Recent Reports

• Facebook's Multi-Billion Dollar Tax Break: Executive-Pay Tax Break Slashes Income Taxes on Facebook-- and Other Fortune 500 Companies

  Earlier this month, the Facebook Inc. released its first "10-K" annual financial report since going public last year. Hidden in the report's footnotes is an amazing admission: despite $1.1 billion in U.S. profits in 2012, Facebook did not pay even a dime in federal or state income taxes.

  02/14/2013

• CTJ's 2013 Tax Calculator

  Citizens for Tax Justice has an online calculator that will tell you what you'd pay in federal taxes in 2013 under three different scenarios.

  02/06/2013

• Derivatives Proposal from Top House Tax-Writer Could Improve Tax Code -- if the Revenue Is Not Used for Rate Cuts

  In recent weeks, Dave Camp of Michigan, the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, released tax proposals related to the complex world of derivatives that would have real benefits -- if Camp was not proposing to use all the resulting revenue savings to offset cuts in tax rates. Congress instead should consider enacting these proposals and using the revenue to protect and preserve programs like Medicare that are increasingly targeted for self-destructive cuts.

  02/04/2013

• Working Paper on Tax Reform Options

  End Tax Sheltering of Investment Income and Corporate Profits and Limit Tax Breaks for the Wealthy: There are at least three major categories of tax reforms Congress could pursue to raise revenue. They include ending tax breaks and loopholes that allow wealthy individuals to shield their investment income from taxation, and ending breaks and loopholes that allow large, profitable corporations to shift their profits offshore to avoid U.S. taxes, and limiting the ability of wealthy individuals to use itemized deductions and exclusions to lower their taxes.

  02/04/2013

• Congressional Research Service Finds Evidence of Massive Tax Avoidance by U.S. Corporations Using Tax Havens

  A new report from the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) finds that U.S. corporations report a huge share of their profits as officially earned in small, low-tax countries where they have very little investment and workforce while reporting a much smaller percentage of their profits in larger, industrial countries where they actually have massive investments and workforces.

  01/25/2013

• How Many People in Each State Pay More in Taxes after the Fiscal Cliff Deal?

  The expiration of parts of the Bush-era income tax cuts under the fiscal cliff deal affects just under one percent of taxpayers this year, while the expiration of the payroll tax cut affects over three-fourths of taxpayers this year.

  01/17/2013

• Provisions of the Fiscal Cliff Deal

  The fiscal cliff deal (the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012) makes permanent nearly all of the Bush tax cuts and extends many of the tax provisions from the 2009 economic recovery act. In fact, the only major provision of the tax breaks in effect in 2012 that was allowed to expire entirely was the 2 percent payroll tax holiday. This table explains the income and estate tax provisions in the major proposals and final deal that became law.

  01/10/2013

• Revenue Impacts of the Fiscal Cliff Deal

  While the White House and members of Congress have described the fiscal cliff deal as raising $620 billion in revenue, the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), the official revenue estimator for Congress, has projected that it will actually reduce revenue by $3.9 trillion over a decade. The widely-used $620 billion figure is calculated by comparing the bill's provisions making permanent most of the Bush-era tax cuts to a proposal for making permanent all the Bush-era tax cuts. As explained below, the revenue "savings" is likely to be offset by the business tax cuts that are also included in the bill and which are now likely to be extended over and over throughout the decade and beyond.

  01/03/2013

• Poorest Three-Fifths of Americans Get Just 18% of the Tax Cuts in the Fiscal Cliff Deal

  The fiscal cliff deal approved by the Senate and House on New Year's Day cuts taxes substantially compared to the tax policies that would be in effect if Congress had allowed all temporary tax cuts to expire. The deal cuts taxes even for the richest Americans but directs only a fraction of the overall tax cuts to low- and middle-income Americans.

  01/03/2013

• The Biden-McConnell Tax Deal Would Save Less than Half as Much Revenue as President Obama's Original Tax Proposal

  The tax deal negotiated between Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and approved by the Senate early on January 1 would save less than half as much revenue as President's Obama's original proposal.

  01/01/2013

• Comparing Speaker Boehner's "Plan B" Tax Proposal and President Obama's Latest Proposal

  The "Plan B" tax proposal that House Speaker John Boehner plans to put to a vote in the House of Representatives would allow the richest one percent of Americans to pay $36,000 less in federal income taxes, on average, than they would pay under President Obama's most recent proposal. Under Plan B, the poorest three-fifths of Americans would pay more in federal income taxes, on average, than they would pay under the President's latest plan.

  12/20/2012

• Fortune 500 Corporations Holding $1.6 Trillion in Profits Offshore

  Among the Fortune 500 corporations, 290 have revealed that they, collectively, held nearly $1.6 trillion in profits outside the United States at the end of 2011. This is one indication of how much they might benefit from a so-called "territorial" tax system, which would permanently exempt these offshore profits from U.S. taxes. Just 20 of the corporations -- including household names like GE, Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Coca-Cola and Goldman Sachs -- held $794 billion offshore, half of the total.

  12/13/2012

• Reforming Tax Breaks Is Not a Substitute for Higher Tax Rates: Both Are Necessary to Raise Adequate Revenue

  The revenue goals set out by President Obama are alarmingly low, but unfortunately most proposals circulating around Washington today would fall far short of them. The $1.6 trillion of revenue that the President proposes to save over the next decade depends on allowing the Bush-era reductions in tax rates to expire for high levels of income and limiting deductions and other breaks. Doing one or the other will not raise enough revenue.

  11/30/2012

• Making Work Pay Credit More Effective and Affordable than Other Types of Tax Cuts

  The Making Work Pay Credit, a tax credit that was in effect in 2009 and 2010, is better targeted towards low- and middle-income families than the payroll tax cut in effect today, at half the cost. It is dramatically more targeted to these families than the Bush tax cuts, at just over a sixth of the cost. Prominent Washington figures and media outlets have suggested in recent days that either the payroll tax cut might be extended or the Making Work Pay Credit might be revived.

  11/02/2012

• Romney's Latest Proposal to Pay for His Tax Cuts Would Offset Only a Fraction of Their Costs: National & State-by-State Figures

  Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has proposed to make permanent the Bush tax cuts without offsetting the costs and also enact new, additional tax cuts that would be paid for by limiting tax expenditures (special breaks or loopholes in the tax code). Romney recently suggested that his new tax cuts could be paid for by limiting itemized deductions to $25,000 per tax return, which we estimate would offset just 36 percent of their costs. The percentage of Romney's new tax cuts offset by this limit on itemized deductions would vary dramatically by state.

  10/24/2012

• Which Fortune 500 Companies Are Sheltering Income in Overseas Tax Havens?

  Ten corporations admit paying little tax on offshore income, and more likely do the same. Our analysis shows that ten corporations, representing over a sixth of the $1.5 trillion in unrepatriated profits, have paid little or no tax on these profits to any government. That implies that these profits have been artificially shifted out of the United States and other countries where the companies actually do business, and into foreign tax havens.

  10/17/2012

• Tax Questions and Tax Facts for the Presidential Candidates

  As President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney face off in their first debate, a number of big-picture questions about tax policy remain unanswered by either candidate.

  10/03/2012

• Ending the Capital Gains Tax Preference would Improve Fairness, Raise Revenue and Simplify the Tax Code

  The tax break that allows Warren Buffett, Mitt Romney and other extremely wealthy Americans to pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than many middle-income people is the special low income tax rate for capital gains, which are the profits made from selling assets for more than they cost to purchase. This tax break was made more generous and expanded to apply to stock dividends as part of the Bush tax cuts. This report explains that the capital gains break mainly benefits the richest one percent of Americans, reduces revenue by hundreds of billions of dollars each decade, gives rise to tax shelters and makes our tax code overly complicated.

  09/20/2012

• Despite Claim of High Tax Rate, Continental Resources Paid Just 2.2% of Its Profits in Federal Income Taxes over the Past 5 Years

  Continental Resources, an American oil company that is particularly active in North Dakota and Montana, has enjoyed pre-tax U.S. profits of $1,872 million over the past five years, but paid a mere $40 million in federal corporate income taxes over that same period. Continental Resources has enjoyed an effective federal corporate income tax rate of just 2.2 percent over the past five years.

  09/13/2012

• The Role of Revenue in Addressing America's Economic and Fiscal Issues: Testimony Before the Congressional Progressive Caucus

  Testifying before the Congressional Progressive Caucus, CTJ's legislative director explains why tax cuts are an ineffective tool to stimulate the economy and are making deficit-reduction impossible. The testimony also explains why our tax system should be made more progressive.

  09/12/2012