2019 Priority: End the capital gains tax break

Download this fact sheet as a printable pdf here. Read about the rest of OK Policy’s 2019 Legislative Policy Priorities here. Oklahoma law provides for a 100 percent deduction from state income tax of any gains from the sale of… Read more [More...]

The real cost of the capital gains deduction could be much more than $100 million, but we have good options for reform

Oklahoma’s capital gains deduction is the most expensive tax incentive in the state, according to reports from the Oklahoma Tax Commission. In 2015-2016, this deduction cost $105 million, and it led to an estimated $474 million in forgone tax revenues from 2010… Read more [More...]

Capital gains deduction is an expensive loophole benefiting a small number of Oklahomans (Guest post: Cynthia Rogers, Ph.D)

Cynthia Rogers, PhD, is a professor of economics at the University of Oklahoma and a commissioner on the State of Oklahoma’s Incentive Evaluation Commission. The Capital Gains Tax Deduction allows Oklahoma taxpayers to avoid paying taxes on income from the… Read more [More...]

2018 Policy Priority: End oil and gas tax breaks

See the full list of our 2018 policy priorities. Download this fact sheet as a PDF. Background Oklahoma’s historical tax rate on oil and gas drilling is 7 percent, but a special tax break gives the industry a 2 percent… Read more [More...]

Repeal the capital gains tax break

A tax break that benefits a small number of wealthy taxpayers and costs the state of Oklahoma around $100 million per year cannot “be credibly shown to have significant economic impact or a positive return on investment for the State,”… Read more [More...]

Private school tax subsidy blurs the line between charitable gift and money laundering (Guest post: Carl Davis)

Carl Davis is Research Director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that works on federal, state, and local tax policy issues. When is a charitable contribution not a “donation” at all?  If a taxpayer… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma’s capital gains tax break is a windfall for the wealthiest with no proven benefit for the economy

One of Oklahoma’s largest tax breaks got no attention from legislators last year, despite its questionable legality, its questionable benefit for the economy, and a $1.3 billion budget shortfall that inspired legislators to go after many other tax breaks and… Read more [More...]

New issue brief examines one of the largest business subsidies in Oklahoma

Mark Lash is a retired federal employee who follows Oklahoma policymaking. He has previously written about the Quality Jobs Program for the OK Policy Blog. Download the full report here. According to a New York Times report, state and local… Read more [More...]

We don’t know if the Quality Jobs Program is paying off (Guest post: Mark Lash)

Mark Lash is a retired federal employee who follows Oklahoma policymaking, tries to understand it, and sometime even writes about it. See Mark’s previous post about the Quality Jobs Program here. Oklahoma’s Quality Jobs Program began in 1993 and has… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma makes “Quality Jobs” payment to companies that aren’t creating new jobs (Guest Post: Mark Lash)

Mark Lash is a retired federal employee who follows Oklahoma policymaking, tries to understand it, and sometime even writes about it. Oklahoma’s Quality Jobs Program began in 1993. In fiscal year 2013, it paid incentives of $78.9 million to Oklahoma… Read more [More...]