Jeff Ernsthausen
Jeff Ernsthausen is a senior data reporter at ProPublica.
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Jeff Ernsthausen is a senior data reporter at ProPublica.
In recent years, he has primarily covered the U.S. tax system. He worked with a team of reporters on “The Secret IRS Files,” which revealed the ways that the ultrawealthy avoid taxes. Before that, he reported on the ways that wealthy developers influenced the Trump-era Opportunity Zones tax break. He also contributed to ProPublica’s coverage of debt collection, evictions and bailouts during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to joining ProPublica, he worked on the investigative team at The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, looking into topics such as sexual abuse by physicians nationwide, police misconduct in Georgia and evictions in metro Atlanta. Before his career in journalism, he studied history and economics and worked as a financial and economic analyst at the Federal Reserve.
He has won numerous awards, including the Selden Ring, two Scripps Howard awards and several awards from Investigative Reporters and Editors, including the Philip Meyer Award for data journalism.
These Real Estate and Oil Tycoons Avoided Paying Taxes for Years
Donald Trump and other ultrarich Americans have earned billions, but they’ve also managed to repeatedly avoid paying any federal income tax by claiming huge losses on their businesses.
These Billionaires Received Taxpayer-Funded Stimulus Checks During the Pandemic
IRS records reveal that 18 billionaires and some 250 other ultrawealthy people received aid intended to help middle-class Americans.
More Than Half of America’s 100 Richest People Exploit Special Trusts to Avoid Estate Taxes
Secret IRS records show billionaires use trusts that let them pass fortunes to their heirs without paying estate tax. Will Congress end a tax shelter that has cost the Treasury untold billions?
Democratic Senators Call for Investigation of Tax Avoidance by the Ultrawealthy
Calling ProPublica’s Secret IRS Files series a “bombshell,” Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Sheldon Whitehouse demanded an investigation into how the rich use “legal tax loopholes to avoid paying their fair share of income taxes.”
Leading Manhattan DA Candidate Has Repeatedly Paid Virtually No Federal Income Taxes
Tali Farhadian Weinstein, who donated $8 million to her own campaign, and her hedge fund manager husband paid nothing (or almost nothing) to the IRS four times in six years.
The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax
ProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing.
How We Calculated the True Tax Rates of the Wealthiest
ProPublica started with a trove of private tax data — then analyzed those records, along with sources ranging from Forbes’ list of billionaires to publicly available information from the IRS, the Federal Reserve and more.
You May Be Paying a Higher Tax Rate Than a Billionaire
A new ProPublica analysis of a trove of IRS documents revealed that the richest 25 Americans pay a tiny fraction of their wealth in taxes. But even if you use the most conventional yardstick — income — the wealthiest still pay low rates.
The Trump Administration Allowed Aviation Companies to Take Bailout Funds and Lay Off Workers, Says House Report
Instead of using bailout money to keep workers, at least two companies restored the full pay of their top management.
Debt Collectors Have Made a Fortune This Year. Now They’re Coming for More.
After a pause for the pandemic, debt buyers are back in the courts, suing debtors by the thousands.