Vermont
Spokesman Review: Ready For 7 Cents More At Pumps?
June 30, 2015
Six states are scheduled to increase their gas taxes on July 1 to help pay for transportation projects, according to the Citizens for Tax Justice and Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). The groups said Monday that drivers in Idaho, Maryland, Rhode Island, Nebraska and Vermont will be charged more at the pump beginning […]
Washington Post: Fill The Tank Today
June 30, 2015
The residents of six states will pay more at the pump starting July 1 as increased gas taxes go into effect. Motorists in Idaho, Georgia, Maryland, Rhode Island, Nebraska and Vermont will shell out more to refuel. Californians, on the other hand, will pay less. The analysis comes from Citizens for Tax Justice and the […]
Detroit Free Press: Senate Plan for Roads Includes 15-Cent Boost in Gas Tax
June 30, 2015
LANSING – A 15-cent increase in the tax on gasoline, phased in over three years, would be the centerpiece of a funding plan the state Senate is expected to consider this week as legislators scramble to find a way to repair Michigan’s crater-marked roads and bring relief to drivers. Gas taxes in six other states […]
The Hill: Six States Increasing Gas Taxes on July 1
June 29, 2015
Six states are scheduled to increase their gas taxes on July 1 to help pay for transportation projects, according to the Citizens for Tax Justice and Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy groups. The groups said Monday that drivers in Idaho, Maryland, Rhode Island, Nebraska and Vermont will be charged more at the pump beginning […]
Read this report in PDF form Introduction For years, academics and transportation experts have been discussing the possibility of taxing drivers for each mile they travel on the nation’s roads. This “vehicle miles traveled tax” (VMT tax) could either supplement or replace the existing gas tax as the primary method of funding transportation infrastructure. To […]
The News-Herald: Amazon’s Ohio Sales Tax Collection Seen As Way To ‘Level Playing Field,’ Close Tax Loophole
June 9, 2015
Some states, however, have decided not to wait for the federal government to make the change. So far, 10 states have taken their own limited steps to expand the number of retailers that must collect sales taxes, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. New York was first, enacting legislation in 2008 requiring […]
Issues with Taxing Marijuana at the State Level
May 6, 2015 • By Carl Davis, Richard Phillips
Read as a PDF. Table of Contents Introduction Why Tax Marijuana? Designing a State Tax on Marijuana How Much Revenue Would Marijuana Legalization Generate for States Factors that Could Negatively Impact Marijuana Revenue Factors that Could Positively Impact Marijuana Revenue Conclusion Endnotes Charts and Text Boxes Current Approaches to Taxing Retail Marijuana Sales How Should […]
Vermont Legislative Joint Fiscal Office: ITEP and Pew Reports on Vermont’s Income Distribution and Tax System
April 21, 2015
This report is a slide deck that review’s ITEP’s Who Pays report and its findings on the Vermont state tax system. Read the full report here.
NY Daily News: Corporate giants often get huge tax breaks, while poor, undocumented immigrants have paid billions in state taxes
April 20, 2015
Yes, the unauthorized immigrant population, among the poorest and most vulnerable in New York State, does its part when it comes to taxes, according to a report by the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy (itepnet.org), a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that works on federal, state and local tax policy issues. The report, that covers […]
Undocumented Immigrants’ State & Local Tax Contributions (2015)
April 15, 2015 • By Matthew Gardner, Meg Wiehe
This report was updated February 2016 Read as a PDF. (Includes Full Appendix of State-by-State Data) Report Landing Page In the public debates over federal immigration reform, sufficient and accurate information about the tax contributions of undocumented immigrants is often lacking. The reality is the 11.4 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States pay billions […]
Vermont Public Radio: Business Leaders Mount Campaign Against Plan to Limit Tax Deductions
April 15, 2015
Carl Davis is a senior analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington, D.C., based research group that analyzes federal, state and local tax policies. Davis, who lives in Vermont, says there’s no reason to think Vermont would suffer any competitive disadvantage if it goes through with the plan. “Massachusetts, Connecticut and […]
Vermont Business: Vermont Has the Capacity to Avoid 2016 Budget Cuts
March 26, 2015
“Total personal income” is a broad measure of income used by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). It is based on filers under age 65 and includes adjusted gross income, which is the starting point used by most states to determine taxable income, as well as income typically not subject to tax, such […]
Public Assets Institute: Vermont Has the Capacity to Avoid 2016 Budget Cuts
March 24, 2015
Vermont’s income tax is among the lowest in the country: 2.7 percent of the state’s total personal income. Eliminating tax breaks and lowering income tax rates would balance the fiscal 2016 budget without cuts and still leave Vermont’s effective income tax rate lower than those of 24 other states. Read the full report here.
Public Assets Institute: How to Close the Budget Gap–Fiscal 2016 and Beyond
March 16, 2015
“Vermont is one of six states in the country that uses federal taxable income rather than adjusted gross income as the base for the state income tax. Because this base is lower, the state must set its top marginal rate higher than necessary to raise the needed revenues. Additionally, tax breaks that primarily benefit upper-income […]
Bloomberg: Will State Legislatures Pass Gas Tax Hikes This Year?
February 11, 2015
However, the kind of funding structure that Maryland put in place has been called good policy by organizations like the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a non-profit, non-partisan research organization in Washington, D.C., because the inflation adjustment allows the revenue’s buying power to keep up with transportation expenses over time. Flat-rate taxes do […]
The Atlantic: Robin Hood in Reverse
January 28, 2015
But according to a new report from The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the impact of those federal tax breaks is largely offset by the burden of state and local taxes. Here’s how state and local taxes break down as a percentage of income: The richest Americans pay the least. The tax mix changes […]
Public Assets Institute: Vermont’s Tax System Is Still Unfair
January 21, 2015
Vermont taxes are higher, as a percentage of income, on the poor and those in the middle than they are on the 1 percent at the top, according to the new study Who Pays? released Wednesday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). Vermont is not alone; the wealthiest pay less than everyone […]
Times Argus: Vt. taxes least regressive but still skewed
January 16, 2015
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has released a study looking at tax systems across all 50 states and found that Vermont leans less on the poor and middle class than do the other states; however, when looking at taxes as a percentage of income, the poor and the middle class are still paying […]
Minnesota Post: In study on tax fairness, Minnesota looks … fair
January 15, 2015
“In The Washington Post, Niraj Shoshi reports, “State taxes favor those with the highest incomes. That’s according to a new report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy report, which finds that on average the bottom fifth of earners pay proportionally twice as much of their incomes in state and local taxes as the […]
USA Today: New Year Brings Hundreds of New Laws
January 5, 2015
Drivers in five states could see gasoline prices rise with gas tax increases, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a tax watchdog group. The biggest increase is in Pennsylvania, 9.8 cents, followed by Virginia, 5.1 cents; Maryland, 2.9 cents; North Carolina, 1 cent; and Florida, 0.3 cents. New York, Nebraska, Vermont, West […]
NPR: Gas Tax Hike to Fuel Fixes to Roads and Bridges
December 9, 2014
“There’s kind of been a switch that’s been flipped,” says Carl Davis, a senior analyst with the nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Davis says gas tax increases are now on the table in states across the country, from New Jersey to Utah to South Carolina to South Dakota. Democratic governors in Delaware, Vermont […]
Read the Report in PDF Form The Census Bureau released data in September showing that the share of Americans living in poverty remains high. In 2013, the national poverty rate was 14.5 percent, a slight drop from last years’ rate of 15 percent and the first decline since 2006.1 However, the poverty rate remains 2.0 […]
Sales Tax Holidays: An Ineffective Alternative to Real Sales Tax Reform
August 5, 2014 • By Meg Wiehe
Sales taxes are an important revenue source, comprising close to half of all state revenues in 2013. But sales taxes are also inherently regressive because the lower a family's income, the more of its income the family must spend on things subject to the tax.
For much of the last century, estate and inheritance taxes have played an important role in helping states to adequately fund public services in a way that improves the progressivity of state tax systems. While many of the taxes levied by state and local governments fall most heavily on low-income families, only the very wealthy pay estate and inheritance taxes. Recent changes in the federal estate tax, however, culminating in the "fiscal cliff " deal of early 2013, have forced states to reevaluate the structure of their estate and inheritance taxes. Unfortunately, the trend of late has tended toward weakening…
The gasoline tax is the single largest source of funding for transportation infrastructure in the United States, but the tax is on an unsustainable course. Sluggish gas tax revenue growth has put strain on transportation budgets at the federal and state levels, and has led to countless debates around the country about how best to pay for America's infrastructure.
