Are Corporations Paying their Fair Share?

Income Tax Burden Has Shifted from Corporations to Individuals, Especially the Poor:

“Oregon’s state corporate income tax has dropped to very low levels, both as a share of the economy and as a share of all income taxes paid in Oregon… In the 1973-75 budget cycle, corporations paid 18.5% of all income taxes. In the upcoming 2005-07 budget cycle, corporations are expected to pay just 4.6 percent of Oregon’s income taxes. By 2009-11, corporations are expected to pay just 4.4 percent of Oregon income taxes.”…“Over the current decade, as corporate income taxes fall by $192 million, personal income tax revenues are projected to grow another $4 billion.”…“As the tax burden has shifted from corporations to individual taxpayers, low-income taxpayers have been the hardest hit with increases.” – Oregon Center for Public Policy (OCPP), Corporate Tax Dodge, 2005

“In 2002, Portland General Electric (PGE) and Louisiana Pacific both paid the minimum amount in state corporate income taxes - $10. That same year both companies also gave their CEOs substantial pay raises. PGE increased CEO Peggy Fowler’s total compensation by $211,000 to $979,000 in 2002.” “PacifiCorp…also paid the minimum in 2002.” “In 2000, more than half of all Oregon corporations with known payrolls over $2 million paid Oregon just $10 in income taxes.” - OCPP, Time to Raise the Corporate Minimum Tax, 2004 [bold not in original]

Property Tax Burden Has Shifted from Businesses to Individual Homeowners:

“In the late 1960s, homeowners paid about 28% of the total property tax bill in Oregon while business including landlords paid 72%... Measure 5 was supposed to provide tax relief for Oregon homeowners. However, the biggest beneficiaries of the new law turned out to be large businesses and, in particular, out of state landowners… The current share of property taxes paid by homeowners has been estimated at over 60%.” - Oregon’s Future, Winter 2005, "Education Funding in Oregon: How we got into this mess, and how to get out,"

Some Corporations Collect Taxes from Their Customers that They Never Pay:

“Portland city commissioners have forwarded a 14-page letter to PGE asking for more financial information… The letter says PGE collected $700 million in taxes but only 11 million of that actually went to governmental authorities.” - OPB News, February 2, 2006, Portland Asks PGE for Additional Financial Information [bold not in original]

“[A] lawsuit against PacifiCorp by Meek and Williams alleges that PacifiCorp overcharged customers while adding a Multnomah County income tax surcharge to its county customers’ bills.”…“In April 2005 the company refunded three years’ worth of overcharges, spanning 2002 to 2004, to customers. But Meek says…Multnomah County residents may [still] be owed about $6 million. In court documents, PacifiCorp defended its partial refund of overcharges as sufficient, saying that to do more would be impractical. As PacifiCorp executive Bernard Bottomly wrote in an affidavit, “it would have been expensive, burdensome and inherently inaccurate to refund overcollections to former customers. Meek says the question not covered in his lawsuit is whether PacifiCorp overcharged Oregonians for state and federal taxes.”…“The conservative National Federation of Independent Businesses sided with Meek, saying in an alert on its Web site that PacifiCorp and its parent company ScottishPower, “collected between $70-$80 million in income taxes from customers per year. It is unclear how much of this amount, was paid to taxing authorities.…The alert added that MidAmerican, which is in the process of purchasing PacifiCorp, wants ‘to continue the practice of charging customers in their rates for taxes they never will pay to units of government.’” – Portland Tribune, February 7, 2006, Different Utility, Similar Allegations [bold not in original]

Corporations Should be Required to Disclose how much They Pay in Taxes:

“The long-term decline in corporate income taxes is primarily because corporations have won a number of tax breaks, and because corporations have grown aggressive about employing abusive tax shelters that lawmakers never enacted or intended to allow.’…“Corporate use of abusive tax shelters has exploded. A study by the Multistate Tax Commission estimated the impact on Oregon at between $66 million and $94 million for fiscal year 2001.” – OCPP, Corporate Tax Dodge, 2005

“Because corporate tax records are exempt from disclosure under Oregon’s public records laws, the Oregon Department of Revenue cannot tell us which Oregon firms have used…tax avoidance schemes.”…“According to the Wall Street Journal, Bank of America transferred nearly $9 billion in assets to its subsidiary in Nevada until the bank dissolved the arrangement after the Securities and Exchange Commission and revenue officials in California began questioning its legitimacy. The technique allowed Bank of America to shelter more than $750 million in income, according to the Journal. Bank of America does substantial business in Oregon. The taxes on some of that $750 million would have helped pay for schools, roads, healthcare, and other state services that help make doing business in this state profitable.” - OCPP CenterPoints, September 2003 [bold not in original]

Increased Corporate Taxes Would NOT Threaten Jobs for Oregonians:

“Oregon has the lowest business tax burden in the country, according to a new study written by the accounting firm Ernst & Young and published by the Council on State Taxation (COST)…. Studies by the Pennsylvania Economy League and the Utah State Tax Commission confirm Oregon’s low business tax burden.” - OCPP Issue Brief, 1/23/04

“A comprehensive new analysis of research on the factors influencing business location decisions shows that state-level tax cuts have little impact on economic growth, but that public services are vital for creation… Since state and local taxes only account for less than one percent of the cost of doing business, almost every other factor, including public services, plays a larger role in location decisions than do taxes.” - OCPP, News release March 23, 2004