The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) is a non-profit, non-partisan think tank that works on state and federal tax policy issues. ITEP was founded in 1980, and is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. ITEP describes its mission as striving to "keep policymakers and the public informed of the effects of current and proposed tax policies on tax fairness, government budgets and sound economic policy."

Publications

ITEP's flagship publication is its "Who Pays?" report. The report was originally released in 1996, and has since been updated in 2003, 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2018. The 2018 report includes tax changes enacted through September 10, 2018, at 2015 income levels. "Who Pays?" analyzes the distribution, by income level, of state and local taxes in all 50 states, as well as in the District of Columbia. Its main finding is that: "the vast majority of state and local tax systems are fundamentally unfair. An overreliance on consumption taxes and the absence of a progressive personal income tax in many states neutralizes whatever benefits the working poor receive from refundable low-income tax credits." The majority of the data contained in this report is produced using the ITEP Microsimulation Tax Model. Other major reports released by ITEP include "90 Reasons We Need State Corporate Tax Reform", which examines the effective state corporate income tax rates paid by large and profitable companies. "Building a Better Gas Tax" measures the impact of construction cost inflation in preventing most state gasoline taxes from providing a sustainable source of transportation revenue. "A Capital Idea" examines the revenue and fairness implications of state tax breaks for capital gains income, and "Writing Off Tax Giveaways" does the same for

itemized deduction Under United States tax law, itemized deductions are eligible expenses that individual taxpayers can claim on federal income tax returns and which decrease their taxable income, and is claimable in place of a standard deduction, if available. Mos ...

s. ITEP also reports on "Undocumented Immigrants' State and Local Tax Contribution" made by nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants residing currently in the United States. Many of ITEP's reports deal with issues or proposals that are relevant to only a single state – often focusing on proposed tax changes or reforms, for example, "The ITEP Guide to Fair State and Local Taxes". ITEP has released a series of reports criticizing studies by Arthur Laffer about the economic impact of lowering or eliminating state personal income taxes and

estate tax An inheritance tax is a tax paid by a person who inherits money or property of a person who has died, whereas an estate tax is a levy on the estate (money and property) of a person who has died. International tax law distinguishes between an ...

es.

Funders

ITEP lists a number of foundations among its funders, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

, and the

New York Community Trust The New York Community Trust is the community foundation for New York City, with divisions in Westchester and Long Island. It is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the United States and one of the largest funders of New York C ...

. ITEP also accepts individual donations.

Political stance

ITEP's quantitative analyses are utilized by observers from across the political spectrum and by analysts within government. ITEP, as well as the associated Citizens for Tax Justice, has been characterized as liberal.

The ITEP Microsimulation Tax Model

Many of ITEP's analyses rely on the ITEP Microsimulation Tax Model. The ITEP model is a computer program capable of estimating the revenue yield and distribution of federal, state, and local taxes, as well as proposed changes to those taxes. According to ITEP, its model "relies on one of the largest databases of tax returns and supplementary data in existence, encompassing close to three quarters of a million records." Three similar microsimulation models are used by the

Joint Committee on Taxation The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) is a Committee of the U.S. Congress established under the Internal Revenue Code at . Structure The Joint Committee is composed of ten Members: five from the Senate Finance Committee and five from the House W ...

, the

U.S. Treasury Department The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and ...

, and the

Congressional Budget Office The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency within the United States Congress, legislative branch of the United States government that provides budget and economic information to Congress. Ins ...

. The ITEP model, however, stands apart from each of these in that it adds state-by-state estimating capabilities. The Urban-Brookings

Tax Policy Center The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, typically shortened to the Tax Policy Center (TPC), is a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington D.C. A joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, it aims to provide independent ...

and the Tax Foundation have also built their own tax models.

Tax haven research

An ITEP report which attracts worldwide media attention is the ''Offshore Shell Games: The Use of Offshore Tax Havens by Fortune 500 Companies'' report. ITEP jointly fund the report with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group ("PRIG"), Education Fund. The report adopts a purely quantitative approach and calculates the scale of involvement by leading U.S. multinationals with

tax havens A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, o ...

by conducting analysis on their SEC 10-K and 10-Q filings. The latest report was in 2017 and it ranks

by two different type of quantitative calculations, based on 2012-2015 10-K and 10-Q filings: ITEP's ranking of tax havens matches with other academic rankings of tax havens, for example: Note that the above two academic studies example global corporate activity, and not just Fortune 500 Companies. However, as noted in the academic literature, most corporate tax avoidance and

BEPS Base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) refers to corporate tax planning strategies used by multinationals to "shift" profits from higher-tax jurisdictions to lower-tax jurisdictions or no-tax locations where there is little or no economic a ...

strategies are executed by U.S. multinationals ("MNCs"), and the BEPS strategies used by all global MNCs have similarities, thus using similar havens.

ITEP 2017 tax haven list (by quantum of connections)

The ten largest tax havens from the ITEP 2017 report, ranked by the percentage of Fortune 500 Companies with subsidiaries in the tax haven: (*) Identified as one of the largest 10

corporate tax havens Corporate haven, corporate tax haven, or multinational tax haven is used to describe a jurisdiction that multinational corporations find attractive for establishing subsidiaries or incorporation of regional or main company headquarters, mostly du ...

Gabriel Zucman Gabriel Zucman (born 30 October 1986) is a French economist who is currently an associate professor of public policy and economics at the University of California, Berkeley‘s Goldman School of Public Policy. The author of '' The Hidden Wealth o ...

in 2018 (Cayman and the British Virgin Islands appear as ''Caribbean'').
(†) Identified as one of the largest 5 Conduits by CORPNET in 2017.
(‡) Identified as one of the largest 5

Sinks A sink is a bowl-shaped plumbing fixture for washing hands, dishwashing, and other purposes. Sinks have a tap (faucet) that supply hot and cold water and may include a spray feature to be used for faster rinsing. They also include a drain to ...

by CORPNET in 2017.
(Δ) Identified on the first OECD 2000 list of 35 tax havens (the OECD list only contained Trinidad & Tobago by 2017).

ITEP 2017 tax haven list (by quantum of profits)

The ten largest tax havens from the ITEP 2017 report, ranked by the profits booked by Fortune 500 Companies in the tax haven: (*) Identified as one of the largest 10