April 11, 2012 04:42 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Our three-minute movie in which an ordinary guy makes a shocking discovery. “Are you telling me,” he says, “that unless I’m General Electric or Mitt Romney I have to pay more taxes than Warren Buffett?!” Watch it at the CTJ YouTube […]
April 10, 2012 01:41 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | A new CTJ report explains why Congress should approve Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s proposal to implement the “Buffett Rule” to raise badly needed revenue and make our tax system fairer, but should also recognize that this must be followed by far more […]
April 10, 2012 01:22 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | We’ve written a lot about plans to eliminate Missouri’s income tax and boost the sales tax instead, spearheaded by anti-tax mastermind Rex Sinquefield. He had hoped to put this radical plan before voters this November but the initiative’s advocates […]
April 10, 2012 01:11 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Two reports from CTJ demonstrate that the U.S. corporate tax is not the huge burden that corporate lobbyists say it is. The first report explains why claims that the U.S. has the highest corporate tax in the world are false. The […]
April 9, 2012 06:28 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Presidential candidate Mitt Romney took some heat this winter for delaying release of his tax returns and then, in January, released only one year’s worth (and an estimate for 2011). Now the calls for more disclosure are heating up again since the […]
April 6, 2012 01:39 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | This week, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel came together for a Chicago Tribune Forum, one in a series on the region’s future sponsored by the newspaper. Questions from readers and journalists focused on the state’s ailing pension […]
April 5, 2012 02:59 PM By Meg Wiehe, Deputy Director at ITEP | Permalink | Pennsylvania lawmakers got one step closer this week to closing major corporate tax loopholes. Or did they? The House Finance Committee approved legislation that would, in theory, close the infamous Delaware loophole which allows Pennsylvania companies to shift profits earned […]
April 5, 2012 01:05 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | A new CTJ fact sheet explains that for the 2011 tax year, 97 percent of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) will be paid by the richest five percent of taxpayers and 58 percent of the AMT will be paid by the […]
April 4, 2012 10:51 AM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Our nation’s gas tax policy is horribly designed, and the consequences have never been more obvious at either the federal or state levels. Construction costs are growing while the gas tax is flat-lining, and the resulting tension has made even routine […]
April 3, 2012 11:52 AM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Tennessee lawmakers are seriously considering repealing their state estate tax, in part because of a comically flawed report from supply-side economist Arthur Laffer. The report’s bottom-line conclusion is that Tennessee would have benefited from 220,000 more jobs in 2010 if lawmakers […]
April 3, 2012 08:25 AM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | Last week Florida Governor Rick Scott signed into law legislation implementing a state sales tax holiday from August 3rd to the 5th even though these sales tax holidays are a real boondoggle for consumers (mostly PR for policymakers) and […]
April 2, 2012 02:00 PM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | While the sale of online coupons for local merchants boomed in 2011 – Living Social sold $750 million and Groupon sold an astounding $1.62 billion in online coupons last year – state governments are still trying to play catch […]
March 30, 2012 12:38 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | How sad. Here’s one story among many about state officials hoping today’s Mega Millions lottery winner is in their state, because, Wow!, that would be some revenue windfall! Rhode Island’s budget, for example, is currently $117 million in the red, and […]
March 29, 2012 05:30 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | Whatever comes of rumors that Governor Haley might face tax fraud charges, a modified income tax cut has passed out of South Carolina’s House Ways and Means Committee. Perhpas due to ITEP’s analysis, which found that the poorest South […]
March 29, 2012 02:53 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Given all the talk lately about the richest one percent and the other 99 percent, it’s surprising that more attention has not been focused on one federal tax that truly does target the richest one percent: the federal estate tax. A […]
March 28, 2012 02:43 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Kansas Governor Sam Brownback laid down a legislative marker at the beginning of year, promising to cut and eventually eliminate the state’s personal income tax. Since then, state lawmakers have debated a number of approaches to changing the state’s tax laws […]
March 27, 2012 08:06 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | On Monday, the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) released its budget proposal, which would allow the expiration of a much larger portion of the Bush tax cuts than would expire under President Obama’s plan. The CPC budget plan, which Citizens for Tax […]
March 27, 2012 07:18 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | A budget resolution held out as a “centrist” alternative to the Ryan budget plan is claimed to be based on the recommendations of the President’s fiscal commission (often called the Simpson-Bowles commission, after its co-chairs) but actually maintains the regressive capital […]
March 27, 2012 06:51 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | On Wednesday, the House Ways and Means Committee approved a bill that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) introduced last week: the “Small Business Tax Cut Act.” As it stands right now, a lot of truly small businesses would not actually […]
March 27, 2012 05:08 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | The Tulsa World takes a look at the growing list of reasons to oppose an income tax cut in Oklahoma, including arguments being made by education groups, businesses, retirees, real estate developers and lawmakers themselves. As the World puts […]
March 26, 2012 05:34 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | The Tax Policy Center (TPC) recently published figures showing that for the vast majority of taxpayers, Obama’s proposal to extend most of the Bush tax cuts would provide benefits that far exceed the tax increases he proposes. Just 6.5 percent of taxpayers […]
March 26, 2012 01:48 PM By Kelly Davis, Assistant Director of Communications | Permalink | A tax bill that flew through the Georgia House and sped through the Senate is now on its way to the Governor’s desk for a signature. The package (which took hits from the left and right) is the equivalent of […]
March 22, 2012 03:57 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan has introduced a budget plan that, if implemented, would reduce revenues so significantly that they would be inadequate to pay for the federal spending under the Reagan administration, let alone the spending required in the […]
March 22, 2012 02:50 PM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | Large majorities of Americans, including small business owners, want profitable corporations to pay their fair share in taxes, but none of the major proposals in Washington would make that happen. They will close some loopholes while creating others and, […]
March 22, 2012 01:02 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | Indiana’s inheritance tax will soon be no more. Under a bill signed by Governor Mitch Daniels this week, the state inheritance tax will be gradually eliminated over the next decade. Of course, this will further benefit the state’s wealthiest […]