Tax Justice Digest stories about Iowa

Corporate Giveaways in Iowa

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Iowa Governor Chet Culver is usually committed to closing corporate tax loopholes. As in 2007, he is championing combined reporting legislation, which would reduce corporate tax avoidance by requiring a multi-state corporation to add together the profits of all of its subsidiaries, regardless of their location, into one report. This is better from a tax enforcement perspective than separate accounting, which allows companies to report the profit of each of its subsidiaries independently. Separate accounting is often cited by critics as an "open highway for tax avoidance." Despite studies from the Iowa Policy Project  and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities which show that combined reporting is an essential tool for policymakers looking to close tax loopholes and level the playing field for all types of businesses, the Iowa Legislature has reacted lukewarmly to the idea. 
 
The state's legislature shows no such hesitation, however, when it comes to providing tax giveaways to large corporations like Microsoft. This week the Legislature passed HF 2233, which will expand certain property and sales tax exemptions for "web search portal business and property," apparently in a bid to lure the software giant to the state. The governor, despite his stance on other corporate tax issues, signed the bill on Thursday.

States React to Economic Turmoil

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Many states are in a fiscal crunch and the number of states facing budget shortfalls may be growing. This week the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a state fiscal update saying that, "At least twenty-five states, including several of the nation's largest, face budget shortfalls in fiscal year 2009." A sluggish economy, bursting housing bubble, and the decline of tax revenues have all had a significant impact on states and their ability to keep budgets balanced.
 
It's not always clear that states can act as effectively as the federal government to kick start a sluggish economy, but that doesn't stop them from trying. For any legislation to be effective as a stimulus to counteract a recession, it must be "temporary, timely and targeted," as argued by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Some of the stimulus initiatives being proposed on the state level meet these goals better than others. Tax cuts that are not temporary can do more harm to states in the long-run, and provisions that will not have any benefit until after a recession has passed are useless as a stimulus. Most importantly, those tax cuts not targeted towards low- and middle-income people are not likely to result in new spending that immediately spurs the economy, but will go largely towards savings, which takes much longer to have a positive effect.
 
Stimulus Plans in the States: Connecticut, Iowa, Georgia, and Ohio
 
In Connecticut, Governor Jodi Rell has asked legislators to reconsider their economic stimulus proposals, arguing that there is no money available to pay for tax cuts. Senate Democrats there proposed increasing the state's property tax credit by $250 and House Republicans proposed offering tax credits to offset medical and energy costs. It's certainly not obvious that an increased property tax credit is well-targeted, since property-owners tend to have higher incomes than everyone else. Depending on how it's implemented, it may not be timely either.
 
Policymakers in Georgia have proposed legislation to expand the state's personal exemptions temporarily. The legislation is targeted to the degree that it benefits middle-income people, but it doesn't reach those too poor to pay state income taxes. It's also flawed because it's not entirely timely. A lot of people won't benefit until next year.
 
Some Iowa lawmakers have adopted a completely different approach to providing economic stimulus by proposing a five-year property tax break for Iowans who improve their homes. According to one state senator, the tax break "really rewards all homeowners that have pursued the American dream of owning their own home." But a five-year tax break does not qualify as temporary, at least for the purpose of responding to a recession. It's also hard to believe that it would be targeted to those who need help and will spend the extra money right away, and it's not clear that any home improvements that result will happen quickly enough to qualify this as timely. Another idea being tossed around is a proposal that would expand the state's sales tax holiday to include all items subject to the sales tax. ITEP has long argued that sales tax holidays are not good policy. In this context it's worth noting that they are usually not targeted well at all, since the benefits go to everyone who shops during the sales tax holiday and because people who need help the most are less capable of shifting the timing of their consumption to take advantage of it.
 
Ohio Governor Ted Strickland isn't proposing increased tax credits. Instead, his plan includes borrowing $1.7 billion in an attempt to stimulate the state's economy and create 80,000 jobs. If approved by voters, more money would be available for transportation, renewable energy technologies, and local infrastructure projects. Borrowing to fund important investments makes sense in some contexts, but as a stimulus it's unclear whether these investments will give a timely boost to the economy to counteract a recession that is occurring now.

State of the States Roundup

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Iowa

Governor Chet Culver's Condition of the State address was a shot in the arm to advocates for fair business taxation. In his speech the Governor unveiled his plan for combined reporting of corporate income for tax purposes. He said, "It's just not fair that big, out of state, multi-billion dollar corporations that do tens of millions of dollars of business in Iowa avoid paying Iowa income taxes because of an outdated tax loophole." Read the Iowa Fiscal Partnership's release on the importance of closing this costly loophole. Another proposal included in Culver's speech was a 2-cent tax on the purchase of bottles and cans. Part of this increased revenue would go towards enhancing environmental programs.

Myth Busters in Iowa

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This week the Iowa Policy Project (IPP) issued a report called Undocumented Immigrants in Iowa: Estimated Tax Contributions and Fiscal Impact. The study's release received much attention in the press by rightly debunking the myth that undocumented immigrants in Iowa don't pay taxes. The study includes estimates of the average property, sales/excise, and income taxes paid by undocumented immigrants in Iowa. The results of the study may surprise many as IPP estimates that undocumented families contribute more than $40 million dollars to state revenues. Similar studies have been conducted in other states and similar myth-busting findings were revealed.  

This November Maine voters will have the opportunity (unless the Legislature acts first) to vote on a proposal that would provide tax cuts to assist college graduates as they pay back their student loans. If the initiative is approved, college students in Maine who stay and work in the state after graduation may claim a tax credit of about $2,100. Advocates of the proposal say that offering the tax credit will make education more affordable for students and also "raise the wage and skill levels of Maine's workforce." However, some important questions remain regarding how much the tax credits will cost, where the money to pay for the credits would come from, and whether or not offering a tax credit will really ensure that students stay in Maine. 

In Iowa a similar proposal is focused on keeping college graduates in the state and slowing the state's "brain drain." The proposal allows businesses who repay new employees' student loan debt (up to $25,000) to receive tax credits of up to $7,500. In order to qualify for the credit, employers have to pay a minimum salary of $25,000 and start repaying the employee's loan within six months. The Des Moines Register's editorial board sharply critiques this proposal and raises good points about whether or not providing tax credits to businesses really is the best strategy for ensuring that college graduates stay or move into the state. Instead, the Register rightly suggests, "To reduce student loan debt, public money would be better used to hold down tuition costs at state universities, so students don't graduate with huge debt in the first place."

Cigarette Tax Update

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Wednesday, Iowa Governor Chet Culver signed into law a bill that raises cigarette taxes by $1 a pack and also increases taxes on various other tobacco products. The Governor predicts that the new $1.36 tax will cause 20,000 Iowans to quit smoking and prevent twice as many from ever picking up the habit. The tax increase goes into effect immediately and revenues generated are expected to be used for healthcare. Unfortunately, evidence from other states shows that revenues generated from this regressive tax will decline over time.

In Mississippi, a proposal to swap a cigarette tax hike for a sales tax cut appears to be dead for the second time. While promising to propose a "serious tax cut" in the future, Governor Haley Barbour refused to support a bill that would increase the state's cigarette tax from 18 cents to $1 and cut the tax on groceries by half. The problems with Mississippi's tax code go beyond sales and excise taxes, so perhaps now is the time for discussing a complete overhaul of Mississippi's tax structure.

As expected, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick this week joined the ranks of chief executives calling for the use of combined reporting of state corporate income taxes to combat tax avoidance by large and profitable companies. Like the Governors of New York, Pennsylvania, and Iowa, Governor Patrick, in his FY2008 budget plan, recommended adopting this approach to corporate taxation, which would require corporations operating in multiple states to report all of their income — including that attributable to subsidiaries. This would negate any tax benefit derived from accounting schemes designed to shift profits out-of-state. A fact sheet from the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center explains how combined reporting works and why it's needed in the Bay State. While Martin O'Malley has not yet added his name to this growing gubernatorial roster, Maryland legislators this week considered a bill to institute combined reporting in their state. ITEP Executive Director Matt Gardner was among those who testified on the measure.

In a welcome trend, lawmakers and advocates in Connecticut, New Jersey, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Mexico, Montana, Hawaii, Utah, Ohio, and Iowa are considering enacting Earned Income Tax Credits or expanding existing EITCs. The federal EITC has been hailed by policymakers of all stripes as an especially effective tool for lifting working families out of poverty. At the state level, the EITC offers the additional benefit of helping to offset the regressive sales and property taxes that hit low-income families hardest. To find out more about whether EITC legislation is active in your state, check out the Hatcher Group's State EITC Online Resource Center. 

State corporate income tax reform is gathering momentum in 2007, as more and more states are considering adopting an important corporate tax reform: combined reporting. Governors in New York, Iowa and Pennsylvania have already proposed this important loophole-closing reform, and newly elected Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is sending signals that he may follow in their footsteps. Meanwhile, a new paper by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' Michael Mazerov gives the lowdown on an equally important corporate tax reform that could productively be adopted by every state with a corporate tax: company-specific disclosure of taxes paid (or not paid). Mazerov's paper includes model legislation for use in any state seeking to shed more light on corporate tax avoidance.

Over the past few years, a number of states have taken incremental steps to reform their corporate income taxes to curtail tax avoidance by large and profitable companies. One such reform, combined reporting, prevents corporations from using a range of accounting schemes to shift profits from one state to another in order to artificially reduce the taxes they owe. The seventeen states that now use combined reporting may eventually get some company, as two Governors - Eliot Spitzer (D-NY) and Chet Culver (D-IA) - have included provisions in their budget proposals for the coming fiscal year to institute combined reporting.  To learn more about combined reporting and how it works, see the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy's updated policy brief.

Several tax avoidance techniques are available to corporations operating in states that don't have combined reporting. For example, a recent Wall Street Journal article (subscription required) notes that Wal-Mart may have been able to avoid as much as $350 million in state corporate income taxes between 1998 and 2001 due to a loophole that could be countered with combined reporting.

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