low-paid and middle class families pay, while generating more revenue for public programs and services that […]
NJ Spotlight: GOP Leaders Call on NJ Democrats to Reconsider Middle-class Tax Cuts
October 29, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
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.
NorthJersey.com: 2018 Elections: Candidates Taking Wait-and-See Approach to SALT Deductions
October 22, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
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.
NJ Spotlight: New Jersey’s Tax System Ranked Among Fairest in the Country
October 18, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
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 U.S. states with the most equitable tax systems. Read more
NJ BIZ: Report: NJ’s Top Earners Pay Lower Tax Share Than Middle-Income Families
October 17, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
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.
Insider NJ: New Analysis: Middle Class Taxpayers in New Jersey Still Paying More Than Tax Rate Paid by Richest 1 Percent of New Jerseyans
October 17, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
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.
New Jersey: Who Pays? 6th Edition
October 17, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
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.
Tax Cuts 2.0 – New Jersey
September 26, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
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 “Tax Cuts 2.0” or “Tax Reform 2.0,” which would make the temporary provisions permanent. And they falsely claim that making these provisions permanent will benefit […]
Building on Momentum from Recent Years, 2018 Delivers Strengthened Tax Credits for Workers and Families
July 10, 2018 • By Aidan Davis
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:
Washington Post: N.J. Approaches a Government Shutdown as Democrats Feud Over Tax on Millionaires
June 28, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
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.
New Jersey Policy Perspective: Fast Facts: Proposed Tax Changes Would Bring More Balance to New Jersey’s Tax Code
May 24, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
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.
Most States Have Raised Gas Taxes in Recent Years
May 22, 2018 • By Carl Davis
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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