- Study finds local taxes hit lower wage earners harder, By Patricia Cohen, January 13, 2015, New York Times: “When it comes to the taxes closest to home, the less you earn, the harder you’re hit. That is the conclusion of an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that evaluates the local tax burden in every state, from Washington, labeled the most regressive, to Delaware, ranked as the fairest of them all. According to the study, in 2015 the poorest fifth of Americans will pay on average 10.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes, the middle fifth will pay 9.4 percent and the top 1 percent will average 5.4 percent…”
- Are local taxes unfair to the poor?, By Aimee Picchi, January 14, 2015, CBS News: “When it comes to state taxes, the rule of thumb is often topsy-turvy: The less you earn, the more you pay. That’s the conclusion from a new analysis of local taxes from the nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a nonpartisan research firm that studies tax issues. The organization’s findings won’t do much to make middle- and low-income workers feel good about their state and local tax burdens. The poorest 20 percent of Americans pay an average effective state and local tax rate of 10.9 percent. By comparison, the top 1 percent of Americans have an effective local tax burden of 5.4 percent…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty