Author: tarek

The latest monthly statement by the Treasury Department contains a startling revelation: the amount that Treasury expects to collect in corporate taxes in 2012 has been slashed by more than 28 percent, from $333 down to $237 billion.

With such a dramatic revision, one might expect that lagging corporate profits or a sudden economic disruption is to blame. In reality however, corporate tax revenue continues to limp in spite of the fact that corporate profits have rebounded to record highs.

If corporate profits are not behind this $96 billion drop in expected corporate tax revenue, then what is?

The Wall Street Journal’s David Reilly suspects that there are two critical drivers: the offshoring of more profits through overseas entities by multi-national corporations; and the continuation of extravagant corporate tax breaks for accelerated depreciation of assets like equipment. Last month, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) came to the same basic conclusion, explaining that corporate tax breaks and loopholes played an important role in driving the corporate tax rate to a 40 year low in 2011.

In order to prevent the continued decline of the corporate tax, Congress and the President should enact revenue-positive corporate tax reform, rather than their current revenue-neutral approach. Right now, political leaders of all stripes are proposing merely to eliminate some tax breaks but continue or even expand others and possibly reduce the statutory rate. With the federal deficit growing every day, asking profitable U.S. companies to pay something closer to the statutory tax rate is a reasonable (not to mention popular) approach.

Chart from is from the Wall Street article “U.S. Tax Haul Trails Profit Surge“

North Carolina’s two major newspapers, the Raleigh News and Observer and Charlotte Observer, published editorials in support of the state’s estate tax in the wake of a hearing last week called to eliminate it.  From the News and Observer: “The estate tax is hardly a burden on those few inheritors who have to pay it. It is a modest but valuable asset to government revenue, and there is nothing unfair about [it].”  And, from the Charlotte Observer: “Some Republicans support abolishing the federal estate tax. They should explain why the extremely wealthy should be able to avoid paying any taxes on unrealized capital gains.”

Washington State’s special legislative session started yesterday. The media is reporting that the session will be a contentious battle over how the state should close its $1 billion budget gap. (Hint: the answer’s in the Washington State Budget and Policy Center’s proposal to tax capital gains income. )

An article from The Miami Herald reveals some ugly details surrounding the $2.5 billion in business tax cuts just passed by the Florida legislature.  As the Herald points out, “those benefiting had plenty of lobbyists … AT&T, which has 74 Florida lobbyists, spent $1.68 million on lobbying last year, more than any other company.”  Not coincidentally, AT&T and Verizon – both champion tax dodgers – were among the biggest winners.  A last-minute amendment to the legislation could give the telecommunications industry a tax break as large as $300 million.

A great op-ed in the Kansas City Star asks why Governor Brownback wants taxes in Kansas to be like Texas, reminding Kansans that Texas ranks low in everything that really matters, from high school graduation rates to household income to crime.

Dolly Parton’s Dollywood Co. and Gaylord Entertainment Co. have struck a deal with Nashville, Tennessee Mayor Karl Dean that, if approved, would result in an estimated $5.4 million in property tax breaks for their planned water and snow park.  Ben Cunningham of the Nashville Tea Party was right to point out that the plan amounts to a “giveaway” to companies that plan to move to the city anyway and that it’s time to stop “giving in to this kind of corporate extortion.”

Photo of Dolly Parton via Eva Rinaldi Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0

Acknowledging he will likely “face accusations of engaging in class warfare,” Rhode Island Representative Scott Guthrie called on wealthy Ocean Staters to pay more in taxes this week to help close the state’s budget gap.

From the Representative’s press release:

“As the state budget deficit continues to loom large, for yet another year, one phrase continues to remain popular from elected officials – shared sacrifice,” said Representative Guthrie. “Well, I see municipalities sacrificing, as well as many of the residents of those communities. I see sacrifices from the poorest and neediest in Rhode Island, the results of continued trimming in the social services funding. What I don’t see is sacrifice from the wealthiest members of our society who could most easily afford to give a little more to help their many neighbors and fellow citizens who are suffering.

““Trickle down doesn’t work. We’ve tried it for years and all the benefits continue to trickle up.  We need a shift back to a more fair tax policy.”

Representative Guthrie filed four different bills offering four different scenarios for raising revenue. Each of them would add a fourth, temporary bracket to the state’s personal income tax and introduce a different marginal rate on income above different thresholds.  That is, the new one or two percent tax bracket would not apply to all income, only that income above either $250,000 or $500,000, depending on the proposal.

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) analyzed the representative’s proposals at the request of the Economic Progress Institute.  The two bills that increase the top marginal rate for taxpayers with taxable income greater than $250,000 would impact less than 2 percent of taxpayers.  The bills that increase the top marginal rate for taxpayers with taxable income greater than $500,000 would impact less than 1 percent of taxpayers. 

Representative Guthrie says that his proposals could bring in anywhere between $37.9 and $144 million in revenues for the two year period they are in effect, depending on which is implemented, or $20 to $70 million per year. His plans are outlined here.

• Rising gas prices are making some politicians in Maryland, Michigan, and Iowa back away from courageous proposals to raise their states’ long stagnant gas tax rates.  Rather than lose momentum, lawmakers can enact legislation now that will implement a gas tax rate increase when prices begin to come down.
• The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) testified this week in front of Alaska’s Senate State Affairs Committee Regarding the Alaska Tax Break Transparency Act. The bill would mandate the state develop a tax expenditure report which would detail the tax breaks the state provides, along with the cost of each to taxpayers. Forty-five other states currently produce these reports which can ultimately help the public have a say in government spending.
• Following up on our earlier post about New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez’s opportunity to sign legislation instituting combined reporting, the Governor vetoed SB9. Supporters of the bill designed it as a first step in reforming the state’s corporate tax laws and leveling the playing field for small, in-state business.
• An Illinois Senate committee recently approved a new tax on strip clubs to help fund sexual assault prevention programs. This is the same state considering taxing ammunition to pay for medical trauma centers. Illinois has a history of bad budget gimmicks that are largely responsible for its current $9 billion deficit.

New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez has to decide Wednesday how to respond to mounting public pressure (including 5,000 signatures) to support a new corporate fair tax bill.  Supported by small business, it enacts combined reporting, which requires out-of-state companies to pay taxes on in-state profits, along with a slight drop in the corporate income tax for most profitable companies.  In the meantime, proponents remain committed and organized, check out http://ohsusana.org/.

The details of South Carolina House Republican tax proposals read like a How-Not-To guide for making the state’s tax structure more fair and equitable. Lawmakers there are proposing to eliminate the state’s corporate income tax, provide targeted tax breaks to manufacturers, lower taxes on business owners, and more.  But when is a plan crafted behind closed doors ever in the public’s interest?

Income tax cuts paid for by a new tax on fracking for natural gas may be on the horizon in Ohio. Governor Kasich took the notorious no-new-tax pledge and will likely have to defend his new fracking tax against the anti-tax crowd, while progressives would probably support a new tax on a lucrative (if controversial) industry but not the personal income tax cut. Kasich’s plan is a political hybrid and worth watching as fracking for gas becomes an issue in more states.

Our crystal ball predicts a refreshing battle in Maryland over tax increases in the coming weeks. Governor O’Malley, Senate leadership, and House leadership all recently unveiled their own proposals to raise taxes. The Governor proposed raising taxes on better-off taxpayers by reducing deductions and exemptions, and by increasing the gas tax.  The competing Senate plan would increase income taxes on nearly every Marylander, while the House plan would raise taxes on only the wealthiest taxpayers. Lawmakers in the Old Line State should be applauded for confronting these important issues and putting tax increases on the table rather than taking a cuts-only approach to the state’s $1 billion deficit.

Because legislators said it went too far, Nebraska’s Governor Heineman is revising his initial tax plan in cooperation with a the chair of the senate’s revenue committee. The compromise being developed by the Governor and Senator Abbie Cornett changes the governor’s original proposal in two positive ways: it preserves the state’s inheritance tax and it holds steady the corporate income tax rate.  The compromise plan, set for debate this week, still leaves in place income tax cuts that barely help those who need them most.

Photos of Governor Susana Martinwz and Governor Martin O’Malley via Albuquerque Public Schools and Third Way Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0

Recently, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor issued a report that found the cost of the corporate income and franchise tax credits for the state was a staggering $3 billion between 2005 and 2010. The total tax liability during that same time was just $5.4 billion, which means the state lost over half of its potential revenues because of these credits, but no one can show how the state benefitted.  In 2009, in fact, those credits were worth $685 million, which is about 78 percent of all taxes owed by businesses that year.  When 14 separate agencies are giving away three quarters of the state’s business tax revenue in a year and no one can say why, it’s a problem.

Not surprisingly, the Auditor recommends better monitoring of these costly incentives to determine if they are effective. Here’s a primer on why and how to measure business tax breaks’ impact. Because, when states do bother to track the economic effects of so-called incentives, they find the business lobby’s promise may not be fulfilled.

The Louisiana report goes on: “If the legislature is interested in the return on investment for the state’s tax credits and other exemptions, the legislature may wish to consider adding this [monitoring] requirement to state law and requiring the appropriate state entities to formally track and report this information.”

We suggest that the legislature do more than just consider increased monitoring and tracking and instead put those mechanisms in place immediately. Taxpayers have a right to know if their tax dollars are being spent effectively. As the Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera said of the current system, “It is not good business practice. You’d think we’d be monitoring those funds as best we can.”

You’d think. In fact, Louisiana is one of the states in our Corporate Tax Dodging in the Fifty States report that has failed to enact a single one of six basic business tax reforms and is failing on key transparency measures that would make it easier for ordinary taxpayers to know the ways in which they are subsidizing corporations.

General Electric Cites its “Deferred” (Not Yet Paid) Taxes and Taxes Paid to Foreign Governments, Offers No Evidence It Paid More in U.S. Corporate Income Taxes

In response to CTJ’s recent finding that GE had an effective federal corporate income tax rate of just 2.3 percent over ten years, GE’s press office issued a short statement designed to divert attention from its tax-avoiding ways. GE has nothing to say to contradict the figures we cite from its own annual reports.

A short report from CTJ responds to each of GE’s claims and provides all of the numbers used to calculate GE’s ten-year corporate income tax rate of 2.3 percent.

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) testified this week in favor of a bill that would reinstate Maryland’s recently expired “millionaires’ tax.”  As ITEP explains in its testimony, the millionaires’ tax would make the state’s regressive tax system slightly less unfair.  And despite predictable claims from the anti-tax crowd, there’s no reason to think that the tax would harm the state’s economy.

Confirming our fears, it looks like Idaho lawmakers’ plan to cut taxes for the wealthiest and businesses in Idaho is moving forward. Legislation to reduce the top income tax rate passed out of the House Revenue and Taxation Committee.  In more bad Idaho news, it will not be joining the ranks of states with an Amazon tax this year as the bill failed to gain enough support.

It’s only March, yet Sales Tax Holiday season is already rearing its head. Alabama Governor Robert Bentley supports a “storm gear” holiday in advance of tornado season.  Lawmakers in Georgia are combining a sales tax holiday (bad idea) with a proposal to require online retailers to start collecting sales taxes from Peach State e-shoppers (good idea) in an effort “to kill any talk that a tax increase is afoot.”  And, Florida House members have already approved another year of a back to school tax holiday planned for August. 

ITEP’s Who Pays study was cited in an Associated Press article about heroic efforts to start taxing capital gains and other reforms in Washington State.  Because Washington has no personal or corporate income tax, and instead relies heavily on sales taxes, it has the most regressive tax system in the country.  At a press conference this week in support of the capital gains tax, Rep. Laurie Jinkins said, “Our fundamental problem in this state, in terms of revenue long term, has to do with fairness, adequacy of resources and stability of the resources that we bring into this state.”

After CTJ released its report last week criticizing the President’s corporate tax reform “framework” for not raising revenue and leaving key questions unanswered, CTJ staff spent a couple days speaking out about the framework.

Bob McIntyre, CTJ’s director, explained on Reuters TV why corporate tax reform is needed, how GE, Google and other companies get unwarranted breaks and why the President needs a better plan.

Rebecca Wilkins, CTJ’s Senior Counsel for federal tax policy, spoke on C-SPAN about the President’s framework and the need for real reform. Wilkins said that “the administration is leaving a lot of money on the table, and we think there’s a lot of room to raise revenue from corporate tax reform.”

Steve Wamhoff, CTJ’s Legislative Director, wrote in U.S. News and World Report’s “Debate Club” that the President’s framework “does not include what should be the main goal of reform—raising revenue to fund public investments and address the budget deficit.”