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Informing the debate on tax policy nationwide with research and data-driven solutions.
Joined June 2010
NEW: Former President Donald Trump's proposed tax policy changes would, on average, lead to a tax cut for the richest 5% of Americans and a tax increase for all other income groups. The middle 20% of Americans would see an average tax increase of $1,530.
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NEW: Last year, Zoom saw its profits increase by more than 4,000%. The company's federal income taxes? $0. How? The platform appears to be using the same recipe as well-known corporate tax avoiders Amazon and Netflix. @gardmaf explains.
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True: Amazon’s effective corporate tax rate over the three-year period 2017-2019 was 0%. In 2019, the company paid $162M or 1.2%, a far cry from 21% statutory rate. Its release at the time focused mostly on taxes it did *not* pay and taxes it collected on behalf of *others.*.
.@SenSanders Not true. Last year we paid $5B in taxes, while providing paid sick-leave & comprehensive benefits for all full-time workers starting on their 1st day. All Amazon employees make at least $15/hr – 2x the fed min wage, & we created 175k+ new jobs since pandemic began.
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The new millionaire's tax in Massachusetts is already surpassing expectations. The state now estimates the tax will generate over $1.5 billion this fiscal year. That money will help fund free meals in public schools, transportation projects, and more.
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Sen. Whitehouse concluded his opening remarks by making this clear: "If you care about debt and deficits, you should want a well-funded, well-functioning IRS.".
The ultra-wealthy and large corporations cannot be allowed to continue evading taxes. LIVE: @SenateBudget examines how recent IRS funding has enabled the agency to crack down on #WealthyTaxCheats, decreasing the deficit and making our system fairer.
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It’s audacious to publicize an agenda to weaken SS and Medicare and increase taxes on half of Americans and then blame the opposing party for the harm your plan will do ordinary people. Our analysis of the tax provisions:
"It's in the plan! It's in the plan. But Senator, hang on, it's not a Democratic talking point. It's in the plan" -- even Fox News's John Roberts can't believe it when Rick Scott lies about his own policy plan, which calls for a tax increase on a majority of Americans
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Corporate income taxes now cover just 10% of federal revenue, down from more than 30% in the 1950s. Nearly 2/3 of tax cuts passed since 2000 went to the wealthiest 20%. @amyhanauer lays out a better path forward here.
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Counting on the benevolence of billionaires is no substitute for good tax policy. Billionaire benevolence will not ensure paid sick leave, broaden access to child care, make education or jobs training more accessible, mitigate climate change, strengthen our infrastructure, etc.
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Massachusetts has budgeted over $1 billion for FY2025 using funds from its millionaires tax. Some major investments include:.- $175 million for childcare grants.- $170 million for free school meals.- $93.5 million for free community college @MassBudget.
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Fortune 500 Companies Avoided $73.9 Billion in Tax Under First Year of Trump Tax Law.
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Congress achieved a remarkable feat by cutting child poverty by half in 2021 with the Child Tax Credit expansion. There is no reason that this proven and effective policy should become a thing of the past.
Census announces SPM child poverty rate of 12.4% in 2022. Context: from 1967 to 2021, the largest year-over-year increase in SPM child poverty rate was 10.7% (or 2.1 pp, 1980-1981). We now easily have a record increase in child poverty: a 139% increase (or 7.2 pp) from 2021-2022.
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"Low-tax" states usually have low taxes for just the rich. "Florida, Tennessee and Texas, which are often deemed as low-tax states because of the absence of personal income taxes, can paradoxically prove more expensive for low- to middle-class families." .
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A ticket on Jeff Bezos’s space flight went for $29.7 million. It would take someone making the current minimum wage nearly 2,000 years to gross that amount. It would take a billionaire like Mark Zuckerberg less than two days. #TaxTheRich.
Tax the Rich.Tax the Super-Rich.Tax the Ultra-Rich.But MOST of all, Tax the Going-To-Space-Is-My-Quirky-Hobby Rich.
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AT&T's Tax Rate for Past 8 Years: 8.1% .Boeing's Tax Rate for Past 8 Years: 5.4% . The idea that a new lower tax rate is really driving their recent PR stunts is nonsense.
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🚨 BREAKING 🚨 New ITEP report identifies 91 profitable Fortune 500 companies that paid $0.00 in federal income taxes on U.S. income in 2018, the first year of the Trump-GOP tax law. #notadime
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On average, the lowest-income 20% of taxpayers face a state and local tax rate nearly 60% higher than the top 1% of households. In 41 states, high-income families are taxed at lower rates than everyone else.
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In Florida, the richest 1% of earners get the biggest benefit from the state's tax code. Florida could be doing far more for low- and middle-income families. 31 states offer EITCs & 15 offer credits for dependent children. Florida offers neither.
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Taken together, the tax changes proposed by Vice President Kamala Harris would raise taxes on the richest 1% of Americans while cutting taxes on all other income groups.
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In 2022, undocumented immigrants contributed $96.7 billion in federal, state, & local taxes. These six states raised more than $1 billion each in tax revenue from undocumented immigrants living within their borders.
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New Reuters/Ipsos poll finds majority of Americans agree that the very rich should pay more. #wealthtax
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In 2022, undocumented immigrants contributed $96.7 billion in federal, state, & local taxes. Our new report is a reminder that immigration policy choices in the years ahead will have significant consequences for public revenues & communities nationwide.
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Major news: the IRS will make Direct File a permanent, free tax filing option for all 50 states and DC. In its pilot year, 90% of users reported a positive experience & 94% said they'd recommend it to friends and family. It's past time to make tax filing easy, fast, and free.
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In the four years since the Trump tax cuts took effect, Netflix has avoided $2.2 billion in taxes.
Netflix posted a record $5.3 BILLION in profits in 2021. Yet it reported an effective federal corporate income tax rate of just 1.1%. The company avoided more than $1 billion in taxes in 2021 alone. When we say our tax system is rigged for corporations, this is what we mean.
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44 state tax systems worsen income inequality. When the lowest-income households pay the greatest share of their income in state and local taxes, gaps between the wealthy and everyone else grow larger. Learn more about your state's ranking here:
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In light of the recent report that found the Walton family fortune grows by $70,000 a minute, $4 million per hour and $100 million per day, now is as good a time as any to make a reasoned, well-researched case for a wealth tax.
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If you paid a dime in federal income tax in 2018, you paid more than these 60 companies combined. #notadime . New Report: 60 corporations paid $0 in federal income tax in 2018 on $79 billion in profits and collectively received $4.3 billion in rebates
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55 of America's Largest Companies.$40 Billion in Profits in 2020.$0 in Corporate Income Taxes. REPORT:
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It’s time to tax income from wealth the same as income from work.
Billionaire wealth has now doubled since the Trump tax cuts for the super-rich. Just 756 people have seen their wealth go from under $3 trillion in 2017 to over $6 trillion today.
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Economists aren't buying it: There's no evidence that the Trump corporate tax cut is truly helping workers:
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The IRS did not audit 300 high-income households “who together cost the agency $10 billion over a three-year period when they failed to even file returns.”. We’ll say it again: Inadequate IRS funding benefits the wealthy and powerful.
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Many profitable corporations announced huge buybacks last year. And from 2018-2023, S&P 500 companies spent more on stock buybacks than on infrastructure or other investments that might have created new jobs and grown the economy.
Trump’s tax law cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. What did corporations do with the money saved?. They didn’t invest it or raise wages. They spent a record $1 trillion on stock buybacks the year after the law went into effect. Nothing trickled down to workers.
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Amazon Tries to Change the Subject by Listing Taxes It Does Not Really Pay, h/t @gardmaf | Jan. 2020 . Congratulating an employer for collecting the payroll tax is like congratulating yourself for breathing.
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Advocates for the Trump tax cuts claimed corporations would reinvest profits back into the economy — but as @SarahDAnderson1 from @IPS_DC points out, companies began pouring huge sums of money into stock buybacks instead. @SenateBudget
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The amount of tax money owed but not paid to the IRS continues to grow. The IRS now estimates the tax gap in 2021 soared to $688 billion. Properly funding the IRS remains crucial.
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NEW: Vice President Kamala Harris' tax plans would, on average, raise taxes on the richest 1% while cutting taxes for all other income groups. Americans making between $55,100 and $94,100 would see an average tax cut of $1,980 in 2026.
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America’s largest, consistently profitable corporations saw their effective tax rates fall from an average of 22.0% to 12.8% after the Trump tax law took effect. The number of these corporations paying tax rates of less than 10% increased from 56 to 95.
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Comparing both tax plans, on average:. ➡️ Kamala Harris' tax proposals would lead to a tax cut for all income groups except the richest 1%. ➡️ Donald Trump's proposals would result in a tax increase for all income groups except the richest 5%.
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Meanwhile, income inequality is at its worse in more than half a century. This year alone, America's richest 20 percent will walk away with more than 70% of the benefits from the 2017 tax law.
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NEW REPORT: No two state tax systems are the same, but 45 states have one thing in common: Low-income residents are taxed at a higher rate than the top 1 percent. Our latest report shows #WhoPays in all 50 states + D.C.
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The vast majority of state and local tax systems are upside-down, with the wealthy paying a far lesser share of their income in taxes than low- and middle-income families. Our latest edition of Who Pays? examines the tax systems in all 50 states and D.C.
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The richest 0.1% of Americans now hold nearly as much wealth as the bottom 90% of families combined. The Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act aims to make the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share in taxes on their wealth the same way most people do on work.
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We've documented how a tax on stock buybacks would make sure income transferred from corporations to wealthy shareholders doesn't continue to escape taxation. And as @NicholsUprising writes, this is "an important step in the right direction." .
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After releasing its first-quarter earnings report, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos stated this is “the hardest time” the company has ever faced. 🤔 A bit of perspective is in order: $3.3 billion in profits and a 26% increase in sales in Q1 2020, and a three-year effective tax rate of 0%.
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Why a billionaire’s tax makes sense:. 400 billionaires paid a paltry 8.2% federal tax rate from 2010-18. Billionaire wealth grew by $1.7 trillion during the pandemic. Bezos and Musk paid $0 fed income taxes in at least one year this past decade. Vast economic inequality.
Scoop: Biden's budget on Monday to propose "Billionaire Minimum Income Tax" . 1st time WH has so directly targeted billionaire wealth. Would create minimum 20% rate on income above $100M. 400 billionaire families paid *8.2% federal rate* from 2010-18.
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Yesterday, Not One Penny released a new report showing that there is no evidence that tax breaks for the wealthy are causing companies to change behavior toward their employees or consumers in any meaningful way.
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Undocumented immigrants pay substantial amounts toward the funding of public infrastructure, institutions, and services. In 2022, undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in taxes at the federal, state, and local levels.
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Join us in welcoming @amyhanauer as our new executive director of the @iteptweets & @taxjustice teams! To tax equity in 2020 and beyond! 👊🗓️🌿 #taxequity #taxjustice
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Corporations are paying considerably less than the federal corporate income tax rate. 55 corporations paid less than 5% from 2018-2022. The low effective corporate tax rates found in our latest study show the need for substantial tax reform.
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Just 25 companies received $37B+ in tax subsidies under the first year of the Trump-GOP tax law--with corporations in the financial industry claiming the largest subsidies. #Davos. 💰 Bank of America $5.6B.💰 JP Morgan Chase $3.7B.💰 Wells Fargo $3.2B.
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Why do we see tax and other policies enacted that benefit the wealthiest in this country? Because many elected officials are beholden to wealthy donors. The wealthy long have had an outsized influence in our democracy.
BREAKING: New analysis finds that America's 661 billionaires pumped $1,200,000,000 into the 2020 elections. That's double what they contributed in 2016, and 39x more than they contributed before Citizens United was decided. It's been 12 years. It's time to #EndCitizensUnited.
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Here's our report on the corporate taxes companies aren't paying featured tonight on @LastWeekTonight
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Elon Musk is trolling us all with his Twitter poll on whether he should sell stock and pay taxes. He likely has to do so regardless. Don’t allow billionaires to change the narrative and pretend they are doing us a favor when they pay taxes.
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The richest 20% of the population starts at about $138,000 as of 2023. The cutoff for the richest 5% is $298,000. They can call themselves what they want, but point is that they are richer than most of the country and can afford to pay more.
In America, the median annual wage is $48,000. If you make $400,000 A YEAR & yet tell the Wall Street Journal that you don’t think you are rich and insist that you are persecuted — your problem isn’t politics, your problem is that you’re totally out of touch with reality.
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91 profitable Fortune 500 companies paid $0.00 in federal income taxes on U.S. income in 2018, the first year of the Trump-GOP tax law. 📢📢📢 Our nation's ability to fund critical priorities is a tax policy issue.
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ProPublica investigations recently found Musk, Bezos and other billionaires paid $0 in taxes in some years. Tech mogul Peter Thiel funneled billions into a Roth IRA to dodge taxes. And now this. We need to unrig the system and #RewardWorkNotWealth.
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The American Rescue Plan stands in stark contrast to years of tax policy for the wealthy that gave a bigger slice to those at the top. #piday
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The bottom 20% of households would see the biggest benefit from $2,000 cash payments proposed in the CASH Act, boosting average incomes by 29%. via @YahooFinance @denitsa_tsekova
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NEW: Amazon reported record U.S. profits of more than $35 billion last year. The company avoided about $5.2 billion in corporate federal income taxes. Over the past 4 years, Amazon has avoided $12.5 billion in federal income taxes.
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Amazon’s effective corporate tax rate from 2017 to 2019 was 0%. *ZERO PERCENT* We are not powerless against corporate power. Tax policy can make a difference.
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State voucher tax credits are among the most significant tools eroding the public education system & propping up private schools. In the states we examined - including Arizona - most of the credits are being claimed by families with incomes over $200,000.
“Florida Policy Institute, which studied the Arizona program, projects at least a staggering $4 billion in its first year.” @washingtonpost @LizetteScribe
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As @amyhanauer notes in this morning's @SenateBudget hearing, the poorest 20% of Americans paid 8.4% of their income toward taxes for Social Security and Medicare combined in 2022, while the richest 1% paid just 2.3 percent of their income.
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The top 10% of U.S. corporations now control 95% of profits. And the most profitable corporations continue to use their tax advantages to focus on paying out shareholders. Read more from @rooseveltinst here.
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“The expiration of the expanded tax credits resulted in more than three million kids being thrown into poverty. New data shows it also resulted in a massive regressive tax increase on the working class.”.
A reminder that @Sen_JoeManchin just crushed America’s working class with a massive tax hike.
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NEW from @gardmaf: Netflix doubled its profits to $5.3 billion in 2021, but reported an effective federal corporate income tax rate of just 1.1%.
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The 10 most regressive state and local tax systems, according to our Tax Inequality Index:. 1. Florida.2. Washington.3. Tennessee.4. Pennsylvania.5. Nevada.6. South Dakota.7. Texas.8. Illinois.9. Arkansas.10. Louisiana. Full details here:
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NEW REPORT: Here's how a modest #wealthtax on the tippy-top 0.1 percent of households could raise $1.3 trillion over a decade:
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As Trump goes to Missouri, remember that 45% of his tax cuts would go to millionaires in the state.
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There's no justification to scale back the tax reforms in Build Back Better. The president and his party face many crises today, but watering down proposals requiring corporations and the rich to pay their fair share is no solution to any of them.
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"Those aren't tax changes that will help working families.". @SenWarren cites our analysis that shows Trump's tax proposals would raise taxes on most income groups while sending tax cuts to the richest people in the country.
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Precisely. Across all states on average, the lowest-income 20 percent pay an average effective tax rate of 11.4%--which is 50 percent higher than the 7.4 % average effective rate paid by the top 1 percent.
In Illinois, low-income households pay 14 cents in state and local taxes from every dollar of income. High- income households pay just 7 cents. That’s highly regressive, but not unique. State and local taxation is regressive in 45 of the 50 states.
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Florida has the third most regressive state and local tax system in the country. The governor recently moved forward with $543M in tax breaks for the largest 1% of corporations, even as the state's deliberate disinvestment in the unemployment system comes under scrutiny.
Florida has a budget crisis and is looking to plug holes. But teacher raises should be off the table. So should raiding the affordable-housing trust fund. The first thing the state needs to do is stop offering tax giveaways to out-of-state corporations.
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The 55 corporations that paid $0 in 2020 enjoyed a collective $40.5 billion in profits. All told, they avoided about $8.5 billion in taxes. Corporate tax reform requires increasing the tax rate and closing loopholes that make $0 in taxes on billions in profits possible.
55 massive corporations paid $0 in federal taxes on their 2020 profits. Fixing anything in this country starts with fixing our rigged tax system.
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Every $1 spent auditing the wealthy results in a $12 increase in revenue. Cuts to tax enforcement would increase the deficit to the benefit of wealthy tax cheats and big corporations who can afford armies of lawyers.
House Republicans proposed giving the IRS $10.119 billion for fiscal year 2025, a $2.2 billion cut over this year’s level of $12.3 billion, mostly hacked out of the agency’s enforcement funding.
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President Biden mentions the 55 corporations that paid $0 in taxes. These companies collectively avoided about $8.5 billion in taxes. It's long overdue for a tax code that demands corporations pay their fair share.
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Amazon's newest corporate filing reveals that the company nearly doubled its profits to $11.2 billion in 2018 and, once again, didn’t pay a single cent of federal income taxes.
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If economics is the dismal science, then the economics of taxation is particularly hopeless. Enter Emmanuel Saez & @gabriel_zucman, who in their new book tell us to stop acting like we are paralyzed when it comes to tax policy. There are solutions.
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Close the loopholes. Fund the IRS. Implement a wealth tax.
"In paying so little, and doing so at least in part legally, Trump makes the case for all of these changes.” It’s time to fix the tax code, writes @AnnieLowrey
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The wealthy are evading $163B in taxes a year. This doesn't include the amount that they are avoiding through legal means. For example:
The wealthiest 1% of Americans are evading as much as $163 billion a year in taxes, according to a new Treasury Department report. The analysis comes as the Biden administration pushes lawmakers to beef up the IRS's enforcement efforts.
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"ProPublica . identified at least 18 billionaires who received stimulus payments, which were funded by U.S. taxpayers, in the spring of 2020. Hundreds of other ultrawealthy taxpayers also got checks.". This disgrace is why we need real tax reform.
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NEW: The push by Congressional Republicans to make the tax provisions in TCJA permanent would cost nearly $300 billion in the first year and deliver the bulk of the tax benefits to the wealthiest Americans.
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Continued cuts to IRS funding have led to significant drops in audit rates on wealthy households and corporations. @SenWhitehouse calls it "Tax amnesty for the rich. Tax enforcement for the poor." @SenateBudget
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Studies have shown the millionaire tax flight is a myth. In fact, young college graduates and low-income residents cross state lines most frequently—state tax rates are not the crux of their decisions. h/t @cristobalyoung5
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Yep, 72% of benefits from the Trump-GOP tax law in 2020 are funneled to the richest 20 percent of taxpayers, and another $38 billion to foreign investors. #DemDebate
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Reminder: Disney will receive a tax cut of $1.2 billion annually from the Trump-GOP tax law, nearly 10 times the size of the bonuses they are paying out.
Union says Disney is refusing to pay 35,000 workers their $1,000 tax cut bonuses
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In his State of the State address, Gov. Newsom cites our Who Pays? report showing that low-income residents in Texas and Florida pay a higher share of their income in taxes than the wealthiest Californians.
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Taxing wealthy people and corporations and using the revenue for paid leave, child care, education, and health care would transform America—especially for women and families. More from @amyhanauer here.
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NEW from @carlpdavis: A tiny fraction of U.S households own a staggering amount of the nation's wealth. Just 0.25% of American households have a net worth exceeding $30 million, yet these households account for 30% of total wealth.
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We are excited to welcome @amyhanauer in 2020 (just in time for our 40th!🤩) to help shape the tax policy landscape for shared prosperity!
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Biden's COVID relief package includes a significant expansion of the Child Tax Credit—a move that would reach more than 83 million children, give the biggest boost to low-income families and dramatically reduce child poverty.
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Anyone who tells you that the rich are paying the bulk of the taxes in America is either misinformed or dishonest. It's time to end the debate about which Americans really pay taxes. h/t @SteveWamhoff
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Too many states take a greater share of income from low- & middle-income families than from the wealthy. But it doesn't have to be this way. On #TaxDay, we're showing how tax systems widen inequality across the country and looking at better ways forward.
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The argument for TCJA was that allowing companies to keep a greater share of profits would stimulate investments in growth. Instead, in the first 4 years after TCJA took effect, corporations collectively spent more on stock buybacks than on investments back into their companies.
Warren Buffett calls stock buyback critics 'economic illiterate' in Berkshire Hathaway annual letter
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New 50-state analysis: Biden’s revenue raising tax proposals would increase taxes almost exclusively for the top 1 percent.
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New Treasury data confirm corporate tax collections fell 31% in 2018 and continue to fall in 2019. This should worry anyone who wants the government to function.
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