Report: Tax Breaks Lowering PA's Corporate Tax Rate
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - In the midst of this tax filing season, a Pennsylvania economic policy group is trying to generate momentum for corporate tax reform. They released a report showing how tax breaks lower payments by the state's largest corporations.
Individuals in Pennsylvania pay a flat 3.07-percent tax -- no exemptions. Corporations are supposed to pay a flat 9.9-percent, but the report released by the Budget and Policy Center shows that, in the last four years, companies were granted all kinds of breaks which lowered their tax rate to four-percent, three-percent, and in a couple of cases, less than one-percent.
Executive Director Sharon Ward says it's costing individuals:
"If they had been paying taxes at the rate they were supposed to, we could have avoided big cuts to education or property tax increases that individuals were forced to pay."
Ward says there are legislative remedies available to close corporate tax loopholes that she'd like to see individuals lobby for.
The companies, asked to respond, noted they pay all the taxes they're required to, which amount to millions of dollars.