Citizens for Tax Justice

Citizens for Tax Justice
Name	Citizens for Tax Justice
Formation	1979
Type	Research and advocacy group
Headquarters	Washington, D.C.
Leader title	President
Leader name	Robert McIntyre (founder)

Citizens for Tax Justice is a Washington, D.C.-based research and advocacy organization focused on tax policy, fiscal equity, and budget analysis. Founded in 1979, the group has engaged with legislators, media outlets, and policy networks to influence debates over federal taxation, corporate taxation, and budget priorities. It operates alongside a constellation of think tanks, advocacy groups, and congressional staff offices that shape United States tax policymaking.

History

The organization was founded in 1979 by Robert McIntyre after work at Citizens for a Sound Economy and connections with activists linked to Americans for Democratic Action, AFL–CIO, and progressive policy networks. In the 1980s the group produced tax analyses that entered public debate during the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, interacting with congressional committees such as the United States House Committee on Ways and Means and the United States Senate Committee on Finance. During the 1990s and 2000s its reports were cited by staffers from offices of Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid, and budget officials in the Clinton administration and Obama administration. The organization has collaborated or competed with research institutions including the Tax Foundation, Brookings Institution, Heritage Foundation, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, and Urban Institute.

Mission and Activities

The stated mission centers on promoting tax fairness in federal policy debates, advancing analyses relevant to legislative proposals such as the Tax Reform Act of 1986, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, and routine appropriations and budget reconciliation processes. Activities include quantitative modeling of tax proposals, briefing members of Congress and staff from offices like Senate Minority Leader offices, providing testimony to committees such as Joint Committee on Taxation, and engaging with media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and broadcast networks during major policy fights. The group also files tax policy briefs that intersect with litigation before courts including the United States Court of Appeals and informs executive branch rulemaking by agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service.

Research and Publications

Research outputs have included distributional tables, effective tax rate analyses, and corporate tax incidence studies that reference datasets maintained by the Internal Revenue Service, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Office of Management and Budget. Publications have targeted debates over corporate inversions involving companies like ExxonMobil, Pfizer, and Microsoft, and have produced estimates relevant to debates over deductions, credits, and the Alternative Minimum Tax. Reports have been cited by scholars affiliated with Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and policy journals such as The American Prospect and Tax Notes. The group’s analyses often employ microsimulation models similar to those used by the Brookings Institution and Urban Institute for distributional impact assessment.

Advocacy and Policy Influence

Through testimony, press campaigns, and coalition work with groups such as Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Public Citizen, MoveOn.org, Americans for Tax Fairness, and labor federations like Service Employees International Union, the organization has sought to shape legislative outcomes on major tax measures including Tax Reform Act of 1986, Affordable Care Act, and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. It has influenced debates over corporate tax rates, offshore profit shifting, and tax expenditures during deliberations in the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate, and engaged with international institutions such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in discussions about base erosion and profit shifting. Staff have briefed presidential transition teams and participated in coalitions that submit comments during rulemaking at the Internal Revenue Service.

Funding and Organization

The organization is structured as a nonprofit research and advocacy entity and has received funding from foundations, individual donors, and philanthropic networks including grantmakers that operate in the same space as Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Sandler Foundation, and other civic funders. It has maintained partnerships with allied policy shops and grassroots groups such as Center for American Progress, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Sierra Club on intersecting fiscal and regulatory campaigns. Leadership over time has included policy directors and economists who previously worked at institutions like Congressional Budget Office, Department of the Treasury, and university fiscal centers.

Criticism and Controversies

Critiques have come from conservative and libertarian commentators and institutions such as Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, and Tax Foundation challenging methodology, assumptions about behavioral responses, and partisan framing. Industry groups including the United States Chamber of Commerce and corporate tax departments at firms like General Electric and Apple Inc. have disputed the group’s corporate tax incidence estimates, while some academic researchers at Stanford University and University of Chicago have debated microsimulation assumptions. Controversies have also surfaced in media exchanges with editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal and opinion columns in National Review over the political implications of its analyses.

Category:Organizations established in 1979 Category:Tax policy organizations in the United States