Tax Justice Digest: Sales Tax Holidays, Alaska and Corporate Loopholes

In the Tax Justice Digest we recap the latest reports, blog posts, and analyses from Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Here’s a rundown of what we’ve been working on lately. 

Why Sales Tax Holidays Fail to Make the Grade
Back to school shopping season is just around the corner, which means it’s also time for our annual lesson on the follies of “sales tax holidays,” a tax policy idea that fails to make the grade. 
Read the Blog Post.
Read the Policy Brief.

Income Tax Offers Alaska a Brighter Fiscal Future
Alaska was once so awash in oil tax and royalty revenues that state residents received annual average dividend payments of about $2,000. And the state didn’t levy personal income or sales tax. Now, lower oil prices and, thus, revenue has Alaska’s governor and lawmakers scrambling to figure out how to fully fund the state government. In a new brief, ITEP outlines why a personal income tax is the most sustainable, progressive option.
Read the Blog Post.
Read the Report.

Corporations Are Lobbying Hard to Keep Tax Loopholes
Corporate deserters don’t have a leg to stand on in the court of public opinion when it comes to corporate inversions, the practice of claiming their headquarters are in other countries to avoid U.S. taxes. But it hasn’t prevented them from loudly arguing that Treasury regulations intended to curb inversions are “bad for business.” CTJ recently submitted comments to the Treasury that outlines why we shouldn’t cry corporations a river—and why Treasury should take bolder action.
Read the Blog Post.
Read Our Comment Letters.

How Gilead Sciences Is Cheating U.S. Taxpayers
Already, Gilead Sciences has been called out by health advocates for price gouging consumers for a drug that U.S. taxpayers subsidized the development of. So, it’s not surprising that the company has one-upped its own unethical behavior by shifting profits it earned from price gouging into offshore tax havens to avoid U.S. tax.
Read more about this shameful practice.

Tax Cuts Pay for Themselves, Dynamic Scoring and Other Fairytales
The theory that cutting rich people’s taxes will grow the economy is disproven, not to mention exhausting. Yet the rightwing Tax Foundation continues to perpetuate this myth with dubious analyses that will always claim tax cuts are good. The organization’s latest dynamic scoring chicanery? A dubious analysis of Speaker Paul Ryan’s tax proposal that claims the plan’s trillions in tax cuts (mostly for the rich) will be mitigated by massive economic growth. Also, they have a bridge to nowhere to sell. Read more
 

State Rundown
In this week’s Rundown we highlight state tax news in Alaska, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Masschusetts, and more. Read the Rundown and check out our new “What We’re Reading” section here.

Sharable Tax Analysis

ICYMI: CTJ Director Bob McIntyre’s Op-Ed at CFO.com: The Case for a Corporate Tax Cut Doesn’t Hold Up

For frequent updates find us on Twitter (CTJ/ITEP), Facebook (CTJ/ITEP), and at the Tax Justice blog.