June 19, 2014 03:57 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | Defenders of widespread corporate tax avoidance often say the real responsibility lies with Congress for allowing tax loopholes to exist. While partly true, corporate lobbying and political contributions are a significant reason why our corporate tax code is a mess. […]
June 19, 2014 03:50 PM By Bob McIntyre, Director of Citizens for Tax Justice | Permalink | The billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch are in the news once again as they step up their efforts to influence elections and the political process with a new super PAC called Freedom Partners Action Fund. It’s worth […]
June 19, 2014 01:27 PM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | For the last two decades, a regrettable IRS ruling called the “carried interest loophole” has allowed wealthy private equity and venture capital managers to pay a lower tax rate on their income than the rest of us. Fair tax […]
June 18, 2014 03:44 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | With yet another big U.S. corporation (this time it’s the medical device maker Medtronic) announcing its intentions to “invert” and officially become a “foreign” company for tax purposes, it’s time to correct a few misunderstandings. 1. What is a corporate […]
June 17, 2014 05:36 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | 1998 was a lifetime ago in the world of technology. E-commerce was in its infancy, Mark Zuckerberg was a 14-year-old and Napster hadn’t yet been invented. But even then, many people rightly scoffed at the notion that the Internet was […]
June 12, 2014 01:37 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | Three Senate Republicans (two of whom have signed Grover Norquist’s infamous no-tax-increases pledge) joined their Democratic colleagues Wednesday to support a bill that would use the “Buffett Rule” to raise taxes on millionaires and offset the cost of easing student […]
June 11, 2014 03:42 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | The nation has a number of pressing problems, and our polarized Congress all too often can’t seem to compromise on policies that would address fundamental issues that most of us care about. In this context, it seems a pending proposal […]
June 10, 2014 02:00 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | News we cannot make up from our friends at the NC Budget and Tax Center: The North Carolina Senate wants to take a sacred public trust, the education of our children, and subject it to the whims of a […]
June 9, 2014 04:27 PM By Kelly Davis, Assistant Director of Communications | Permalink | Illinois lawmakers are putting the state’s bond rating and already shaky fiscal house in further disorder by failing to address the state’s temporary 5 percent tax rate, which is set to fall to 3.75 percent in 2015. State lawmakers vigorously […]
June 9, 2014 11:45 AM By Kelly Davis, Assistant Director of Communications | Permalink | Recently the Wisconsin State Journal ran an important piece describing the current tax debate in the Badger State. Gov. Walker has said he is interested in income tax repeal and already pushed through three major tax cuts during his term […]
June 6, 2014 02:40 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | Yesterday, the conservative Tax Foundation wrote a misleading response to the report, “Offshore Shell Games,” by U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Education Fund and Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ). Major Conclusions Not Challenged by the Tax Foundation The Tax […]
June 5, 2014 10:04 AM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | New IRS Report Demonstrates Yet Another Reason Income Inequality Persists If we reported that the rich continue to find ways to avoid paying taxes, the statement would elicit no more than a passing yawn, as by now this fact is […]
June 4, 2014 03:36 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | Representatives of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries are meeting in Washington this week to determine what reforms they should recommend to address offshore corporate tax avoidance. Such recommendations would implement the Action Plan on Base Erosion and […]
June 3, 2014 04:52 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | There is a bit of an uproar in Washington D.C. over a City Council proposal to begin requiring consumers to pay sales tax on yoga classes, gym members and similar activities. Fitness centers, yoga studios and their allies have started […]
June 3, 2014 01:59 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | New IRS regulations issued on June 2 expand the ability of companies to claim the research credit retroactively for prior tax years on amended tax returns. This makes it far more likely that the credit will subsidize activities that businesses […]
June 2, 2014 01:06 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | Continuing a welcome trend, lawmakers in a number of states are showing interest in dealing with chronic transportation shortfalls. New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan signed a 4-cent gas tax increase into law, South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard announced that […]
May 29, 2014 02:52 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | Once again, a Congress that cannot enact a $10 billion extension of emergency unemployment benefits is headed toward increasing the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars to benefit corporations. Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee voted today […]
May 29, 2014 12:53 PM By Kelly Davis, Assistant Director of Communications | Permalink | Since Ohio Governor John Kasich ran for office on a promise to gradually eliminate the state income tax, tax cuts have been almost constantly on the agenda in the Buckeye state. Last week, the state Senate advanced a $400 million […]
May 28, 2014 02:41 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | There’s been an increasing amount of talk about whether hybrids and electric cars have made the gas tax obsolete, and whether the time has come to switch to a different system of taxing drivers—like a vehicle miles traveled tax (VMT tax). […]
May 21, 2014 03:02 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | When anti-tax groups working in the states need a data point to help them argue in favor of their newest tax cutting idea, they often look to the Beacon Hill Institute (BHI). BHI is housed in the economics department at Suffolk […]
May 21, 2014 02:16 PM By Steve Wamhoff, Legislative Director at CTJ | Permalink | On Monday, the Department of Justice announced that Credit Suisse, the second largest bank in Switzerland, has agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges for helping Americans open secret bank accounts and use them to evade U.S. taxes. The bank […]
May 20, 2014 03:50 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | A commonsense bill introduced today would prevent American corporations from pretending to be “foreign” companies to avoid taxes even while they maintain most of their ownership, operations and management in the United States. Sponsored by Sen. Carl Levin and Rep. Sander […]
May 20, 2014 02:04 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | The summer driving season is kicking off this weekend, so our colleagues at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) have released a pair of updated policy briefs explaining everything you need to know about the federal and state gasoline […]
May 20, 2014 01:30 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | The Illinois Fiscal Policy Center just unveiled its new Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) website called EITC Works! The site allows users to plug in an address and learn the number of households in their House district currently receiving […]
May 15, 2014 12:11 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | On the heels of state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) expansions in Iowa, Maryland, and Minnesota and heated debates in Illinois and Ohio about their own credit expansions, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released a new report […]