August 27, 2015 04:48 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Earlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Commission finalized a new rule that will require most public corporations to disclose the ratio between CEO pay and median wages for rank-and-file employees. This rule will give shareholders and the public a […]
August 25, 2015 02:15 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | The online craft website Etsy is facing new scrutiny for its recent decision to shift some of its intellectual property into a secretive Irish subsidiary. As Bloomberg reported last week, the company’s Irish subsidiary has been made into an “unlimited liability […]
August 25, 2015 11:29 AM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Donald Trump’s recently released framework for immigration reform includes misleading statements about “illegal immigrants” claiming refundable tax credits. Trump claims that “illegal immigrants” received $4.2 billion in “free” tax credits in 2011 and proposes to pay for part of his immigration […]
August 21, 2015 01:43 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Budget gridlock continues in a few states across the country, including North Carolina where lawmakers are dragging through one of the longest sessions in 40 years, and taxpayers have already spent an extra $1 million to keep the legislature […]
August 19, 2015 02:25 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Hillary Clinton recently announced a $350 billion proposal to make college more affordable. It would be paid for by capping the value of itemized tax deductions for high-income households. It appears that the plan is a watered down version of President […]
August 14, 2015 04:42 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Yet another American company has announced its intention to carry out a corporate inversion, a fancy term for buying a smaller company, completing some paper work and, for tax purposes, declaring its new headquarters are in a foreign nation. This time […]
August 13, 2015 01:46 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Puzzle this. Microsoft believes the U.S. government is trying too hard to prove that it’s avoiding federal income taxes. The latest legal salvo out of the company’s Redmond, Wash., headquarters alleges that the IRS improperly hired outside lawyers to help […]
August 13, 2015 11:51 AM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Congressional leaders are using a discredited economic theory to help push through a costly package of tax cuts that mostly benefit large corporations. Last week, the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) scored the Senate’s version of controversial tax extenders legislation using […]
August 7, 2015 11:46 AM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Former New York Gov. and now presidential candidate George Pataki has made cutting taxes one of the central themes of his political career. In fact, Pataki has repeatedly said over the years that “I’ve never met a tax cut I didn’t […]
August 5, 2015 01:15 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Nine-term congressman and current Ohio Gov. John Kasich has received accolades for his perceived position as the “moderate” or “compassionate” candidate in the 2016 GOP presidential race. It’s true that he embraced a few policies benefiting low-income families, notably the expansion […]
August 4, 2015 05:37 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore became the seventeenth and likely final major candidate to announce his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president. While running for governor in 1997, Gilmore made the implausible promise that he would repeal Virginia’s car tax, […]
July 31, 2015 01:00 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | The U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) ain’t what it used to be. That’s the obvious conclusion to draw from Thursday’s hearing on the “Impact of the U.S. Tax Code on the Market for Corporate Control and Jobs.” Two […]
July 31, 2015 12:45 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | After weeks of hinting about an “innovation box” tax proposal, U.S. Reps. Charles Boustany, Jr. (R-LA) and Richard Neal (D-MA) Wednesday released draft legislation that would provide a massive giveaway for high-tech and pharmaceutical companies as well as other industries […]
July 28, 2015 03:48 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | In film, it’s called “deus ex machina” or god from the machine. When heroes find themselves painted into a hopeless corner from which seemingly nothing can save them, an implausible plot twist saves the day. In the original Superman movie, […]
July 28, 2015 02:27 PM By Grace Smith, Intern at Citizens for Tax Justice | Permalink | Congress is considering further gutting the Internal Revenue Service’s enforcement capacities even as a new report from the Taxpayer Advocate shows that previous rounds of budget cuts have put the IRS dangerously close to being unable to perform […]
July 28, 2015 12:02 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | For fans of creative tax dodging, the release of the Nike Corporation’s annual report is always an enlightening occasion. As we noted two years ago, the company quietly acknowledges having stashed billions of dollars in low-tax offshore destinations, and has […]
July 28, 2015 11:07 AM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | After his 2011 election, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker aggressively pursued and helped pass a series of tax cuts in 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015. His policies pushed the state into bad fiscal straits and there is no evidence that tax changes […]
July 23, 2015 03:33 PM By Kelly Davis, Assistant Director of Communications | Permalink | Everyone loves a bargain (and a holiday), so it’s no surprise that sales tax holidays are hugely popular in the 17 states that will hold them in the coming weeks. Most state sales tax holidays will coincide with back to […]
July 22, 2015 05:28 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Click Here to sign up to receive the State Rundown in your inbox. The Illinois budget saga continues as Gov. Bruce Rauner and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan remain at odds. After Rauner vetoed the FY15-17 spending plan passed by the […]
July 22, 2015 01:56 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | This is how the tax code unravels. The Senate Finance Committee, in a rare show of bipartisanship, took less than two hours Tuesday to approve the tax extenders, a hodgepodge of more than 50 temporary tax breaks that expired at […]
July 21, 2015 03:19 PM By Carl Davis, Research Director at ITEP | Permalink | The following comment was submitted to the California Road Charge Technical Advisory Committee. The committee is advising the California Transportation Agency as it prepares to launch a pilot program taxing volunteer drivers based on each mile that they drive. Studying […]
July 20, 2015 03:07 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Lawmakers are once again moving to pass a $96 billion package of controversial tax breaks that mostly benefit businesses under the pretense of incentivizing economic activity. The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday morning will hold a session to weigh the […]
July 17, 2015 01:52 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Since 2001, the Boeing Corporation has enjoyed a cumulative $52.5 billion in pretax U.S. profits, but it hasn’t paid a dime in federal or state income taxes over this period. Yet Roy Conner, president of Boeing Commercial Airplains, said earlier […]
July 16, 2015 04:07 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | This is the final installment of our three part series on 2015 state tax trends. The first article focused on tax shifts and tax cuts. The second article discussed tax credits for working families and revenue raising initiatives. July […]
July 15, 2015 04:31 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | This is the second installment of our three part series on 2015 state tax trends. The first article focused on tax shifts and tax cuts, and the final article will discuss transportation funding initiatives. July 1 marked the end […]