Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

Trump Tax Policies

An Anti-Affordability Agenda: Trump’s Advisors Call on States to Raise Taxes on the Working Class and Drastically Cut Taxes for the Rich

The Trump administration’s Council of Economic Advisors suggests that states consider drastically raising sales taxes and using those new revenues to pay for repealing taxes on corporate and personal income. Working-class families would face dramatic tax increases while the nation’s wealthiest families would see their state tax bills plummet.

How the Wealthy Exploit the Tax Code: Q&A with Professor Ray Madoff, Author of ‘The Second Estate’

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

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States Can Push Back Against Reckless Federal Tax Policy. Here’s How.

January 22, 2026 • By Aidan Davis, Wesley Tharpe

States Can Push Back Against Reckless Federal Tax Policy. Here’s How.

They should take steps to protect and boost their own revenues. And they should take a second look at their own tax cuts.

Local Governments Are Increasingly Strapped: 2026 Will Bring New Challenges and New Opportunities

2025 saw an intensification of state and local tax fights across the country, as well as growing experimentation with local-option taxes, levies, fees, and tourism taxes aimed at keeping budgets afloat while also navigating political constraints imposed by state legislatures.

Don’t Be Fooled by Treasury’s Jekyll and Hyde Approach to Tax Enforcement

While this guidance is sorely needed to clean up the mess created by a hasty Congress, these notices stand in sharp contrast to the deregulatory, anti-tax approach that the Treasury Department has taken.

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2025: The Year in Tax Policy

December 23, 2025 • By ITEP Staff

2025: The Year in Tax Policy

From Congressional discussions over the so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" to debates on property taxes, ITEP kept busy this year analyzing tax proposals and showing Americans across the country how tax decisions affect them.

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‘Tax the Rich,’ Says … Mitt Romney?

December 22, 2025 • By Matthew Gardner

‘Tax the Rich,’ Says … Mitt Romney?

His 900-word New York Times op-ed identifies some sensible federal tax reform ideas that would create a fairer, more sustainable tax system.

10 Reasons Why the U.S. Should Reform Its Corporate Income Tax

The U.S. needs a tax code that is more progressive and that raises more revenue than the one we have now. An important way to achieve this is to reform the taxation of business profits. These four key policy reforms would greatly strengthen the corporate tax system: Eliminating or restricting special breaks and loopholes that […]

President Trump Says His Tariffs Aren’t Paid by Americans. Corporations Are Indicating the Opposite.

Corporations have publicly revealed that they are passing the cost of tariffs on to Americans—the opposite of what the executive branch has said is happening.

No, Scott Bessent: States Aren’t Taking Away Anyone’s Tax Cuts

It’s wildly inappropriate for a U.S. Treasury Secretary to lean on states to adopt or not adopt specific federal provisions in their own state tax codes.

Linking to Tipped and Overtime Income Deductions Would Worsen State Shortfalls, Do Little to Help Workers

State deductions for tips and overtime are not only ineffective at supporting working-class people, it will come at a substantial cost to state budgets.

Conforming to the ‘No Tax on Tips’ Gimmick Just Got Riskier and Costlier for States

An unknown number of workers who previously were assumed to be ineligible for the tax break may nonetheless claim it.

Re-Examining 529 Plans: Stopping State Subsidies to Private Schools After New Trump Tax Law

The 2025 federal tax law risks making 529 plans more costly for states by increasing tax avoidance and allowing wealthy families to use these funds for private and religious K-12 schools.

State Tax Dollars Shouldn’t Subsidize Federal Opportunity Zones

The Opportunity Zones program benefits wealthy investors more than it benefits disadvantaged communities.

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Trump Raises the Price of Filing a Tax Return

November 5, 2025 • By Joe Hughes

Trump Raises the Price of Filing a Tax Return

The move was expected, given heavy lobbying from tax prep companies like Intuit and H&R Block to put a halt to the IRS’s popular Direct File program.

Biden Tax Reforms Take a $16 Billion Bite Out of Trump’s Big Tax Giveaway to Meta

Meta’s earnings setback is entirely attributable to an important tax reform championed by the Biden administration in 2022.

Why States Shouldn’t Go Along With OBBBA’s Corporate Tax Breaks: A Practical Guide

States should immediately decouple from four costly corporate tax provisions in the new federal tax law.

Well, That Was Fast: Trump Tax Law’s New Corporate Breaks are Already Worsening the Deficit

Corporate income taxes for the fiscal year that ended in September are $77 billion lower than in the previous year, a 15 percent drop.

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Some Members of Congress Will Cash in from New Tax Law

October 9, 2025 • By ITEP Staff

Some Members of Congress Will Cash in from New Tax Law

Many lawmakers who were vocal supporters of this bill will see direct personal benefits while most of their constituents benefit little or will be worse off.

Trump Tax Law Erases Economic, Racial Progress in the Tax Code

President Trump’s massive tax-and-spending bill continues the administration’s assault on racial and economic justice by prioritizing tax breaks for the top 1% while neglecting the economic well-being of poor and working families of all races, especially people of color.

The Trump Megabill Hands the Rich a Gift — and Sends the Bill to Young Americans

Trump's megabill directs most benefits to the wealthy, while leaving younger generations with higher taxes, more debt, and fewer opportunities. For Millennials and Gen Z, it means reduced public investment and an economy less likely to work in their favor.

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How Will the Trump Megabill Change Americans’ Taxes in 2026?

July 22, 2025 • By Steve Wamhoff, Michael Ettlinger, Carl Davis, Jon Whiten

How Will the Trump Megabill Change Americans’ Taxes in 2026?

The megabill will raise taxes on the poorest 40 percent of Americans, barely cut them for the middle 20 percent, and cut them tremendously for the wealthiest Americans next year.

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.

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There Were Far Cheaper and Fairer Options Than the Trump Megabill

July 8, 2025 • By Steve Wamhoff, Joe Hughes, Jessica Vela

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.