Weekly Digest
On Tuesday, The New York Times revealed Donald Trump’s family engaged in complex schemes to avoid taxes over five decades, some blurring the line between legal avoidance and illegal tax evasion.

“The key takeaway from the New York Times article on Donald Trump’s family’s tax shenanigans is that the wealthy and powerful abide by a different set of rules than the rest of us," said Alan Essig, ITEP executive director. "Not only does the tax system allow the wealthy to take advantage of legal loopholes, it also allows them to blur the line between legal avoidance and illegal tax evasion with little consequence."

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In the 2017 report How True Tax Reform Would Eliminate Breaks for Real Estate Investors Like Donald Trump, ITEP's Steve Wamhoff explains how the U.S. tax code provides loopholes and special breaks for real estate investors, including those Trump took advantage of when he was unable to pay his debts on his Taj Mahal casino and other endeavors. 
A proposed IRS regulation would eliminate a tax shelter for private school donors in 12 states by making a commonsense improvement to the federal tax deduction for charitable gifts.

This article reveals the precise size of each state’s tax shelter. For example, if the IRS fails to act then wealthy Alabama families could walk away with a $17,000 annual profit each and every year, at taxpayer expense, just for filling out some paperwork that moves public dollars into private K-12 schools.
—CARL DAVIS

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
South Carolina lawmakers have finally passed a federal conformity bill in response to last year’s federal tax-cut legislation. Voters in many states are hearing a lot about tax-related questions they’ll see on the ballot in November, particularly residents of Florida, Montana, and Oregon, where corporate donors and other anti-tax interests are spending major sums to alter policy in their states. And states continue to work on ensuring they can collect online sales taxes and, in some states, online sports betting taxes.
—MEG WIEHE
ITEP has developed Tax Cuts 2.0-related resources, including state-by-state analyses, to explain this legislation and its consequences.
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Informing tax policy debate nationwide | itep.org