Taxing Wealth and Income from Wealth
California’s Prop 40: Responses to Common Objections
• By Brian Galle, David Gamage, Darien Shankse
Proposition 40, California’s proposed billionaire tax, is a one-time 5 percent levy that addresses a significant one-time emergency, namely the cuts made to the healthcare system by the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
2026 State Tax Ballot Measures to Watch
• By Aidan Davis
This fall, voters across the country will consider a host of ballot measures that could reshape the fairness and adequacy of their states’ tax systems. Here’s some of what we’re following.
Trump Weighs Another Giveaway to the Wealthy With Capital Gains Indexing Ahead of Midterms
• By Jon Whiten
Trump is once again weighing a proposal to index capital gains taxes to inflation as part of a set of policy promises ahead of the midterm elections. It would amount to a massive new tax break for wealthy investors.
How Federal Tax Policy Can Address AI
• By Steve Wamhoff, Joe Hughes, Erika Frankel
Congress could use its taxing power to ensure a fairer distribution of the fruits of labor, innovation and investment, address the specific harms (the negative externalities) of AI specifically, and acquire a public stake in the companies that are driving the AI revolution.
Economic Opportunity Institute: What the Millionaires Tax would mean for Washington
• By ITEP Staff
In fact, thanks to the legislation’s expansion of the state’s Working Families Tax Credit and elimination of sales taxes on several categories of items, 95% of Washington households will pay less in state taxes, according to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
The Campaign by Former Democratic Officials to Stop Taxes on the Wealthy Is Back
• By Steve Wamhoff
A former Democratic senator from Nebraska has joined Saving America’s Family Enterprises and taken up its cause of opposing wealth taxes.
Localities Try Vacant Land Taxes, Mansion Taxes and Second Home Taxes
• By Rita Jefferson
In 2026, cities, counties, and school districts must manage tax cuts coming from federal and state governments, the end of federal pandemic aid, rising costs, and a stagnant economy. This challenging environment is forcing municipalities of all types to ask how they can best fund core priorities and invest in communities in the long term.
Congress Should Reject Proposed Tax Breaks for Crypto
• By Steve Wamhoff
Crypto provides no clear benefit and instead harms society in several ways. Even if crypto was useful in some way that outweighed the harms it causes, there is no reason to make exceptions that treat it more generously than other types of assets or transactions.
Celebrate Juneteenth With Tax Justice for All
• By Brakeyshia Samms
If Juneteenth is to mean anything beyond symbolism, it must also be a call to confront the policies that continue to shape racial inequities today. One of the most powerful drivers of that inequity is our tax system.
How To Build A Better City Budget
• By Rita Jefferson
As rising costs strain our community and household budgets, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker’s proposed taxes attempted to patch gaping holes with meager solutions.
As Inequality Grows, More States Look to Tax the Rich
• By Alex Welch
From surcharges on the income of high-earners to higher taxes on second homes, here are recent steps states have taken to tax the rich.
State Rundown 4/30: Aloha to Tax Cuts, Hawaiʻi Lawmakers Address Revenue Gap with High-End Tax Changes
• By ITEP Staff
This week Hawaiʻi lawmakers reached a compromise to balance the state budget and maintain tax cuts for most residents by, in part, raising rates on the richest Hawaiians. Other states are working to generate revenue from their wealthiest residents, too.
Maine Passes Millionaires’ Tax and Pushes Back on Federal Changes
• By Marco Guzman
Maine Gov. Janet Mills on Friday put her seal of approval on a supplemental budget bill that includes a “millionaires’ tax.”
State Rundown 3/4: Budget Realities Set In
• By ITEP Staff
As many state legislative sessions near or cross the halfway point, lawmakers are facing tough choices.
State Rundown 2/11: This Valentine’s Day, Conscious Decoupling Is Our Love Language
• By ITEP Staff
While some may be excited for a romantic Valentine’s Day this weekend, many state lawmakers are breaking up and decoupling from recent federal tax changes that are poised to leave states with revenue shortfalls – much like a bad date who forgets their wallet and asks you to pick up the tab.
What Did 2025 State Tax Changes Mean for Racial and Economic Equity?
• By Brakeyshia Samms
The results are a mixed bag, with some states enacting promising policies that will improve tax equity and others going in the opposite direction.
Trust Reform is Needed to Protect States, Especially in the Wake of IRS Enforcement Cuts
• By Sarah Austin
Trust use is widespread among the wealthiest households, with reports showing that roughly half of the nation’s wealthiest people rely on trusts for tax avoidance reasons
How the Wealthy Exploit the Tax Code: Q&A with Professor Ray Madoff, Author of ‘The Second Estate’
• By Brakeyshia Samms
Her timely book, The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy, walks readers through federal tax policy history and the modern-day legal maneuvers the wealthy use to pay little to no taxes
States Can Push Back Against Reckless Federal Tax Policy. Here’s How.
• By Aidan Davis, Wesley Tharpe
They should take steps to protect and boost their own revenues. And they should take a second look at their own tax cuts.
‘Tax the Rich,’ Says … Mitt Romney?
• By Matthew Gardner
His 900-word New York Times op-ed identifies some sensible federal tax reform ideas that would create a fairer, more sustainable tax system.
State Tax Dollars Shouldn’t Subsidize Federal Opportunity Zones
• By Eli Byerly-Duke
The Opportunity Zones program benefits wealthy investors more than it benefits disadvantaged communities.
The Wealth Proceeds Tax: A Simple Way for States to Tax the Wealthy
• By Sarah Austin, Carl Davis
Taxing the proceeds generated by wealth through a new Wealth Proceeds Tax is a simple way for states to raise billions in new revenue and improve the fairness of their tax systems.
Trump’s Tax Law Clobbers State Budgets. Now’s the Time to Prepare.
• By ITEP Staff
The Trump megabill hands the richest 1% a trillion-dollar windfall while gutting funding for health care, education, and disaster relief — leaving communities to pick up the pieces. State and local leaders must step up, tax the wealthiest fairly, and safeguard the essentials that keep America healthy, educated, and safe.
How Maryland’s Tax Reforms Advance Racial and Economic Equity
• By Vanessa Woods
Maryland is taking aim at income and racial disparities through a revised personal income tax. By raising taxes on high earners and cutting them for most households across racial and ethnic lines, the state is proving that progressive tax policy can drive both equity and revenue.
Missouri is Sleepwalking into a Half-Billion Dollar Tax Cut for the Rich
• By Carl Davis
Missouri lawmakers are debating a tax cut that will mostly benefit the wealthiest in the state, while relying on an unrealistic estimate of what it will cost.
Institute on Taxation
and Economic Policy
ITEP is a non-profit, non-partisan tax policy organization. We conduct rigorous analyses of tax and economic proposals and provide data-driven recommendations to shape equitable and sustainable tax systems.
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