October 16, 2014 12:08 PM By Guest Blogger | Permalink | By Wesley Tharpe, Policy AnalystGeorgia Budget and Policy Institute (GBPI) Georgians will vote Nov. 4 whether to permanently enshrine the state’s top income tax rate of 6 percent in the state constitution. The so-called “tax-cap” amendment sounds American as apple pie. No one looks […]
October 15, 2014 01:12 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | After announcing Ohio-based Steris Co.’s plans to become British for tax purposes on Monday, CEO Walter Rosenbrough later said on a conference call, “We’re not typically users of aggressive tax policies and I don’t think we are here.” That’s his […]
October 14, 2014 10:37 AM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | As we mentioned a couple weeks ago, the Treasury Department cannot fix the inversion crisis by itself. Only weeks after the Obama Administration announced that Treasury will take important regulatory steps to help prevent U.S. -based companies from inverting to […]
October 10, 2014 02:06 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | In a development sure to shock you, the Oklahoma State Lottery has not fixed Oklahoma’s education funding woes (in other news, water is wet). The Oklahoma Policy Institute reports that the combination of the economic downturn and ill-advised tax […]
October 10, 2014 02:01 PM By Rebecca Wilkins, Senior Counsel, Federal Tax Policy at CTJ | Permalink | The European Commission’s recent action to crack down on special deals some European Union governments offer to corporations could be a blow to multinational corporations’ tax-dodging strategies. As we noted in a report earlier this year, three […]
October 7, 2014 03:42 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Ah, fall. The season marks the countdown to that quintessential American holiday, where childish figures go door-to-door, asking for favors under false pretenses. I am of course talking about election season, which traditionally kicks into high gear in October. […]
October 7, 2014 02:32 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a new series on Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s ambitions to eliminate the state’s income tax, and the findings aren’t great for tax cut supporters. The paper notes that eliminating the state’s second largest source […]
October 2, 2014 05:06 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | An article in today’s Politico (subscription only) describes plans by congressional Republicans to change the budgeting rules to incorporate “dynamic scoring” of tax proposals should they gain control of the Senate. Dynamic scoring is a fancy way of claiming tax […]
September 30, 2014 03:22 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Political leaders in New Jersey could be close to figuring out a fix for the state’s transportation funding crisis. The Transportation Trust Fund is set to run out of money soon, and Gov. Chris Christie has declared that all […]
September 25, 2014 04:14 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Tennessee is already one of the ten most unfair states when it comes to tax policy. It is one of nine states that do not levy a broad-based personal income tax on their residents’ earnings (the state does collect […]
September 25, 2014 04:00 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | What do a Manhattan skyscraper secretly purchased by the Iranian government, a Louisiana Congressman hiding half a million dollars in bribes and a Russian crime boss stealing $150 million from investors all have in common? All were made possible by […]
September 24, 2014 03:54 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | The Kansas dogpile continues, with the Washington Post editorial board launching the latest broadside against Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax cut fiasco. “Few if any governors, “it writes, “have undertaken such an extreme trial-by-revenue-deprivation in a state so clearly lacking […]
September 23, 2014 12:50 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | The Obama Administration’s action on Monday to crack down on corporate tax dodging by companies claiming to be foreign (corporate inversions) is the right decision, but Congress needs to act to address the significant problems that remain. Current tax law […]
September 22, 2014 01:09 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | Given the focus over the last few years on income and wealth inequality, it’s strange that almost no one in Congress has turned to the tax that was explicitly designed to mitigate such inequality: the federal estate tax. A proposal […]
September 19, 2014 01:19 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | A new report from Standard and Poor’s that shows progressive income tax systems are better for state revenue could provide a boost to tax reformers in Massachusetts, according to The Boston Globe. Massachusetts is one of seven states with […]
September 18, 2014 03:15 PM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | With very few days left to legislate before the election, House Republicans are rushing through the Jobs for America Act, which includes several provisions to curb regulations as well as a grab bag of over $520 billion in tax […]
September 18, 2014 02:08 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | The crisis of corporate inversions remains unresolved in Congress, but some new proposals could set the stage for a resolution. An August report from CTJ explained that the inversion crisis really consists of three related problems. The first is that […]
September 18, 2014 01:41 PM By Jenice Robinson, Communications Director | Permalink | It’s easy to hold up Kansas as the poster child for regressive tax policies gone awry. By now it’s apparent Gov. Sam Brownback and his allies in the state legislature were wrong when they predicted lopsided tax cuts would boost the state’s […]
September 18, 2014 12:05 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Voters in 36 states will be choosing governors this November. Over the next several months, the Tax Justice Digest will be highlighting 2014 gubernatorial races where taxes are proving to be a key issue. Today’s post is about the […]
September 17, 2014 02:07 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | On September 16, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released the first part of its recommendations to implement its 2013 “Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting.” Base erosion and profit shifting, or BEPS as it’s known […]
September 17, 2014 09:56 AM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Virginia’s gasoline tax will increase by 45 percent on January 1, 2015 if Congress fails to pass a law (the Marketplace Fairness Act) granting states the power to collect sales tax on online purchases. The increase, passed by lawmakers […]
September 16, 2014 03:52 PM By Jenice Robinson, Communications Director | Permalink | The top 20 percent of households captured more of the nation’s collective income (51 percent) than the rest of population, according to the Census report Income and Poverty in the United States: 2013 released today. This is consistent with what we know […]
September 15, 2014 04:50 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | The latest report from Standard & Poor’s Rating Services reminds us that progressive tax reform can help mitigate income inequality and ensure states have enough revenue to fund their basic needs. As has been documented by everyone from the Federal […]
September 12, 2014 01:17 PM By Kelly Davis, Assistant Director of Communications | Permalink | Voters in 36 states will be choosing governors this November. Over the next several months, the Tax Justice Digest will be highlighting 2014 gubernatorial races where taxes are proving to be a key issue. Today’s post is about the race […]
September 11, 2014 03:51 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | A new report from Citizens for Tax Justice explains that Congress should change our tax laws to require inverting corporations to pay the taxes they owe, but have deferred paying, on profits they accumulated offshore before inverting. As the report […]