Taxes

Democrat's New Taxes Wouldn't Hit Just Billionaires

By Michael Rainey

Some Democratic tax proposals are focused on making millionaires and billionaires pay more, but other households would be affected as well. Neil Irwin of The New York Times points out Tuesday that...
An Easy Way to Get $1 Trillion More in Tax Revenue?

By Michael Rainey

The first step in reforming the U.S. tax system doesn’t involve raising rates or eliminating deductions, say former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and Penn Law professor Natasha Sarin. Instead,...
FedEx Battles New York Times Over Trump’s Tax Cuts

By Michael Rainey

The New York Times published a piece Saturday highlighting the huge windfall FedEx received from the 2017 GOP tax cuts — and the company’s CEO isn’t happy with the analysis. According to the Times,...
Tax Break for Poor Neighborhoods Is Helping Build a Superyacht Marina

By Michael Rainey

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act created special “opportunity zones” that give investors generous tax breaks in exchange for investing in low-income neighborhoods. The purpose of the tax law is “to...
Elizabeth Warren Escalates Her Battle With Billionaires

By Michael Rainey

Elizabeth Warren’s proposed wealth tax has ruffled quite a few feathers among America’s billionaire class, and her rhetorical battle with the superrich entered a new phase Wednesday when investor...

Trump Eyes New Middle-Class Tax Cut – and a Massive Break for the Rich

By Yuval Rosenberg

President Trump’s economic advisers are considering whether he should make the promise of a middle-class tax cut a central element of his reelection campaign, according to various reports. The...
Elizabeth Warren Says Americans Will Spend $11 Trillion on Health Care. Is That True?

By Michael Rainey

Elizabeth Warren says that Americans will spend “about $11 trillion on insurance premiums, copays, deductibles and uncovered medical expenses” over the next 10 years if the current health care system...
Mark Sanford Ends 2020 Presidential Bid Challenging Trump

By Yuval Rosenberg

Former South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford suspended his longshot presidential bid on Tuesday, 65 days after he announced he would challenge President Trump for the 2020 Republican nomination. A fiscal...
What Warren’s Wealth Tax Would Do to Billionaires

By Michael Rainey

Elizabeth Warren says her wealth tax – 2% on household wealth over $50 million, rising to 6% on household wealth over $1 billion – would raise trillions of dollars to pay for new social programs,...
What Bill Gates Gets Wrong About Wealth Taxes

By Yuval Rosenberg

Elizabeth Warren wasn’t the only one pushing back on Bill Gates’s comments about her wealth tax proposal. The New York Times Editorial Board notes that tax rates were considerably higher when Gates...

Would a Warren/Sanders Wealth Tax Kill the Economy?

By Michael Rainey

As Democratic presidential candidates debate a variety of new social programs, from universal health care to free higher education, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are calling for a wealth tax to...
IRS: Sorry, but It’s Just Easier and Cheaper to Audit the Poor

By Paul Kiel, ProPublica

The IRS audits the working poor at about the same rate as the wealthiest 1% . Now, in response to questions from a U.S. senator, the IRS has acknowledged that’s true but professes it can’t change...
Elizabeth Warren Wants to Tax Corporate Lobbying

By Michael Rainey

Elizabeth Warren released a proposal to tax companies that spend more than $500,000 a year on lobbying the federal government. The goal of the plan is to “end lobbying as we know it,” Warren said in...
Rising Income Inequality Is a Fiscal Risk: Moody’s

By Yuval Rosenberg

Income inequality in the United States last year reached the highest level since the Census Bureau started tracking it more than 50 years ago, even as median household income also reached a nominal...
Judge Rejects State Challenge to SALT Deduction Limit

By Michael Rainey

A lawsuit by four states challenging the cap on state and local tax deductions was dismissed Monday by a federal judge. The states – New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland – claimed that the...