Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

Trump Tax Policies

June Budget Report Doesn’t Erase Our Nation’s Fiscal Challenges

Nobody should be too excited and think this means our country is headed toward lower deficits - especially when the administration recently signed one of the most expensive budget reconciliation bills in history.

10 Crazy Comparisons Showing How Much Trump and Congress Just Cut Taxes for the Rich

$117 billion is a big number, so we thought it could use a little context.

There Were Far Cheaper and Fairer Options Than the Trump Megabill

Congress and the president could have spent less than half that much money on a tax bill that does more for working-class and middle-class households.

Analysis of Tax Provisions in the Trump Megabill as Signed into Law: National and State Level Estimates

July 7, 2025 • By Steve Wamhoff, Carl Davis, Joe Hughes, Jessica Vela

Analysis of Tax Provisions in the Trump Megabill as Signed into Law: National and State Level Estimates

President Trump has signed into law the tax and spending “megabill” that largely favors the richest taxpayers and provides working-class Americans with relatively small tax cuts that will in many cases be more than offset by Trump's tariffs.

Top 1% to Receive $1 Trillion Tax Cut from Trump Megabill Over the Next Decade

The Trump megabill will give the top 1 percent tax cuts totaling $1.02 trillion over the next decade. For comparison, the bill’s cuts to the Medicaid health care program will total $930 billion over the same period.

Megabill Takes Cap Off Unprecedented Private School Voucher Tax Credit, Potentially Raising Cost by Tens of Billions Relative to Earlier Version

It is clear that this tax credit has the potential to come with an enormous cost if private school groups are successful in convincing their supporters to participate. In these times of very high debt and deficits, this is reason for all of us to be uneasy.

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Local Tax Trends in 2025

July 1, 2025 • By Rita Jefferson

Local Tax Trends in 2025

As federal aid ends and economic uncertainty grows, local governments face tough budget choices. Now is the time for localities to protect vulnerable residents and build stronger, more equitable fiscal foundations.

Trump Megabill Will Give $117 Billion in Tax Cuts to the Top 1% in 2026. How Much In Your State?

The predominant feature of the tax and spending bill working its way through Congress is a massive tax cut for the richest 1 percent — a $114 billion benefit to the wealthiest people in the country in 2026 alone.

How Much Do the Top 1% in Each State Get from the Trump Megabill?

The Senate tax bill under debate right now would bring very large tax cuts to very high-income people. In total, the richest 1 percent would receive $114 billion in tax cuts next year alone. That would amount to nearly $61,000 for each of these affluent households.

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Analysis of Tax Provisions in the Senate Reconciliation Bill: National and State Level Estimates

June 25, 2025 • By Carl Davis, Jessica Vela, Joe Hughes, Steve Wamhoff

Analysis of Tax Provisions in the Senate Reconciliation Bill: National and State Level Estimates

Compared to its House counterpart, the Senate bill makes certain tax provisions more generous, including corporate tax breaks that it makes permanent rather than temporary. But the bottom line for both is the same. Both bills give more tax cuts to the richest 1 percent than to the entire bottom 60 percent of Americans, and both bills particularly favor high-income people living in more conservative states.

Trump Megabill’s Deduction for Car Loan Interest Would Not Offset Tariff-Related Auto Price Increases for Most Buyers

The auto loan interest deduction that recently passed the House is designed, at least in part, to mitigate the impact of tariff-induced price increases on vehicles assembled in America. But the deduction is incapable of offsetting even small-scale price increases, especially for working-class families and others with moderate incomes.

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Musk-Trump Feud Shows Need to Tax the Rich

June 6, 2025 • By Amy Hanauer

Musk-Trump Feud Shows Need to Tax the Rich

Our tax policies enable people like Elon Musk and Donald Trump to accumulate more wealth than anyone could ever use in a lifetime. They then use it to steer elections and shape public policy to further enrich themselves and others like them. We should defeat the enormously destructive tax bill in Congress and instead craft tax policy that taxes the rich, makes our democracy more fair, and returns resources to the rest of the country.

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Analysis of Tax Provisions in the House Reconciliation Bill: National and State Level Estimates

May 22, 2025 • By Carl Davis, Jessica Vela, Joe Hughes, Steve Wamhoff

Analysis of Tax Provisions in the House Reconciliation Bill: National and State Level Estimates

The poorest fifth of Americans would receive 1 percent of the House reconciliation bill's net tax cuts in 2026 while the richest fifth of Americans would receive two-thirds of the tax cuts. The richest 5 percent alone would receive a little less than half of the net tax cuts that year.

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The House Tax Plan, By the Numbers

May 16, 2025 • By Carl Davis

The House Tax Plan, By the Numbers

The House of Representatives unveiled a sprawling piece of tax legislation earlier this week that would extend temporary tax changes enacted in 2017 and layer various kinds of tax cuts and increases on top. The JCT analysis makes clear that the House tax plan would be regressive, meaning it would offer larger tax cuts as a share of income to high-income taxpayers than to either middle-class or working-class families. It also makes clear that most of the tax cuts would go to families with above-average incomes.

Trump’s Proposed Higher Tax Rate on the Richest Taxpayers Would Affect Very Little of Their Income

President Donald Trump has proposed allowing the top rate to revert from 37 percent to 39.6 percent for taxable income greater than $5 million for married couples and $2.5 million for unmarried taxpayers. But many other special breaks in the tax code would ensure that most income of very well-off people would never be subject to Trump’s 39.6 percent tax rate.

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Federal Tax Debate 2025

May 2, 2025 • By ITEP Staff

Federal Tax Debate 2025

Want to know more about the tax and spending megabill that President Trump recently signed into law? We've got you covered.

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The Impact of Trump’s Tariffs

April 23, 2025 • By ITEP Staff

The Impact of Trump’s Tariffs

The tariffs proposed by Donald Trump, which are far larger than any on the books today, would significantly raise the prices faced by American consumers across the income scale.

It’s Tax Day. You’ve Paid Your Share, but the Billionaires Haven’t.

You likely had most of your federal taxes deducted from your paychecks throughout the year. This is not true, however, for mega-millionaires and billionaires, some of whom are practically running our government right now.

Sharp Turn in Federal Policy Brings Significant Risks for State Tax Revenues

Summary The new presidential administration and Congress have indicated that they intend to bring about a dramatic federal retreat in funding for health care, food assistance, education, and other services that will push more of the responsibility for providing these essential services to the states. Meeting these new obligations would be a challenging task for […]

Senate Republicans Rig Congressional Rules to Make Their Tax Cuts Appear Cost-Free

This week, members of Congress are arguing about whether extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts would cost trillions of dollars over a decade or cost nothing.

Trump’s Address to Congress Obscures His Actual Tax Agenda

In last night’s address to Congress, President Trump spent more time insulting Americans, lying, and bragging than he did talking about taxes. But regardless of what President Trump and Elon Musk talk about most loudly and angrily, there is one clear policy that they and the corporations and billionaires that support them will try hardest […]

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House Budget Resolution Tees Up Damaging Trump Tax Agenda

February 26, 2025 • By Steve Wamhoff

House Budget Resolution Tees Up Damaging Trump Tax Agenda

The budget resolution passed by House Republicans will enrich the richest, blow up the deficit, and decimate vital public services. The budget resolution allows Congress to pass reconciliation legislation with $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that would mostly flow to the wealthiest families in the country. Congressional Republicans have no way to pay for the massive tax cuts promised by President Trump during his campaign other than to dismantle fundamental parts of the government and increase the federal budget deficit.

The Five Biggest Corporations Represented at Trump’s Inauguration Could Save $75 Billion from One Tax Break Before Congress

New financial reports indicate five of America’s biggest corporations—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Tesla—could win $75 billion in tax breaks if Congress and the President satisfy demands from corporate lobbyists to reinstate a provision repealed under the 2017 Trump tax law.

Trump and Congress’ Tax Package Likely to Worsen Racial Inequities

While the country transitions to a new, yet familiar, presidential administration, lawmakers must keep in mind: fighting racial injustice should still be one of the focal points of this year’s tax debates. In theory, the debate over extending much of 2017’s Trump tax law represents an opportunity to advance racial equity. In practice, the tax package is likely to do the opposite, worsening racial inequities that already exist.  

Different Approaches to the Trump Tax Law’s Cap on Deductions for State and Local Taxes (SALT)

President Trump and the Republican majorities in the House and Senate may not extend the $10,000 cap on federal income tax deductions for state and local taxes (SALT), the one part of the 2017 law that significantly limits tax breaks for the rich. And, depending on which proposal they settle on, leaving out the existing cap on SALT deductions could add between $10 billion and over $100 billion each year to the total cost of their tax plan.