
August 17, 2015
For years, Wisconsin has had some of the highest residential property taxes in the country. The result is that across every income bracket, homeowners in Wisconsin pay a higher share of their income to property taxes than those in Minnesota, according to data compiled by the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy, a nonpartisan think […]
July 31, 2015
Another critic of sales tax holidays is Matthew Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a non-profit, non-partisan research organization with offices in Washington D.C., North Carolina and Wisconsin. “These holidays aren’t all they’re cracked up to be,” said Gardner. Sales taxes make up about half of all states’ income, […]
May 29, 2015
Meg Wiehe, state tax policy director at the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, says Kansas’ tax cuts are “definitely the number-one reason the state faces a big budget gap.” And in Wisconsin, she adds, it is that, as the national recession ended and state revenues ticked up, Walker “enacted some permanent tax cuts” […]
May 21, 2015
Matthew Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, called the estimation “pretty rock solid” and said the Center on Budget Policies and Priorities used a sensible starting point. “To be able to do anything differently, you would have to know exactly how many people were going to die in 2016,” Gardner […]
April 29, 2015
A proposal to change Wisconsin’s tax system could cut taxes for high earners, even though the well-off already pay a smaller share of their income in state taxes than lower-income taxpayers. Various lawmakers are proposing cutting or “reforming” the state’s income tax code, and a special committee staffed by the Legislative Council will be reviewing […]
April 29, 2015
In his State of the State address last week, Governor Walker talked about two tax cuts he plans to make using the state’s projected surplus: a $406 million cut in property taxes and an income tax cut. With respect to the smaller portion of that two-part plan the Governor said: “…we will reduce income taxes […]
April 29, 2015
Top 10 Reasons to Increase Tax Credits for Low-income Households Read the full report
April 29, 2015
Expanding the sales tax to pay for income and property tax cuts would harm taxpayers with low incomes – and give large tax cuts to the highest earners. A recent policy report that recommends such a “tax shift” overlooks those facts. Read the full report
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 […]
January 21, 2015
Wisconsin’s state and local tax system is tilted in favor of those with the highest incomes, according to a new report released today. Wisconsin taxpayers with low and middle incomes typically pay much higher rates of state and local taxes compared to taxpayers with the highest incomes. Some Wisconsin policymakers are advocating for changes that […]
January 21, 2015
Walker has successfully built a political career on tax-cut politics that many voters believe benefits them when, in reality, the middle class and the poor pay a higher tax rate in Wisconsin than the wealthiest 1%. That’s a real fact everyone should know. It’s documented in a new national study just released by the Institute […]
December 22, 2014
Federal money is drying up, as the national gas tax has remained at 18.4 cents per gallon. And more fuel-sipping cars on the road mean Americans are buying less gas to tax. Thus the urgency. “When we see pretty fiscally conservative governors in states like New Jersey and Wisconsin either openly talking about gas tax […]
December 22, 2014
Generally speaking, regressive taxes make income inequality greater, progressive taxes reduce it, and neutral taxes have no effect. The organization that has done the most extensive analysis of how state taxes redistribute income upward or downward is the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more
November 3, 2014
According to the institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the wealthiest 1 percent realized an average income tax cut of $2,518, while those who lost a big chunk of their income realized a tax cut of $197 to $323 per year. It’s the same story with property owners. Most of the savings went to large […]
October 7, 2014
The liberal Wisconsin Budget Project has released an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) showing how the tax burden would change for different income groups. Under one scenario highlighted in the study as being the most balanced, ITEP projects the top 1 percent of earners would see a 0.6 percent reduction […]
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.
June 3, 2014
Three major tax cut packages passed by the Wisconsin legislature in the last year have delivered relatively little benefit to the lowest earners, who are struggling to make ends meet. In dollar amounts, the largest tax cuts went to the Wisconsin taxpayers who earned the most. If state lawmakers want to cut taxes for Wisconsin […]
April 17, 2014
(Original Post) Thursday, April 17, 2014 By DAVID A. LIEB ~ The Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Setting up a likely veto showdown, the Republican-led Missouri Legislature gave final approval Wednesday to an income-tax cut for millions of individuals and thousands of business owners that Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon warned could imperil funding for […]
March 20, 2014
A number of large, profitable corporations in Wisconsin pay little or nothing in state corporate income tax, according to a new report. Loopholes, tax credits, and creating accounting keep the amount these corporations pay in income tax to a minimum. A study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and Citizens for Tax […]
March 10, 2014
(Original Post) By Gabriela Esquivada For The Herald in US The United States is often referred to as the “land of opportunity.” But an increasing number of US citizens are feeling the pinch, struggling to makes ends meet as inequality in the country rises. From New York, Gabriela Esquivada looks at how the richest nation […]
February 28, 2014
Thursday, February 27, 2014 at 6:16 PM by Jon Peacock This week, on the same day that GOP legislators in Congress were unveiling a plan to sharply reduce federal income taxes for corporations, a DC-based think tank released a comprehensive study showing that many highly profitable Fortune 500 companies pay little or no federal corporate […]
February 26, 2014
(Original Post) Posted by David Ranii on February 26, 2014 Duke Energy is one of 26 profitable Fortune 500 companies that paid no federal income taxes over the past five years, according to a new report. A Duke spokesman said the Charlotte-based company benefited from accelerated depreciation on billions of dollars in capital investments that […]
February 19, 2014
(Original Post) Scott Walker may not know how to create jobs. But he does know how to create income inequality. The governor’s election-season tax cut scheme is widening the gap between the very well off and the rest of us by redistributing wealth upward. An analysis of the governor’s initiative by the nonpartisan Institute on […]
February 3, 2014
(Original Post) MATTHEW DeFOUR | Wisconsin State Journal | State lawmakers have nearly a billion dollars at their disposal because of higher-than-expected past and future tax revenues. As a result, Gov. Scott Walker has proposed more than $500 million in tax cuts. The Legislature will take up the plan as early as Feb. 11. Here’s […]
January 27, 2014
(Original Post) That group pays more, would gain most from property tax trim By Jason Stein and Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel Jan. 24, 2014 Madison — The top 20% of Wisconsin wage earners — those making more than $88,000 a year and paying the most in taxes now — would receive 44% of […]