November 4, 2013 07:24 PM By Kelly Davis, Assistant Director of Communications | Permalink | We’ve followed the tactics of corporations in Illinois, from Motorola to CME Group, who again and again ask lawmakers for pricey handouts they claim they need to keep doing business in the state. House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie has […]
November 4, 2013 07:07 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | Iowa Senator Jack Hatch is one of three Democratic candidates running to unseat Governor Terry Branstad. If elected, the Senator intends to pursue a package of tax changes that would cost the state $415 million in Fiscal Year 2015 […]
November 4, 2013 12:02 PM By Carl Davis, Research Director at ITEP | Permalink | During a year in which far too many tax proposals have been focused on cutting taxes for the affluent, and in some cases actually raising them on the poor, Montgomery County Maryland’s decision to expand its Earned Income Tax Credit […]
October 31, 2013 03:59 PM By Kelly Davis, Assistant Director of Communications | Permalink | At the behest of Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, the state legislature has enacted two rounds of major tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Kansans. After signing into law the first set of tax cuts, Governor Brownback called the radical […]
October 31, 2013 02:48 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | The House and Senate budget conference committee that was formed as part of the deal that ended the federal government shutdown and raised the debt ceiling is unlikely to come to any “grand bargain” that dramatically reduces the deficit or increases […]
October 31, 2013 11:41 AM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | Happy Halloween to our readers! Kansas Governor Sam Brownback’s bloodcurdling vision for his state is on display in a new article in Governing magazine, which poses the question “Can Tough Love Help Reduce Poverty?” As the article notes, […]
October 30, 2013 12:22 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | One question that comes up in debates about the corporate income tax is who pays it. Even though the corporate tax is officially paid by corporations, all taxes are ultimately paid by actual people. It is clear that the corporate tax […]
October 24, 2013 02:10 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | A headline in a publication read widely by tax experts (subscription only) this morning screamed “PwC Study: Effective Corporate Tax Rate Topped Statutory Rate From 2004 to 2010.” The actual report, which was published in a rival publication this week (subscription […]
October 24, 2013 02:04 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Citizens for Tax Justice released a detailed tax reform plan this week that accomplishes the goals we set out in an earlier report: raise revenue, enhance fairness, and reduce tax incentives for corporations to shift jobs and profits offshore. A budget […]
October 24, 2013 12:54 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | Colorado’s Child Care Tax Credit would be expanded for low-income families under a bill approved by a special task force of legislators last week. As the Colorado Center on Law and Policy explains (PDF), some Colorado households are actually […]
October 23, 2013 02:10 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Last week, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down a state law (commonly called the “Amazon law”) that would have helped solve some of the sales tax enforcement problems surrounding online shopping. As things currently stand in Illinois (and most other states), […]
October 22, 2013 03:45 PM By Kelly Davis, Assistant Director of Communications | Permalink | Earlier this month, with an unexpected $100 million biennial budget surplus burning a hole in his pocket, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker proposed to use the one-time surplus to permanently cut local property taxes. In a whirlwind legislative session, a bipartisan […]
October 17, 2013 04:20 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | In his reelection campaign, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has been touting his record as a self-proclaimed fiscal conservative, bragging that “not one tax has been raised since I’ve been governor.” Many low-income New Jersey families would disagree. That is because […]
October 17, 2013 04:07 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Sixteen days after parts of the federal government were shut down because House Republicans refused to approve a spending plan unless it defunded or delayed health care reform and after coming close to causing a breach of the federal debt limit […]
October 17, 2013 02:13 PM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | Responding to growing international pressure over his country’s role in facilitating international tax avoidance, Ireland’s Minister of Finance, Michael Noonan, proposed a new measure that would end the ability of companies to avoid taxes by incorporating in his country […]
October 15, 2013 01:27 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | Nebraska’s Tax Modernization Committee, which we promised to keep tabs on in July, is scheduled to hold its final public hearings this week. But rather than wait to hear what the panel has to say, Governor Dave Heineman decided […]
October 10, 2013 03:29 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Congressman Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee and former vice presidential candidate, penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal this week proposing that Congress might end the government shutdown and avoid a cataclysmic debt default if Democrats agree […]
October 10, 2013 03:23 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | On Wednesday, the New York Times examined the practice of some U.S. corporations inverting (reincorporating in another country) by merging with foreign companies, and the extent to which this is done to avoid U.S. taxes. This problem is probably somewhat overblown, […]
October 10, 2013 12:09 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | In less than a month, Colorado voters will decide whether to abandon the state’s flat-rate income tax in favor of a more progressive, graduated rate tax. The main purpose of this reform is to raise nearly $1 billion in new revenue […]
October 9, 2013 11:06 AM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Following the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s announcement (PDF) that it had closed its review of Apple’s financial disclosures, headlines like “SEC Agrees That There’s Nothing Wrong With Apple’s US Taxes” started appearing, giving the false impression that what Apple has […]
October 7, 2013 03:00 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | Governor Sam Brownback’s tax policies are being challenged by a state legislator who’s running to unseat him, Paul Davis. “Gov. Brownback’s `real live experiment’ is not working,” Davis said, using Brownback’s own description of the extreme tax changes he […]
October 4, 2013 03:43 PM By David Mitchell | Permalink | After three days of debate and backroom deals, lawmakers in Oregon delivered hundreds of millions of dollars in unwarranted tax cuts to businesses as part of the state legislature’s 2013 special session on Wednesday. The Governor’s objective for calling the special session was to […]
October 3, 2013 12:36 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | In recent weeks, Capitol Hill has been fixated on two major deadlines to pass important legislation. One was October 1, when spending authority ran out for many federal operations causing a partial government shutdown because Congress did not enact legislation to […]
October 3, 2013 12:33 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Congressional Democrats have already capitulated to Republican demands on what level of spending should be enacted to keep the government running. The last government shutdown, which stretched from the end of 1995 into the start of 1996, happened because the parties […]
October 3, 2013 12:12 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | The need for Congress to increase the existing $16.7 trillion debt ceiling by October 17 does not involve increasing the deficit or spending but rather allows the government to issue debt to cover the costs of legislation that Congress has already […]