It’s No Secret Our Tax System Punishes Low-Income People. It Doesn’t Have To.

Oregon taxpayers will become some of the first in the nation to have the option to self-identify their race and ethnicity when they file their tax returns next year.  

The reason is both simple and complex: Especially at the state level, taxes worsen America’s yawning wealth gaps rather than easing them. A growing number of advocates and policymakers are trying to do something about that. 

“By allowing this data to be collected, we can begin to look at how to dismantle the racism intrinsically woven into our tax system, and the race-related distributional impacts,” Creeana Bort, policy and advocacy organizer at the NAYA Action Fund, said in written testimony supporting the Oregon race and ethnicity self-identification bill that passed last year. “We can begin to understand tax policy and how to move forward in creating a tax system that is equitable for all Oregonians.”