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Will Google Get an Amnesty for Shifting Its Profits to Offshore Tax Havens?


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State Tax Issues on the Ballot

Important Decisions that Voters in Several States Will Make on Election Day

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State-by-State Figures on Estate Tax

Only 0.6% of Deaths in 2008 Resulted in Estate Tax Liability — and Obama Would Reduce It Further

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Obama Cut Taxes for 98% of Working Americans in 2009

State-by-State Fact Sheets

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How Much of Bush's Tax Cuts Should We Keep?

State-by-State Figures Comparing Republicans' Approach to Obama's Approach

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CTJ's Online Tax Calculator

Calculate the Income Tax Cut You Would Receive Under Different Tax Proposals

Recent Reports

  • How to Enact (and Maintain) Tax Reform

    Tax reform is important and desirable, but too often short-lived. Absent action to address the biases in favor of tax expenditures, lawmakers face a very tough uphill battle to enact tax reform, and have almost no chance of maintaining a reformed tax code for long.

    10/26/2010

  • Will Taxes Cause Former Bush Adviser Greg Mankiw to Work Less?

    On Sunday, October 10, Harvard professor Greg Mankiw wrote an op-ed for the New York Times arguing that if taxes go up, he'll work less. We take exception to both Mankiw's calculations and his theory of how taxes affect behavior.

    10/22/2010

  • State-by-State Estate Tax Figures: Number of Deaths Resulting in Estate Tax Liability Continues to Drop

    New data from the IRS show that only 0.6 percent of deaths in the U.S. in 2008 resulted in estate tax liability. The estate tax that would exist under President Obama's tax plan would affect even fewer estates, which demonstrates why Congress should consider enacting a more robust estate tax than what President Obama envisions.

    10/20/2010

  • Refundable Credits Expanded in the Economic Recovery Act

    The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), signed into law by President Barack Obama, expanded two refundable tax credits, the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit. While most of the provisions in ARRA are intended to be temporary, President Obama has proposed making permanent these expansions of refundable tax credits for low-income families. These figures show how these expansions would affect taxpayers in different income groups if extended through 2011 and how many families and children would be helped in each state.

    10/19/2010

  • Group of House Democrats Support Tax Preferences for Wealthy Investor Class that President Reagan Ended

    Forty-seven House Democrats have reportedly written a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling for an extension of the Bush tax cuts on investment income for the richest two percent of Americans. These Democrats would preserve the historically low income tax rate of 15 percent for capital gains and stock dividends for the wealthiest taxpayers. This stance places them to the right of Ronald Reagan and illustrates a surprising lack of familiarity with history and economics.

    09/28/2010

  • Most House Democrats Supporting Tax Cuts for the Rich Have Lower than Average Percentage of High-Income Households in Their Districts

    Last week, 31 House Democrats signed a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in support of extending the Bush tax cuts for all taxpayers, and thus opposing President Obama's proposal to allow the tax cuts to expire for the very rich. New data from Citizens for Tax Justice show that two-thirds of the House Democrats who signed that letter represent districts that have less than the average share of taxpayers rich enough to face higher taxes under President Obama's plan. Further, the claim made in the letter that these very rich taxpayers "are responsible for 25 percent of national consumer spending" is simply incorrect.

    09/21/2010

  • Congress About to Give Away the Farm

    Word on the street is that the Senate is considering including an unlimited farm exclusion from estate tax when it addresses the expiring Bush tax cuts during this work period. This report explains how this provision is not likely to help true family farms as much as extremely wealthy families who want to shelter their assets from the estate tax.

    09/21/2010

  • Republican Approach to Extending the Bush Tax Cuts Would Result in Huge Break for Richest 1% and Higher Taxes for Middle Class, Compared to Obama's Approach

    With both the Bush tax cuts and President Obama's expansions of certain parts of those cuts set to expire at the end of 2010, the decisions Congress makes in the coming weeks will have very different effects on taxpayers at different income levels, according to a new report from Citizens for Tax Justice. The report shows that low- and middle-income taxpayers will pay higher taxes under the Republican approach than under President Obama's approach. It also shows that the richest taxpayers will pay far less under the Republican approach than under President Obama's approach.

    09/17/2010

  • Myths and Facts about Tax Cuts

    Here are some of the myths you may have heard during the debate over tax cuts, as well as the facts.

    09/10/2010

  • CTJ's Online Tax Calculator

    Use CTJ's online tax calculator to find out what tax cut you would receive under different tax proposals. Unless you are among the richest 2 percent of taxpayers, you will find that President Obama's tax proposal would benefit you as much as, or more than, an extension of all the Bush tax cuts.

    09/01/2010

  • GOP Tax Cut Bill Would Add Almost $7 Trillion to America's National Debt To Further Enrich the Wealthiest

    On April 15, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) introduced (H.R. 5029) "The Economic Freedom Act," with the blessing of the House Republican Study Committee. This report finds that H.R. 5029 would add almost $7 trillion to the national debt over the next ten years, not counting other legislation to make all of the Bush tax cuts permanent (which the sponsors also support). By the second year it's in effect, about 62 percent of the benefits would go to the richest 1 percent of taxpayers, and about three fourths would go to the richest 5 percent.

    08/03/2010

  • Allowing the Bush Dividends Tax Cut to Expire for the Richest 2% Will Not Harm Seniors

    Only seniors who are among the richest two percent of taxpayers would lose any of their dividend tax cuts under proposals being discussed. Arguments that corporations would reduce dividend payments in response are not credible because two-thirds of dividends are paid to tax-exempt entities.

    07/22/2010

  • Offshore Drilling and Taxes: Gulf Oil Spill Highlights Problems with the U.S. International Tax System

    The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig has focused the world's attention on the environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. It also reminds us of another disaster -- the U.S. international tax system.

    07/19/2010

  • Holtz-Eakin Peddles Myths about the Bush Tax Cuts

    On July 14, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, chief economic adviser for John McCain's presidential campaign and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, gave written and oral testimony to the Senate Finance Committee concerning the Bush tax cuts. To make his case, Holtz-Eakin endorsed several myths about the Bush tax cuts.

    07/16/2010

  • What Oil and Gas Companies Extract -- from the American Public

    In the wake of the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the public and the media have turned their attention to some of the subsidies provided through the tax code to BP, the corporation that leased the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon drilling platform. This report describes the biggest tax subsidies enjoyed by oil and gas companies and explains that these subsidies do nothing to encourage energy independence or cleaner energy.

    07/09/2010

  • Watch CTJ Director Bob McIntyre Testify Before the Fiscal Commission

    CTJ Director Bob McIntyre recently testified before the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. The testimony discusses income tax reform as a means of raising revenue.

    07/02/2010

  • Peter G. Peterson Institute's Misguided Defense of Offshore Tax Loopholes

    The Peter G. Peterson Institute has come out against provisions in H.R. 4213 that would prevent multinational corporations from abusing foreign tax credits. The two-page complaint written by Peterson's Gary Hufbauer and Theodore Moran attempts to defend practices by corporations that are indefensible.

    06/17/2010

  • Closing the "John Edwards" Loophole Helps, Not Hurts, Small Business

    The tax extenders bill (H.R. 4213) currently pending in Congress contains a provision to close what is commonly known as the "John Edwards" loophole, which allows some shareholder-employees of "S corporations" to avoid paying the Medicare payroll tax on their earnings.

    06/15/2010

  • Senators Defend "Carried Interest" Loophole for Investment Fund Managers in the Name of the Poor, Minorities, Small Businesses and Cancer Patients!

    Investment fund managers have put forth outlandish arguments in defense of the "carried interest" loophole that allows them to pay taxes at lower rates than their secretaries. These arguments, which are gaining traction among some Senators, should be dismissed.

    06/03/2010

  • Key Provisions in H.R. 4213 Would Prevent Abuse of Foreign Tax Credits

    A recent paper from the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), a lobby for multinational U.S. corporations, unfairly criticizes provisions to end abuses of the foreign tax credit. These provisions, which are included in H.R. 4213, the jobs and "extenders" bill, would make our corporate tax system fairer and more rational.

    05/27/2010

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