January 22, 2015 05:00 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Click Here to sign up to receive the State Rundown in your inbox. Although it significantly cut income taxes over each of the last three legislative sessions, the North Dakota Legislative Assembly heard the first of 30 bills this week aimed […]
January 22, 2015 10:47 AM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | Since the start of the year, House Democratic leadership and President Barack Obama have proposed bold new tax plans based on the central idea that wealthy investors are not paying their fair share in taxes. For their part, House […]
January 21, 2015 03:41 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Despite its throwback name, Adobe Products is a cutting-edge technology company whose products—notably, PDF files—are used by millions of Americans every day. As it turns out, Adobe’s tax-avoidance technology is pretty 21st century too. The company’s newest annual financial report, […]
January 21, 2015 01:04 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Much of the fireworks surrounding President Barack Obama’s latest tax reform proposals focus on his aggressive (and laudable) proposal to pare back tax breaks for the capital gains income enjoyed by the wealthiest Americans. But those interested in a fairer […]
January 20, 2015 05:29 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Click Here to sign up to receive the State Rundown in your inbox. Legislators in Montana have a full plate this week, including several proposals to cut taxes. One plan would cut state income taxes by 5 percent across the board […]
January 20, 2015 03:47 PM By Jenice Robinson, Communications Director | Permalink | Last week, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released Who Pays?, a report that examines the state and local tax system in all 50 states. The analysis concludes that every state’s tax system is regressive, meaning the lower one’s income, the […]
January 20, 2015 03:38 PM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | A new brief from Citizens for Tax Justice explains how Rep. John Delaney’s (D-MD) new repatriation bill let’s companies escape paying their fair share in taxes: “On Dec. 12, 2014, Rep. John Delaney (D-MD) proposed a new version of his “repatriation […]
January 19, 2015 01:24 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Who said tax reform was a dead letter in the nation’s capital? With President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address still a day away, it’s already clear that the President will make income tax reform a major talking point. […]
January 16, 2015 11:19 AM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Click Here to sign up to receive the State Rundown in your inbox. Newly-elected Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson continued a well-established tradition in the Natural State by beginning the legislative session with a proposed tax cut. Hutchinson’s plan would cut personal […]
January 12, 2015 04:05 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Click Here to sign up to receive the State Rundown in your inbox. Welcome to the State Rundown, your source for the latest in state tax policy! This week, 21 states begin their legislative sessions, including a number of states where […]
January 8, 2015 01:45 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Click Here to sign up to receive the State Rundown in your inbox. Happy New Year and welcome back to the State Rundown, your statehouse insider and source for all things state tax policy related. We’ll provide a preview of the […]
January 7, 2015 11:24 AM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | The new budgetary mantra of the House GOP appears to be: if you can’t make the math add up, change the rules of math. On Tuesday the House did exactly that with its passage of a new rule requiring […]
December 23, 2014 11:42 AM By Carl Davis, Research Director at ITEP | Permalink | Residents of 10 states will see their gasoline tax rates change on Jan. 1, but the direction of those changes is decidedly mixed. Five states will raise their gas tax rates when the clock strikes midnight, while the other five […]
December 18, 2014 04:22 PM By Jenice Robinson, Communications Director | Permalink | A long time will pass before we forget the unintentionally ironic signs held up a few years ago during health care reform protests that read, “Keep Government out of Medicare.” The signs would have been humorous if they didn’t betray a deep […]
December 18, 2014 03:20 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | The holiday season is a time for good cheer, family togetherness, and pointless political arguments with your dearest loved ones over dinner and that fifth glass of red wine. These internecine battles are even worse when your great uncle […]
December 18, 2014 03:07 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | 2014. It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Our position didn’t prevail in every state, but the cause of tax justice and fairness for working families made significant gains in a number of places. […]
December 18, 2014 02:39 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | The 113th Congress concluded by passing a $42 billion, deficit-financed tax extender bill that mostly benefits businesses. CTJ’s director Robert McIntyre’s op-ed in The Hill argues that the tax package illustrates how savvy lawmakers can enact legislation that has almost […]
December 11, 2014 05:08 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback bowed to reality yesterday and unveiled his plan to close the state’s self-inflicted budget gap. In true Sam Brownback fashion, his solution is to stiff highway projects and pensioners rather than reverse his disastrous tax […]
December 11, 2014 04:24 PM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | The decision to further cut the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) budget by $346 million next year from its already low 2014 level is almost certainly the most ill-advised cut in the announced omnibus spending bill passed in the House […]
December 11, 2014 04:08 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | A month after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) revealed leaked documents demonstrating that Luxembourg allowed Pepsi, IKEA, FedEx and 340 other corporations to use the country as a tax haven, ICIJ has now announced new evidence that Disney, […]
December 10, 2014 03:34 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | We explained in October that Rep. Paul Ryan was making noise about changing official estimates for tax measures to incorporate “dynamic scoring.” This approach assumes that tax cuts boost economic growth so much that they partly or completely pay for […]
December 4, 2014 04:46 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | After President Barack Obama’s veto threat last week ended discussion of a $450 billion package of tax breaks mostly benefiting businesses, the House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a smaller bill, H.R. 5771, that would extend most of the tax […]
December 4, 2014 02:04 PM By Kelly Davis, Assistant Director of Communications | Permalink | Earlier this year, copious potholes on highways and roads due to severe winter weather conditions exposed the harsh truth about our nation’s transportation funding: there’s not enough of it, and potholes and other crumbling infrastructure could become the norm if […]
December 3, 2014 01:27 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | There was only one detailed tax reform plan introduced during this Congress, and Hill staffers of both parties are calling it a starting point for tax reform discussions in the next Congress. But there’s a huge problem. The plan, introduced by […]
November 26, 2014 01:25 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | The lame-duck Congress is poised to conclude by passing a $450 billion package of deficit-financed tax breaks that primarily benefit businesses. Democratic leader Sen. Harry Reid is negotiating a deal with House Republicans, according to news reports. The bill would […]