|
|
|
Report: Pennsylvania loses $2.1B yearly via tax loopholes
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
Report: Pennsylvania loses $2.1B yearly via tax loopholes
Gov. Tom Corbett's budget proposal may not have included much very good news for people in Pennsylvania, who learned, for example, of his plan for minimal increases to education funding that was cut deep in the past few years. But it did offer plenty to large companies doing business in the commonwealth, including proposed reductions of some corporate taxes and repeals of others.
One thing Corbett's budget didn't address: Closing up tax loopholes. A new report by PennPIRG finds that loopholes allowing for offshore tax dodging cost Pennsylvania $2.1 billion in 2012. Pennsylvania lost the fifth-largest amount in the nation through such tax havens, after California, New York, New Jersey and Illinois. The federal government also loses out on around $150 billion in taxes each year thanks to such tax havens, the report found. Pennsylvania also loses out on taxes from companies registered in Delaware, where lax rules have allowed companies to avoid paying various state taxes totaling $9.5 billion in the last decade, according to a New York Times report.
The state's biggest tax-dodgers, per the report: Comcast, GMAC and Sunoco, which together have 10 subsidiaries registered elsewhere. Incidentally (or not), these are some of the same companies that have benefited from the Pennsylvania's largess, including $25 million for Sunoco's refinery overhaul and expansion, and $60 million-plus for Comcast, including credits, grants and subsidies for building its Center City tower.
Presumably, these loopholes are part of what contribute to Pennsylvania's overall corporate tax rate being among the highest in the nation. Nonetheless, Corbett has an eye to reducing that corporate net-income tax rate starting in 2015, cutting it from 9.99 percent to 6.99 percent over the subsequent 10 years. Corbett also announced that he wants to repeal the corporate loans tax and increase the cap on net operating losses companies can deduct from their taxes, while continuing the planned phase-out of the capital stock and finance tax, to be complete in 2014. Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center points out that these changes will cost Pennsylvania hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
Corbett's anticipated increase in revenue, projected at 1.5 percent for the coming fiscal year, relies heavily in gains in (non-progressive) sales taxes and personal income taxes.
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
