May 1, 2012 01:42 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Political leaders love to claim fealty to the idea of “loophole-closing” tax reform, but refuse to provide details on the specific tax breaks they would eliminate. As we’ve recently noted, House Budget Chair, Rep. Paul Ryan, is one of the worst […]
April 26, 2012 03:08 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | The Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison released a report showing that Wisconsin poverty rates actually dropped between 2009 and 2010 – from 11.1 to 10.3 percent – thanks to safety net programs that were […]
April 26, 2012 11:50 AM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Arthur Laffer recently teamed up with Stephen Moore, his friend on The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, to pen yet another opinion piece on the benefits of shunning progressive personal income taxes. Most of the article’s so-called “analysis” is ripped from […]
April 25, 2012 06:13 PM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | Representing a remarkable defeat for corporate tax dodgers, a spokesman for the so-called “Win America Campaign” confirmed this week that it has “temporarily suspended” its lobbying for a tax repatriation amnesty. The coalition of mostly high-tech companies pushed for […]
April 25, 2012 02:56 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | This week brought news of a few more states tackling the challenge of taxing purchases made over the Internet in the same way as purchases made in “brick and mortar” stores. Nevada and Tennessee got agreements from Amazon.com, the mother of […]
April 24, 2012 04:50 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | The Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute just unveiled a “Doomsday Clock” on their website. The countdown shows how many days are left until massive budget cuts take effect on July 1. The Institute explains that these cuts can […]
April 24, 2012 01:41 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell just signed into law the expansion of a tax break meant to support “manufacturing” that has, in fact, been used to subsidize everything from making movies to designing homes to roasting coffee. The break piggybacks on the […]
April 23, 2012 03:58 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Missourians can write off up to $5,000 in federal income taxes paid ($10,000 for married couples) on their state income taxes. Missouri is one of only six states that offer this deduction and it cost the state about $400 million in […]
April 20, 2012 12:38 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Yesterday, Eric Cantor, the Republican House Majority Leader, announced that those taxpayers who pay federal payroll taxes and other types of taxes, but who don’t have enough income to owe federal personal income taxes, should be required to pay the federal […]
April 20, 2012 12:29 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | We’ve long advocated for taxes that have a broad base. Tax structures that abide by this principle don’t pick winners and losers and, importantly, they keep revenues more stable in the long run. In South Carolina earlier this week, a House […]
April 20, 2012 10:00 AM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | On Tax Day 2012, thousands of people throughout the country rallied in favor of progressive taxation and against the low (or sometimes zero rates) paid by the wealthiest Americans and corporations. These protests were the latest in the growing […]
April 19, 2012 05:00 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | On Tuesday, advocates for transparency scored a victory while tax evaders suffered a loss. The Treasury Department issued final regulations requiring banks to report to the IRS any interest payments made to foreign account holders in the same way they must […]
April 19, 2012 04:19 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | CTJ issued a one-page fact sheet that includes the information you need to understand the debates that will continue long after Tax Day. America is NOT overtaxed… Virtually all Americans, including the poorest Americans, are paying some type of tax… Wealthy […]
April 19, 2012 03:09 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | Calling it “a far-out idea that would force Missourians to pay much more for groceries, homes and everything in between, while sparing wealthy citizens the need to pay income taxes,” the Kansas City Star editorial board bids good riddance […]
April 19, 2012 12:45 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Rick Perry’s Texas has some of the lowest taxes in the nation and it trails the national average in important economic indicators. But that’s not stopping Governor Perry from traveling the state promoting his new Texas Budget Compact, the center of […]
April 18, 2012 02:21 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | According to a CNN/ORC poll, one of many polls released around Tax Day 2012, a solid 68 percent of Americans said the current tax system benefits the rich and is unfair to ordinary workers. While this result is consistent with past […]
April 17, 2012 12:03 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | The Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute’s #proudtopay Twitter campaign gives people a chance to voice their support for the public services made possible by paying taxes. Wade Gibson from Connecticut Voices for Children reminds us in this op-ed that taxes do a […]
April 17, 2012 11:29 AM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | Paying Taxes to the Boss explains how 2,700 companies in 16 states are pocketing their workers’ state income tax payments rather than handing them over to the government. Good Jobs First examines this entirely legal tax giveaway in a […]
April 16, 2012 06:38 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Senate Minority Blocks Even Minimal Tax Reform, Preserves Lower Effective Tax Rates for Millionaire Investors Today, a minority of Senators demonstrated that they will filibuster even the most minimal step towards tax fairness. The legislation, proposed by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, would […]
April 16, 2012 09:56 AM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | When CTJ analyzed Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan last year, we concluded it would cut taxes for the richest one percent by $210,000 on average and raise taxes for the bottom three-fifths of Americans by $2,000, on average if in effect […]
April 13, 2012 04:42 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | A letter in the Tulsa World highlights the work done by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) to expose the flaws in Arthur Laffer’s recent “research” on the economic benefits of income tax repeal. The letter also […]
April 13, 2012 12:46 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Millions of Americans will spend part of this upcoming weekend trying to navigate tax preparation software or filling out the actual paper forms to file their income tax returns before the Tuesday deadline. For those wishing they could pay less tax, […]
April 13, 2012 10:03 AM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Arthur Laffer and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have just released the 5th edition of their Rich States, Poor States report. If you’ve fallen behind on your Laffer reading, Rich States, Poor States is mostly a collection of Laffer’s other […]
April 12, 2012 03:31 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | For years we’ve been hearing how half of all Americans don’t pay taxes –but our numbers say otherwise. So we set out to find even one American that didn’t pay any tax and, amazingly, we did! He is unique, and he […]
April 12, 2012 01:01 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | States are spending untold billions on special tax breaks that are supposed to steer business to behave in ways that lead to economic growth. We’re generally skeptical of these types of so-called incentives, and have long argued that they receive far […]