January 22, 2014 11:22 AM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | Note to Readers: This is the second of a five-part series on tax policy prospects in the states in 2014. Over the coming weeks, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) will highlight state tax proposals that are gaining […]
January 17, 2014 10:26 AM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Today Citizens for Tax Justice submitted comments to the Senate Finance Committee on the discussion draft that the committee recently published under the direction of its chairman, Max Baucus of Montana. Tax reform seems to be on hold, with Baucus’s expected […]
January 16, 2014 11:38 AM By Carl Davis, Research Director at ITEP | Permalink | A fascinating analysis published by the Tulsa World reveals how a growing share of Oklahoma’s budget has been put on auto-pilot, and how other areas of the budget have suffered as a result. Despite actually seeing an increase in tax […]
January 15, 2014 03:30 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | Note to Readers: This is the first of a five-part series on tax policy prospects in the states in 2014. This post provides an overview of key trends and top states to watch in the coming year. Over the […]
January 13, 2014 03:49 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | Some Indiana legislators aren’t too excited about Governor Mike Pence’s plan to take a major revenue source away from local governments. Instead of prohibiting localities from taxing businesses’ equipment and machinery, House Speaker Brian Bosma has a more modest […]
January 13, 2014 03:33 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | A new report from the Center for American Progress (CAP) explains that, despite the well-known complaints of America’s largest multinational corporations, our tax system is not trapping corporate profits offshore. In fact, the profits characterized as “offshore” are invested in the […]
January 13, 2014 01:27 PM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | Of all the governors across the United States supporting tax cutting proposals, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been one of the most aggressive in promoting his own efforts to cut taxes. Taking his tax cut efforts one step […]
January 13, 2014 12:50 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | How worried should we be that Boeing argues it should get a tax break for performing safety tests on its new planes? This is the argument the corporation seems to have made at an IRS hearing on January 8 and in […]
January 9, 2014 03:58 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Several reports released by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) in the first week of January refute claims that tax rate reductions will boost the economy and even pay for themselves by generating economic growth. Changes in Personal Income Tax Rates A […]
January 9, 2014 11:03 AM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | You might be surprised to learn that Congress is likely to extend a tax break that is claimed mostly by high-income individuals paying for graduate education and by families of undergrads who are mistakenly taking this break instead of one that […]
January 8, 2014 02:56 PM By Carl Davis, Research Director at ITEP | Permalink | Much like their colleagues to the north, District of Columbia lawmakers are giving serious thought to cutting taxes now that an election is approaching. According to the Washington Post, “10 of the council’s 13 members [are] running for re-election or […]
January 8, 2014 12:41 PM By Kelly Davis, Assistant Director of Communications | Permalink | Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker wants 2014 to be a year of discussion about the pros and cons of eliminating Wisconsin’s most progressive revenue sources—the corporate and personal income taxes. But Wisconsinites may not need a full year to see the […]
January 8, 2014 11:27 AM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Almost every American would agree that education is a fundamental right. Any serious commitment to the notion of “equal opportunity” means ensuring that kids have an opportunity for a quality education—and that this opportunity should be as available to the […]
January 8, 2014 10:56 AM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | 2014 is just a few days old, and already it’s not off to such a happy start in terms of tax fairness: This editorial in the Kansas City Star predicts that in Missouri, “[m]any state lawmakers, and their constituents, […]
January 7, 2014 12:45 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | General Electric has long been a flashpoint in corporate tax reform debates. As long ago as 1984, CTJ’s revelation that GE and other large companies had managed to avoid paying even a dime of tax on billions in US profits […]
January 6, 2014 03:09 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Another year, another campaign to give even bigger breaks to corporations and claim that this will create jobs. In 2014, the campaign opened with a January 5 op-ed by Laurence Kotlikoff in the New York Times titled, “Abolish the Corporate Income […]
December 20, 2013 01:06 PM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | A new Bloomberg report describes how billionaires have dodged an estimated $100 billion in gift and estate taxes since 2000, according to the lawyer who perfected the practice. The trick involves temporarily putting corporate stocks (or similar assets) into […]
December 19, 2013 12:39 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | The LaCrosse Tribune gets it right in this editorial titled, “Don’t Conduct Tax Talks in Private.” As we told you last week , Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker asked Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and Revenue Department Secretary Rick Chandler to host a series of roundtable discussions about the […]
December 18, 2013 02:44 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | The latest budget deal in Congress seems to indicate that anti-government, anti-tax lawmakers will not force a costly shutdown of the federal government in 2014 as they did in 2013, although they still threaten to cause the U.S. to default on […]
December 17, 2013 04:38 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Sales taxes are the biggest tax fairness problem facing state and local governments: they inexorably fall hardest on the low-income families who are least able to pay them, while asking far less, as a share of income, from the very […]
December 17, 2013 04:25 PM By Kelly Davis, Assistant Director of Communications | Permalink | Iowa Governor Terry Branstad is reportedly interested in implementing an alternative income tax structure for the Hawkeye State’s wealthiest taxpayers. The state’s income tax rate structure is a bit deceptive because Iowa is one of just six states offering a deduction […]
December 17, 2013 12:05 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | More than sixty years after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made “freedom from want” one of the “four freedoms” he sought to guarantee to families worldwide, one important component of Roosevelt’s vision—affordable housing—is further and further away for many low-income families. […]
December 12, 2013 04:58 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Congress should end its practice of passing, every couple of years, a so-called “tax extenders” bill that reenacts a laundry list of tax breaks that are officially temporary and that mostly benefit corporations, without offsetting the cost. A new report from […]
December 12, 2013 04:40 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | Governor Scott Walker says that one of his goals is to lower taxes for all Wisconsinites. He’s asked Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and Revenue Department Secretary Rick Chandler to host a series of roundtable discussions about the state’s tax structure. Regrettably, […]
December 12, 2013 11:35 AM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | State tax giveaways for business are reaching a fever pitch in the Pacific Northwest. Washington lawmakers last month enacted an $8.7 billion “mega-deal” package of state and local tax breaks designed to keep the state’s aerospace industry, dominated by Boeing, […]