Month: April 2011

North Carolina advocates seeking to protect the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit and supporting a balanced approach to the state’s budget crisis have stepped up their efforts to build public support with new multimedia campaigns.  

The SaveEITC.org website, launched last week, features a clever ad titled “If You Work Hard, You Deserve a Chance to Get Ahead.” The website also features fact sheets, and an action center where individuals can send virtual postcards to lawmakers explaining the many ways the EITC supports North Carolina’s low-wage workers and families. 

TogetherNC, a coalition of more than 120 advocacy groups, service providers and professional associations, started running ads this week in 15 North Carolina newspapers calling on lawmakers to support teachers, firefighters, public health workers, and other vital services with new revenue. 

Each of the four unique ads ends with the following message, “When our economy is out of balance, so are our classrooms.  Schools and parks. Libraries and fire stations. The things that make our communities great places to work and live are in jeopardy. Lawmakers, North Carolinians want a practical approach to our economy and our state budget–one that includes not only careful spending cuts but also new revenues that work for our changing economy. Balance is a beautiful thing.”

The Together NC coalition also launched a new website, SpeakNC, which will introduce a new video each week featuring North Carolinians who rely on the hundreds of services in jeopardy of being gutted in this year’s budget. 

Finally, the North Carolina Budget and Tax Center released their revenue raising and modernization plan this week.  The report describes the current failings of the state’s tax system and offers a comprehensive revenue modernization plan that would update the state’s personal income tax, sales tax, business taxes, and “tax-code spending” practices.  ITEP contributed substantial analysis and technical expertise to the report.

In the days leading up through Tax Day (which is on Monday, April 18 this year) there are several things you can do to promote tax fairness. US Uncut plans direct actions targeting particular corporations that have dodged their taxes. U.S. PIRG and other organizations will have activities outside post offices in several states to create awareness about tax dodging by corporations and to press Congress to act.

US Uncut Demonstrations

US Uncut protests corporations like Verizon and FedEx which have dodged all or most of their U.S. income taxes at a time when lawmakers are cutting basic public services to address federal and state budget gaps.

Find US Uncut events near you.

In D.C., US Uncut will host a creative direct action on April 15 at the Verizon store at Union Station with best-selling author of Treasure Islands, Nick Shaxson, who will do a book-signing. On April 17. US Uncut DC and organizers from Power Shift will target a corporate tax dodger and relate tax avoidance to cuts to the EPA’s budget. This event is said to have a beach party/tropical tax haven theme.

Events like these will take place all over the country. Find US Uncut events near you.

U.S. PIRG Events at Post Offices

The U.S. PIRG acitivities will take place April 15 and April 18 in at least a dozen states. These events will target people whose minds are very much on taxes as they mail off their federal income tax returns.

See the list below for events in your state and contact information.

April 15, 2011

Event: U.S. Public Interest Research Group will be holding events outside of Post Offices across the country to try to get Congress to address tax dodging corporations with report releases and post-carding.

Locations:

Portland OR, April 15th. Contact Jen Lavelle at jlavelle@ospirg.org, 503.231.4181

AnnArbor MI, April 15th. Contact Megan Hess at mhess@pirgim.org, 734.662.6597

Chicago IL, date TBD. Contact Brian Imus at brian@illinoispirg.org, 312-544-4433 x 210 (federal plaza, outside of main post office)

Hartford CT, April 15th, Contact Jenn Hatch at jhatch@connpirg.org, 860.233.7554

Albuquerque NM, date TBD, Contact Erin Eckelson at erin@nmpirg.org, 505.254.1244

Philly area, date TBD. Contact Megan DeSmedt at mdesmedt@pennpirg.org, 215.732.3747

Phenoix AZ, April 15th. Contact Seren Unrein at sunrein@arizonapirg.org, 602.252.9227

Des Moines IA, Date TBD, Contact Sonia Ashe at sashe@iowapirg.org, 515.282.4193

April 18, 2011

Event: U.S. Public Interest Research Group will be holding events outside of Post Offices across the country to try to get Congress to address tax dodging corporations with report releases and post-carding. U.S. PIRG is partnering with Citizen Action in a number of states: NJ, OR, IL, MI, MO, CT.

Locations:

Trenton NJ, April 18th. Contact Jen Kim at jkim@njpirg.org, 609.394.8155

Seattle WA, April 18th, Contact Lindsay Jacobson at ljacobson@washpirg.org, 206.568.2854 (either at post office downtown, or in front of Microsoft).

Boston MA, April 19th, Contact Dee Cummings at dcummings@masspirg.org, 617.292.4805

Baltimore MD, April 18th, Contact Johanna Neumann at Johanna@marylandpirg.org, (410) 467-9389

St. Lois MO, TBD

The Open Society Foundation is hosting a briefing on tax havens Thursday morning, which will be followed by a Hill briefing that afternoon. The details are below.

April 14, 2011

10:00 a.m.

Event: Civil Society Organization Briefing/Panel.
Location: Open Society Foundation, 1730 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.
Summary: Panel discussion to brief civil society organizations on the impact of tax havens on the global economy and the developing world. The panelists will include Mr. Shaxson, author of Treasure Islands, and Rebecca Wilkins, Senior Counsel, Federal Tax Policy, at Citizens for Tax Justice
Refreshments will be served
Please come and invite your friends/colleagues
Contact: Sarah Pray at spray@osi-dc.org

2:30 pm

Event: Hill Briefing
Location: S-115 of the Capitol
Summary: Panel discussion to brief Hill staffers on the impact of tax havens on the American economy, businesses and budgets. The panelists will include Mr. Shaxson, Rebecca Wilkins and Frank Knapp, President and CEO of South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce
Refreshments will be served
Contact: Bonnie Rubenstein at bonnie@ctj.org

Any rational proposal to balance the federal budget would rely on a mix of spending reductions and revenue increases. But, as explained in a new CTJ report, the House Republican budget plan relies on draconian spending cuts and actually reduces revenue.

The plan is motivated not by a desire to balance the budget but rather by the ideological goal of reducing the size of government to something that would be unrecognizable to Americans today.

The plan’s author, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, is intentionally vague about his plans to overhaul the tax system. That may be because his previous attempt to explain how he would reduce the top income tax rate to 25 percent made it clear that the result would be a big tax increase for all income groups except the richest ten percent.

Read the report.

In just the last few weeks, Arkansas and Illinois joined New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island in enacting legislation requiring some online retailers, like Amazon.com, to collect sales taxes on purchases made by their state’s residents.  At least a dozen other states are considering enacting similar policies, and the list of states with a serious interest in this issue seems to be growing by the week.  In a new brief, ITEP explains the basics of so-called “Amazon taxes,” and discusses the actions that Amazon, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and other retailers have taken during this new surge of interest in sales tax reform.

Read the ITEP brief.

Earlier this week, ITEP released a new report, Don’t Give Up on Pease: States Can Decouple from Recent Federal Tax Cuts for Wealthy Itemizers. 

The report is a companion piece to ITEP’s July 2010 report on the impact of itemized deductions on state revenues.  In that report ITEP offered five options for reforming the state treatment of federal itemized deductions.  This week’s report provides updated data and analysis for one of the recommendations contained in that report: decoupling from the federal repeal of the “Pease” provision.

The Pease provision, named after its Congressional sponsor, reduces the cost and regressivity of certain itemized deductions by limiting their value by up to 80 percent for the very best-off taxpayers.

Unfortunately, Pease was repealed as part of the Bush tax cuts, and this repeal was extended through tax years 2011 and 2012 as part of the federal tax compromise package signed late last year.  Unless the 31 states (and DC) that allow federal itemized deductions decouple from this aspect of the compromise package, they will see a modest revenue decrease in both of those years, while their wealthiest residents will receive a bonus state tax cut on top of their already sizeable federal tax cuts.

In news that will warm the hearts of tax justice advocates across the country, Missouri voters in Kansas City and St. Louis overwhelmingly approved ballot initiatives to keep their 1 percent local earnings taxes.

This is a huge blow to wealthy campaign financier Rex Sinquefield, who bankrolled the campaign against these taxes. The St. Louis earnings tax passed with 88 percent of the vote and Kansas City voters approved the tax by a 3-to-1 margin. It’s not every day folks so clearly come out and voice their support for taxes and the vital services they fund.

Mayors of both cities appeared to be gleeful following the election results. St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said, “I was confident that the people of St. Louis would do the right thing for the future of the city if they were armed with the facts. Regardless of what anyone thought of the earnings tax, it would have been irresponsible to get rid of it without a viable alternative to replace it.”

Kansas City, Mayor-elect Sly James said, “It means that this city is going to continue to try and become as efficient as possible, but we’re not going to have to do it with one hand tied behind our backs.”

Georgia’s Special Council on Tax Reform recently released recommendations to overhaul Georgia’s tax structure in a way that would improve the state’s finances but also shift taxes to Georgians who are less able to pay.

As anticipated, the recommendations were quite sweeping and dealt with every major tax the state levies.  The recommendations included a lot of good base-broadening measures, like repealing the state’s generous pension exclusion, eliminating itemized deductions from the personal income tax, and including more services in the sales tax base. The Council also recommended regressive changes, like replacing the state’s progressive income tax with a flat 4 percent rate, adding groceries back to the sales tax, and increasing the cigarette tax.

The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute (GBPI) offered improvements to the Council’s proposal to prevent tax increases on those who could least afford them.

A House committee came up with their own proposal as a substitute to the Council’s initial recommendations. This new plan includes a 4.5 percent flat income tax rate, no corporate income tax rate changes, and no changes to the cigarette tax. Read GBPI’s complete analysis of this substitute proposal.

The substitute hit a snag too. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported, “A clunky but effective coalition of Democrats, tea partiers and Baptists forced state Republican lawmakers into a desperate attempt to save their troubled tax reform bill.” The bill even caused infighting between an unlikely cast of characters: Georgia tea partiers and the national leader of the anti-tax movement, Grover Norquist.

Now we are hearing that another set of tweaks to the original recommendations from the Special Council on Tax Reform is in the works and will be unveiled next week. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, this latest iteration ensures that more Georgians get a tax cut, but the price tag for such “reform” according to the official fiscal note is $220 million.  This latest and presumably final attempt (because of the legislative calendar constraints) at reform is expensive and makes the state’s tax structure even more unfair for low-income families.

GBPI concludes, “It is better to do nothing this session and come back next year with true tax reform than pass a bill that gives large tax cuts to the wealthiest Georgians and a few favored businesses interests, resulting in further cuts to what is most needed for the broad business sector to prosper—education and basic infrastructure.” Read the full GBPI statement.

There were high hopes that the Council’s efforts would produce tax reform that would improve the state’s already flawed tax structure, but if the legislation that stems from these efforts doesn’t ensure fair and sustainable tax reform, then it’s not worth passing.