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Americans for Tax Reform
| Americans for Tax Reform | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Location: | New York |
| Type: | 501(c)(4) |
| Top official: | Grover Norquist, president |
| Founder(s): | Grover Norquist |
| Year founded: | 1985 |
| Website: | Official website |
Americans for Tax Reform is a national grassroots organization focused on tax policy. According to the organization's website, the group advocates for "a system in which taxes are simpler, flatter, more visible, and lower than they are today."[1] The organization is known for their taxpayer pledge, a promise signed by legislators to oppose increased taxes.[2]
Background
Grover Norquist founded Americans for Tax Reform in 1985 to organize grassroots support for President Ronald Reagan's 1986 Tax Reform Act.[3][4] On their website, the organization says it aims to "limit the size and cost of government and opposes higher taxes at the federal, state, and local levels and supports tax reform that moves towards taxing consumed income one time at one rate."[3]
Leadership
As of 2025, the organization's most recently available tax reform listed the following people part of their leadership[5]:
- President: Grover Norquist
- Vice President: Peter Balkin
- Secretary: Karen Kerrigan
- Vice President of Finance: Megan Worley
- Executive Director: Christopher Butler
- Director of State Affairs: Patrick Gleason
- Vice President of Communications John Kartch
- Dir. of International Programs and Affairs: Lorenzo Montari
- Director of State Government Relations: Margaret Mire
- Director of Outreach, Tax & Regulatory Policy: Andreas Hellman
Work and activities
Taxpayer Protection Pledge
Since 1986, ATR has sponsored the "Taxpayer Protection Pledge," a written promise by legislators and candidates for office that commits them to oppose tax increases. As of 2025, the organization's website says 252 individuals have signed the pledge, including 44 Senators, 191 Representatives, and 17 governors.[2] Additionally, their website says that historically, close to "1,400 elected officials, from state representative to governor to US Senator, have signed the Pledge."[1]
Sustainable Budget Project
In 2023, the organization launched the Sustainable Budget Project, which, according to their website, was set up "to monitor how state budgets stack up against a simple, taxpayer-focused standard: limit spending growth to the rate of population growth plus inflation." The project gives an overview of the budgets of the 50 states and determines which states meet the benchmarks set by the project.[6]
Lobbying efforts
Writing to legislators
Americans for Tax Reform, at various times, has written to legislators to try to convince them to support or oppose a piece of legislation. These efforts are sometimes done by the group alone, while other times, it has done so as one of several groups signing on to a letter. Their website has a section with letters they have written to legislators. Click here to see some.
Tennessee HB1367 (2014)
In 2014, Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist said he supported repealing the state's tax on investments. To convince legislators, Norquist sent members of the state House Finance Committee, writing, "The Hall Tax is a form of double taxation that is preventing Tennessee from achieving its full economic potential. HB 1367 would phase out the Hall Tax in a responsible manner, and includes provisions that address concerns about revenues...it’s imperative that lawmakers in Nashville provide relief to taxpayers at the state level, which you can do by supporting HB 1367. Americans for Tax Reform will be educating your constituents as to how their representatives in the state legislature vote on this important matter."[7] Gov. Bill Haslam (R) opposed the bill saying "Philosophically, I would love to do [it]; realistically, you all know our revenue is down this year."[8] The bill was not passed.[9]
Support for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2018
On December 6, 2023, Norquist appeared before the United States House of Representatives to testify in favor of keeping the tax cuts from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2018 in place. In his testimony, Norquist said, "Congress should avoid the creation of new taxes, even if the stated goal is replacing existing taxes. The solution to fighting a tapeworm is never to swallow a second tapeworm in the hope that it will restrict the growth of the first tape worm. That’s just how you end up with multiple tapeworms... The priority of Congress regarding tax policy must be ensuring the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is made permanent."[10]
Opposition to IRS reporting requirements (2021)
Americans for Tax Reform, along with other signatories, wrote a letter to members of Congress opposing new tax reporting rules that would require the "IRS [to] collect the account inflows and outflows for bank, loan, and investment accounts as well as Venmo, CashApp, and PayPal accounts." In the letter, the coalition wrote, "The IRS has a long record of failing to do its job and targeting and harassing taxpayers. This proposed new financial reporting regime would provide another way for the agency to target taxpayers or lead to taxpayer data being leaked or stolen. Lawmakers should stand with taxpayers and reject this proposal."[11]
Notable endorsements
This section displays endorsements this organization made in elections within Ballotpedia's coverage scope.
Affiliations
Americans for Tax Reform is associated with Americans for Tax Reform Foundation, a 501(c)(3) focused on education and research as opposed to direct advocacy. It is legally and financially separate from Americans for Tax Reform.[12]
The organization also operates the Center for Worker Freedom. The project's website says it "supports freedom of association and believes every worker should have the right to decide for themselves whether or not they belong to a labor organization."[13]
Another affiliated project is the Property Rights Alliance. Their website says they are "an advocacy organization dedicated to the protection of innovation, intellectual property rights, and physical property rights around the world."[14][15]
Finances
The following is a breakdown of Americans for Tax Reform's revenues and expenses from 2014 to 2023. The information comes from the Internal Revenue Service:
| Year | Revenue | Expenses |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | $4.7 million | $4.5 million |
| 2015 | $5.0 million | $4.5 million |
| 2016 | $5.7 million | $4.2 million |
| 2017 | $10.1 million | $6.1 million |
| 2018 | $6.9 million | $4.2 million |
| 2019 | $20.8 million | $17.7 million |
| 2020 | $12.3 million | $9.1 million |
| 2021 | $9.2 million | $6.5 million |
| 2022 | $7.1 million | $5.1 million |
| 2023 | $7.8 million | $1.5 million |
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for "Americans+ for + Tax + Reform "
- All stories may not be relevant to this organization due to the nature of the search engine.
See also
This is a conservative influencer. Other active conservative influencers you can read about include:
External links
- Americans for Tax Reform
- Americans for Tax Reform Foundation
- Americans for Tax Reform on LinkedIn
- Social media:
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Americans for Tax Reform, "About," accessed May 15, 2025
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Americans for Tax Reform, "The Pledge Database," accessed May 12, 2025
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Americans for Tax Reform, "About Grover Norquist," accessed October 9, 2020
- ↑ Encyclopedia Britannica, "Tax Reform Act of 1986," accessed May 12, 2025
- ↑ ProPublica, "Nonprofit lookup-Americans for Tax Reform," accessed May 12, 2025
- ↑ Americans for Tax Reform. "The Sustainable Budget Project," accessed May 13, 2025
- ↑ Americans for Tax Reform, "ATR Urges Tennessee Legislators to Support HB 1367," March 7, 2014
- ↑ Politico, "Norquist, Kochs vs. Tennessee GOP," March 20, 2014
- ↑ Tennessee Legislature, "HB1367," accessed May 13, 2025
- ↑ United States House of Representatives, "Testimony of Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform-December 6, 2023," December 6, 2023
- ↑ Americans for Tax Reform, "10-7-21- Coalition Letter Opposed to IRS Financial Reporting Requirement.pdf," October 7, 2021
- ↑ Americans for Tax Reform, "Americans for Tax Reform and Americans for Tax Reform Foundation Statement on PPP Loan," accessed May 12, 2025
- ↑ Center for Worker Freedom, "About," accessed May 13, 2025
- ↑ Property Rights Alliance, "About Property Rights Alliance," accessed May 13, 2025]
- ↑ Property Rights Alliance, "About Property Rights Alliance," accessed May 13, 2025
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