New Posts

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

read in full
Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

read in full
Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

read in full
Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

  UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

read in full
more news

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax returns with the highest reported income in 2013. The media widely reported the surprising news that these highest-income taxpayers saw their average tax rate jump to 22.9 percent in 2013, up from 16.7 percent in 2012.

read in full

New Report: CEO Stock(ing) Stuffers

10 companies shaved $182 million off their taxes, thanks to 20-year-old 'performance pay' loophole

read in full

The Tax-Dodging Marriage of Viagra and Botox

Throughout the fall, Pfizer, the maker of Viagra, has been courting Allergan, the manufacturer of Botox. Pfizer was not attracted by Allergan's wrinkle-free face or full lips, but by its Irish citizenship.

read in full

What the GOP’s Putting Under Corporate America’s Tree

This year-end tax package is a grab bag of gifts for corporations and a lump of coal for working families.

read in full

Treasury and IRS Make Inversions More Difficult

The Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) acted last week to make corporate inversions more difficult for companies looking to swap their American address for a lower tax rate.

Corporate inversions allow U.S. corporations to register as a foreign corporation in order to lower the taxes they owe. But the transaction occurs largely on paper— meaning the location of many of a company’s employees, the markets the company serves, and the products themselves are unlikely to change significantly.

read in full

Report: US Ranks as Third for Financial Secrecy

The Tax Justice Network has released the largest ever survey of global financial secrecy. The United States ranks third—only Switzerland (#1) and Hong Kong (#2) pose larger threats to financial transparency efforts, according to the index.

read in full

Of, By, and For the People: Pro-Democracy Victories

Voters in Maine, Ohio, and Seattle approved statewide pro-democracy ballot initiatives last week. The successes of these ballot initiatives echo an increasing public interest in the negative role big money and influence can play in politics across the country.

Each state’s initiative took a different approach to protecting our democracy.

read in full

Warren Bill Would Give Seniors a Raise; the SAVE Benefits Act Takes a Stand Against Inequality

Roughly two-thirds of seniors rely on Social Security for more than half of their income. In stark contrast, a new report we co-published last week with the Institute for Policy Studies found that the 100 largest CEO retirement accounts contain $4.9 billion—more than 41 percent of Americans families have saved for retirement, combined.

read in full

The Deal’s Done: What’s in the Budget Agreement

Early this morning, the Senate passed a two-year budget deal, that President Obama is expected to sign soon.  It would:

read in full

Report: 100 CEOs have as much in retirement assets as 41% of American families

A just-released report by the Center for Effective Government and the Institute for Policy Studies,A Tale of Two Retirements, is the first to provide detailed statistics on the staggering gap between the retirement assets of Fortune 500 CEOs and the rest of America.

read in full

Pages

Resources & Research

Living in the Shadow of Danger: Poverty, Race, and Unequal Chemical Facility Hazards

People of color and people living in poverty, especially poor children of color, are significantly more likely...

read in full

A Tale of Two Retirements: One for CEOs and One for the Rest of Us

The 100 largest CEO retirement funds are worth a combined $4.9 billion, equal to the entire retirement account savings of 41 percent of American fam...

read in full
more resources