June 2, 2011 02:37 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Last week, former partners in the law firm of Jenkens & Gilchrist, the former head of accounting firm BDO Seidman, and a former Deutsche Bank broker, were convicted on criminal charges related to a tax shelter scheme that reportedly generated fake […]
June 2, 2011 02:36 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | “Sunset” provisions (or expiration dates) recently played a big role in allowing Washington State lawmakers to eliminate special tax breaks for filmmakers, computer server farms, and newspapers. Unfortunately, a tax break for out-of-state banks was spared from the chopping block, due […]
June 2, 2011 02:33 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Early last week, Governor Mark Dayton vetoed nine budget bills passed by the Republican-led legislature and lawmakers adjourned with no spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year. Since releasing his initial budget plan in February, the Governor has called for a […]
June 2, 2011 02:32 PM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | Last week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a deal with state lawmakers over pending legislation to enact a property tax cap in the state. If the deal passes, the cap would be one of the strictest in the […]
June 2, 2011 02:30 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Public services provided by state governments help some families accumulate great wealth, and Ohio has recognized this for a century by levying an estate tax on well-off residents. This tradition may soon come to an end, as Governor John Kasich has […]
June 1, 2011 05:47 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | The debate over corporate tax reform is not just about whether corporations overall should pay more, less, or the same as they do now. There is also a debate over how the offshore profits of U.S. corporations should be treated. Corporate […]
June 1, 2011 04:03 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Citizens for Tax Justice has released a preview of its forthcoming major study of Fortune 500 companies and the taxes they paid — or failed to pay — over the 2008-10 period. The preview details the pretax U.S. profits, federal taxes […]
May 26, 2011 10:57 AM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | On Wednesday, May 25, Senator Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered comments on the Senate floor about the budget, the deficit and why he rejects the House budget plan from Rep. Paul Ryan. Senator Conrad cited new figures […]
May 25, 2011 05:23 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Two states — Nebraska and Utah — recently enacted new laws diverting a sizeable chunk of their state sales taxes to transportation. Education, human services, and other vital programs are expected to suffer as a result of this diversion. Instead of […]
May 25, 2011 05:21 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Last week, ITEP testified in front of the Rhode Island House Finance committee on two bills. One would close down some of the most egregious tax avoidance schemes available to multi-state corporations by mandating “combined reporting.” The other would ramp up […]
May 25, 2011 05:19 PM By Meg Wiehe, Deputy Director at ITEP | Permalink | The ongoing recession, the expiration of two temporary taxes, and the end of federal recovery aid have left North Carolina with a $2.4 billion gap for next fiscal year. The state’s Democratic governor, Bev Perdue, and the Republican-led legislature have […]
May 25, 2011 05:16 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | The Louisiana Senate is expected to debate a bill this week which would eliminate the state’s personal and corporate income taxes over a five-year period. By the time it’s fully phased in, the proposal would cost the state $4 billion annually. […]
May 25, 2011 05:09 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Republican Governor Sam Brownback and many conservative Republicans in Kansas are attempting to use the term “tax reform” to describe their efforts to reduce the equity and sustainability of Kansas’s tax system. Brownback has begun studying tax proposals with the […]
May 19, 2011 01:55 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Recent articles in the New York Times and the Fiscal Times entertain the notion that President Obama’s income tax plan will result in unaffordable tax increases for families who make $250,000 a year. One theme of these articles is that in […]
May 19, 2011 01:54 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | “I’m here to tell you that the sky is not falling,” began CTJ Senior Counsel for Federal Tax Policy Rebecca Wilkins as she testified Wednesday before Treasury and IRS officials in favor of new bank regulations to prevent tax evasion by […]
May 19, 2011 01:52 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | A minority of 48 Senators, including three Democrats, blocked passage of a bill on Tuesday that would have repealed several of the tax breaks for oil and gas companies that CTJ described in its recent report on energy and taxes. The […]
May 19, 2011 01:51 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Should Tax Hikes on these Americans Be “Off the Table?” As House Speaker John Boehner and other Republican leaders in Congress continue to assert that tax increases even on the very wealthiest Americans are “off the table,” one rationale sometimes advanced […]
May 19, 2011 01:49 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | California, Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, and Wisconsin have all experienced better than expected revenue growth over the past few months. This is unambiguously good news, but for many lawmakers it’s unfortunately an excuse to ditch any restraint on […]
May 19, 2011 01:48 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Less than a month ago, Florida Governor Rick Scott was still pushing his campaign proposal to repeal the state’s corporate income tax. Yet his “Tea Party”-inspired promise never lit a fire under the Republican leadership in the state legislature. Republican […]
May 19, 2011 01:47 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | In his recent budget address, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said, “The facts are clear: Wisconsin is broke and it’s time to start paying our bills today.” Perhaps the “facts” aren’t entirely clear for the Governor, given new improved revenue forecasts as […]
May 19, 2011 01:44 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Late last week, the Kansas Legislature adjourned a dramatic session that ended at 3 a.m. Friday morning, when a controversial budget that slashed spending for schools, social services, and the arts was finally approved. In total, 2,000 state positions were eliminated. […]
May 19, 2011 01:43 PM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | In Missouri and Minnesota, property tax “circuit breakers” ensure that property taxes do not take more than a limited percentage of income from taxpayers of modest means. As ITEP has explained, it is widely accepted that property taxes are […]
May 18, 2011 12:09 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | On Wednesday, U.S. Senators and Representatives received a letter from 250 organizations, including organizations in every state, calling on Congress to close corporate tax loopholes and use the revenue saved to address the budget deficit and fund public investments. The 250 […]
May 13, 2011 01:46 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Republican House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp called the Chief Financial Officers of four different corporations to testify in favor of a “territorial” tax system on Thursday. A territorial system exempts offshore profits of U.S. corporations from U.S. taxes. […]
May 13, 2011 01:45 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | On Wednesday, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) introduced a bill (H.R. 1834) to provide a tax holiday for corporations that repatriate offshore profits, similar to the widely panned repatriation holiday enacted in 2004. The holiday is essentially a temporary tax exemption for […]