Tax loopholes for big corporations: An insult to working families

Most people would rather get a root canal than pay their taxes.  But, the vast majority of Pennsylvania’s largest corporations have found a way to make it painless, simple, and easy.  It’s called the “Delaware loophole” and it magically makes their taxes disappear.

According to the state Department of Revenue, 72 percent of our Commonwealth’s largest corporations pay no Pennsylvania tax at all!  Zero, as in “not one cent.”  Aren’t these the same corporations who complain that our Corporate Net Income tax is “too high”?  How can it be “too high” if two-thirds of our biggest (and most profitable) corporations don’t pay a dime?  (In fact, 85 percent of those same big corporations pay less than $1,000 TOTAL in Pennsylvania corporate taxes.) 

How can big businesses get away with this?  Because they can spend millions of dollars setting up phony subsidiaries, hiding profits on different sets of books belonging to dozens of different “shell companies,” and claiming tax breaks for loaning lots and lots of money to lots of fake corporations.

Small business owners and hard-working, middle-class taxpayers can’t duck and dance and dodge through the Delaware loophole to escape paying their state taxes.  Why should giant, global companies in Pennsylvania be given multi-million-dollar tax loopholes?  I’d rather give tax breaks to my local small businesses that have been a part of our communities and our neighborhoods for years.

Individual taxpayers and small businesses already pay more than their fair share of state taxes.  It’s time for our biggest corporations to start paying what they should be paying.  It's really a matter of basic tax fairness.  When corporations don't pay their fair share – despite making huge profits – all of us, especially small business owners and working families, suffer the consequences.

Our tax laws should not reward the cheaters who evade paying taxes and punish those taxpayers who pay more than their fair share.  At a time when need to find money to close our budget deficit, I’d much rather close corporate tax loopholes than raise taxes on hard-working, middle-class families.

Governor Rendell wants to close the Delaware loophole and I support him on that.  It’s an insult to individual taxpayers and small business owners to expect them to comply with the law while we allow big corporations to ignore it completely.

Does the State Legislature have the political courage to side with regular folks against the big corporate special interests?  I know I’m ready to take on that fight.  So I hope you stay tuned. 

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