May 13, 2011 01:42 PM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | Microsoft’s purchase of Skype for $8.5 billion provides a perfect illustration of why adopting a true worldwide corporate income tax system is critical to our economic future. According to the Wall Street Journal, the cash for Microsoft’s purchase […]
May 13, 2011 01:41 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Last week the Hawaii legislature sent Governor Neil Abercrombie a package of tax changes designed to help close the state’s yawning budget gap. Among its most notable components are the partial repeal of the state’s nonsensical deduction for state income taxes […]
May 13, 2011 01:39 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | For months, Governor Rick Snyder has been trying desperately to enact massive business tax cuts paid for with new taxes on pension income and the elimination of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Unfortunately, a modified version of Snyder’s plan passed […]
May 13, 2011 01:37 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | The agricultural property tax loophole we first told you about in March was closed on Monday when Gov. John Hickenlooper signed HB1146. Tom Cruise was among the most famous beneficiaries of the loophole, saving thousands of dollars in taxes because of […]
May 13, 2011 01:36 PM By Meg Wiehe, Deputy Director at ITEP | Permalink | Earlier this week, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released a new report highlighting the key tax components of Connecticut’s recently enacted budget, which raised more than $1.4 billion in new taxes to mitigate cuts to core services. […]
May 13, 2011 01:34 PM By Meg Wiehe, Deputy Director at ITEP | Permalink | Rhode Island remains one of a handful of states seriously considering revenue increases to help address significant state budget shortfalls. In March, Governor Lincoln Chafee put forth a plan that would expand the state’s sales tax base to several dozen […]
May 13, 2011 01:32 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Just weeks after a six-month effort by Georgia lawmakers to enact ambitious tax reform legislation fell apart, Governor Nathan Deal is signaling that lawmakers may be asked to continue their deliberations on this issue when they return for a special legislative […]
May 13, 2011 01:24 PM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | Recognizing the dire fiscal straits faced by the state, Democratic lawmakers in Nevada are pushing for a $1.5 billion plan to reform the sales tax to raise revenue and avoid harsh cuts in public services. One of the smartest […]
May 10, 2011 11:26 AM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Addressing the Economic Club of New York on Monday, Republican House Speaker John Boehner told reporters that Congress should be “looking seriously at a territorial tax code,” according to CQ Today. Under a territorial system, the offshore profits of a U.S. […]
May 6, 2011 01:46 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Lawmakers and officials in the Obama administration are discussing plans to reform the corporate tax in a way that is “revenue-neutral,” meaning we would not collect any more tax revenue from corporations overall than we do today. In other words, while […]
May 6, 2011 01:44 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | This week CTJ wrote to ask the House Judiciary Committee to reject the so-called “Business Activity Tax Simplification Act” (BATSA). This legislation would make state and local taxes on businesses dramatically more complex, increase litigation related to business taxes, increase government […]
May 6, 2011 01:42 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | New York Times’ Headline, “Americans Favor Budget Cuts Over Raising Corporate Tax” Based on Misleading Poll People who follow polling have known for some time that Americans tend to support cutting government spending in the abstract but are likely to respond […]
May 6, 2011 01:41 PM By Meg Wiehe, Deputy Director at ITEP | Permalink | Bucking the anti-tax, anti-government, cuts-only approach to state budget shortfalls embraced by most state leaders across the nation this year, Connecticut governor Dan Malloy signed a two-year state spending plan this week that raises $1.4 billion in new taxes to […]
May 6, 2011 01:40 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Very few businesses allow taxes to shape their business strategy as much as Amazon.com. Amazon has shuttered a Texas warehouse, ended partnerships with businesses in at least three states, and sued the state of New York — all because of state […]
May 6, 2011 01:39 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | You may have heard of the “no new taxes” pledge, which is promoted by the extreme anti-government organization, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), and its leader, Grover Norquist. What you may not know is that the pledge bars lawmakers from allowing […]
May 6, 2011 01:36 PM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | While almost every state faces revenue shortfalls due to the recession, North Dakota is one of the few to escape relatively unscathed, as a result of its oil revenue. In fact, North Dakota’s recently passed budget includes nearly half […]
April 29, 2011 12:42 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | House Speaker John Boehner’s recent comment that Congress should “take a look at” repealing tax subsidies for large oil companies is well-founded. A new report from Citizens for Tax Justice explains that these subsidies are a particularly poor use of taxpayer […]
April 29, 2011 12:21 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | We’ve all become accustomed to conservative lawmakers singing the praises of tax cuts nearly every time they open their mouths. Florida Governor Rick Scott’s devotion to anti-tax dogma, however, is among the most extreme cases we’ve seen in recent memory. Fortunately, […]
April 29, 2011 12:18 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Douglas Bruce, author of Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), has been arrested for tax evasion. The indictment alleges that Bruce filed a false Colorado personal income tax return for 2005 and failed to file returns for 2006 and 2007 even […]
April 29, 2011 12:17 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Iowa Governor Terry Branstad has made it very clear that he prioritizes corporations over working families. Earlier this week, the Governor vetoed a slight increase in the state’s earned income tax credit (EITC) from 7 to 10 percent of the federal […]
April 29, 2011 12:15 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Earlier this week, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon signed into law legislation that will gradually phase out the state’s corporate franchise tax. The tax is levied on either the total assets of a company or the value of its paid up capital […]
April 29, 2011 12:14 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Like most states, New Hampshire is faced with yet another budget shortfall to close in the upcoming fiscal year, this one at roughly half a billion dollars. The New Hampshire House of Representatives approved a budget in March that closed the […]
April 22, 2011 01:44 PM By Meg Wiehe, Deputy Director at ITEP | Permalink | As previously noted, Connecticut is one of only a handful of states where state leaders have given serious consideration to raising revenue as part of a balanced solution to closing their budget gaps. In February, new Governor Dan Malloy (who […]
April 22, 2011 01:42 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | The South Dakota Legislature’s Executive Committee voted earlier this week to study the more than 100 sales tax exemptions that the state currently allows. Tax exemptions are one type of “tax expenditure,” or government spending through the tax code. Tax expenditures […]
April 22, 2011 01:39 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Louisiana’s Better Choices for a Better Louisiana Coalition is taking on Governor Bobby Jindal and other legislative leaders who have said they aren’t interested in increasing taxes. The Coalition recently unveiled their plan to increase taxes by $900 million to help […]