Ohio
Sales Tax Holidays: An Ineffective Alternative to Real Sales Tax Reform
July 11, 2016 • By Meg Wiehe
This brief was updated July 2018 Read this Policy Brief in PDF here. Sales taxes are an important revenue source, composing close to half of all state tax revenues.[1] But sales taxes are also inherently regressive because the lower a family’s income, the more the family must spend on goods and services subject to the […]
Policy Matters Ohio: Wealthy not paying fair share of state and local taxes
April 12, 2016
“State and local taxes support schools, fix potholes, keep the snow plowed, the justice system running and the water clean. Economic prosperity depends on these public services. The wealthiest families benefit amply from our communities and state. But are they paying their fair share for these benefits? New data says they are not.” Read more
Higher Education Income Tax Deductions and Credits in the States
March 22, 2016 • By Carl Davis
Read full report in PDF Download detailed appendix with state-by-state information on deductions and credits (Excel) Every state levying a personal income tax offers at least one deduction or credit designed to defray the cost of higher education. In theory, these policies help families cope with rising tuition prices by incentivizing college savings or partially […]
NewsNet5: PolitiFact: Was Kasich’s tax cut the largest in the nation?
March 16, 2016
“Ohio is among the states that come up in discussions about big tax cuts. But was Kasich’s truly the largest in the nation? “There are at least half a dozen reasons why there has to be an asterisk after that sentence,” said Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a […]
The Enquirer: Hundreds march to protect immigrants
March 15, 2016
“Illegal immigration is a major issue in the 2016 presidential race. Trump has called Mexicans, especially, rapists and drug dealers. A report released Feb. 24 by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit, non-partisan research organization, calculated that the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States pay $11.64 billion a year in […]
Undocumented Immigrants’ State & Local Tax Contributions (2016)
February 24, 2016 • By Lisa Christensen Gee, Meg Wiehe
This report was updated in March 2017 Read as a PDF. (Includes Full Appendix of State-by-State Data) Report Landing Page Public debates over federal immigration reform often suffer from insufficient and inaccurate information about the tax contributions of undocumented immigrants particularly at the state level. The truth is that undocumented immigrants living in the United […]
Rewarding Work Through State Earned Income Tax Credits
February 11, 2016 • By Aidan Davis, Lisa Christensen Gee, Meg Wiehe
See the 2016 Updated Brief Here Read the brief in a PDF here. that time, the EITC has been improved to lift and keep more working families out of poverty. The most recent improvements enhanced the credit for families with three or more children and for married couples. First enacted temporarily as part of the […]
Policy Matters Ohio: Kasich-era tax changes reward the wealthy
October 21, 2015
The top 1 percent of Ohioans on average will see a $17,618 annual reduction in state taxes as a result of major tax changes made during the Kasich administration, while the bottom fifth will pay $17 more. This is the result of cuts in state income taxes, the major tax that is based on the […]
The Chronicle: Editorial: Investment not shown in state budget
October 2, 2015
“Meg Wiehe, state tax policy director for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that advocates tax fairness, says North Carolina is virtually alone in the nation in giving away the fruits of recovery. “It’s very counter to what we’ve seen in other states where revenue has come back and states […]
The Highland County Press: Report: Tax policy benefits flow heavily to wealthiest Ohioans
September 25, 2015
“The top 1 percent of Ohioans on average will see a $17,618 annual reduction in state taxes as a result of major tax changes made during the Kasich administration, while the bottom fifth will pay $17 more, according to a new report by Policy Matters Ohio. The windfall for the wealthy results from cuts […]
The U.S. Census Bureau released data in September showing that the share of Americans living in poverty remains high. In 2014, the national poverty rate was 14.8 percent - statistically unchanged from the previous year. However, the poverty rate remains 2.3 percentage points higher than it was in 2007, before the Great Recession, indicating that recent economic gains have not yet reached all households and that there is much room for improvement. The 2014 measure translates to more than 46.7 million - more than 1 in 7 - Americans living in poverty. Most state poverty rates also held steady between…
Rewarding Work Through State Earned Income Tax Credits
September 17, 2015 • By Aidan Davis, Lisa Christensen Gee, Meg Wiehe
Despite some economic gains in recent years, the number of Americans living in poverty has held steady over the past four years. At the same time, wages for working families have remained stagnant and more than half of the jobs created by the economic recovery since 2010 were low-paying, mostly in the food services, retail, and employment services industries. Our country's growing class of low-wage workers often faces a dual challenge as they struggle to make ends meet. First, wages are too low and growing too slowly - despite recent productivity gains - to keep up with the rising cost…
Report: Tax Policy Benefits Flow Heavily to Wealthiest Ohioans
August 28, 2015
The windfall for the wealthy results from cuts in state income taxes, the major tax that is based on the ability to pay, while increases in other taxes such as the sales tax fall more heavily on lower- and middle-income Ohioans. Those are the key findings of an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and […]
Ohio Watchdog: Is Sales Tax Holiday Good or Bad for Ohio?
August 11, 2015
Bill sponsor Rep. John Patterson Jr., D-Jefferson, thinks passage of the measure would generate activity in retail stores and help create excitement that could rival the post-Thanksgiving Black Friday sales. Matt Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, says such thinking is noble but is poor tax policy. “Anything that reduces […]
Toledo Blade: Ohio Readies for First Break on Sales Tax
August 11, 2015
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, because […]
Columbus Dispatch: Ohio’s Sales-Tax Holiday Gets Mixed Reviews
August 11, 2015
Ohio’s first sales-tax holiday is in the books, and whether there will be one next year remains a matter of speculation. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy conducted a study that found that tax holidays tend to shift shoppers’ spending habits rather than increase overall spending. Read more
Canton Repository: Tax-Free Days Give Shoppers a Break
August 5, 2015
A 2013 analysis on the impact of a tax holiday in Ohio by the Economics Center at the University of Cincinnati found that while retail sales would increase close to 5 percent in the month of a tax holiday, that increase would be offset by losses in sales in other months, like July and September, […]
Morrow County Sentinel: Sales Tax Holiday: What Does it Mean for Ohio?
August 4, 2015
Research from the University of Cincinnati Economics Center estimates an almost five percent boost in sales during a sales tax holiday, with average families saving about $38. But according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, sales tax holidays cost states about $300 million annually. Read more
NBC: Sales Tax Holidays Complex, Controversial, But Popular With Shoppers
July 28, 2015
Research by the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy contends that increased sales during the tax holidays “have been shown to be primarily the result of consumers’ shifting the timing of their planned purchases.” That organization estimates sales tax holidays will cost states $300 million in 2015. “A two- to three-day sales tax holiday […]
CNBC: Tax-Free Shopping Ahead for These States
July 24, 2015
Research by the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, however, contends that increased sales during the tax holidays “have been shown to be primarily the result of consumers’ shifting the timing of their planned purchases.” That organization estimates sales tax holidays will cost states $300 million in 2015. “A two- to three-day sales tax […]
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.
The Beacon Journal: Anxieties of the middle class
July 20, 2015
“The Kasich tax cuts produce the opposite effects. An analysis of the recently passed two-year state budget by the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy, of Washington, D.C., for Policy Matters Ohio, a Cleveland think tank, showed tax changes benefitting the rich. Ohio residents in the top 1 percent of the income scale would see […]
Columbus Dispatch: Budget Doesn’t Do Right by Poor Ohioans
July 15, 2015
One immoral aspect of Ohio’s budget is the ongoing tax shift that blesses the rich and slaps the poor. According to a recent Dispatch article, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, said that the new budget gives the richest 1 percent of Ohioans an average tax cut of $10,236 per […]
Cincinnati Inquirer: Wealthiest Gain Most from New Tax Cut
July 7, 2015
An analysis of these tax changes by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a national group with a sophisticated model of the tax system, shows the top 1 percent on average will see an annual tax cut of $10,236. The middle fifth of taxpayers, who made between $37,000 and $58,000, will see an average […]
Akron Beacon Journal: Less for Schools While Cutting Taxes
July 2, 2015
The budget includes a 6.3 percent reduction in income tax rates, plus an expansion of additional tax relief for business income. Recall that the Statehouse already has reduced rates 21 percent and then another 10 percent. This new plan for tax cuts skews (again) to the wealthy, resulting in an average reduction of $10,236 a […]
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