Those High Business Taxes In Iowa?
by Dave BradleyOne thing that is as sure as the sun rising in the east, is Republican legislators complaining about how hard it is for Iowa to recruit business because “Iowa’s taxes are too high for business.” Yet on the day that Illinois passed a widely reported and loudly decried tax increase, Iowa was quick to contact businesses in Illinois tantalizing them with Iowa’s low taxes for businesses.
Which is it – high business taxes or low? Let me tell you up front that I am no tax expert. What I relate here is simply what I have picked up in readings and forums.
My understanding is that the stated tax rates for Iowa businesses are high. But after loopholes and exceptions you could drive a semi through, Iowa’s actual tax rates are among the lowest in the country. To see how low click here: iowafiscal.org/
Visual representation here: amestrib.com/
Add to this that many retailers such as Walmart pay little to no taxes in Iowa, thanks to a little shell game they play which shows little to no profit being made by Walmart in Iowa.
The reason this is such a big deal is that Iowa’s Republican governor and Republican legislators are claiming that Iowa is so broke we have to sell our kids' future down the river. We also must cut essential services to the elderly and the poor. If you have heard this before it is because in any so-called “fiscal crisis” the young, the poor and the elderly are the first to get the ax.
And to add insult to injury I had THIS — iowafiscal.org/2011docs/110211-IFP-statement.pdf — drop into my e-mail box this weekend. The headline says it all:
IFP: Credit Showers Benefits on Non-Tax Paying Companies
These are not small struggling companies. Nope. Not at all. They are some of Iowa’s best known and largest. They are not only not paying taxes, many are getting CHECKS BACK FROM THE STATE to the tune of millions of dollars.
There is a listing HERE: iowa.gov/tax/taxlaw/RACreport10.pdf.
I can’t cut and paste from there so you will need to go there to read it. Listed are companies THAT MADE RESEARCH ACTIVITIES CREDIT CLAIMS over $500,000, headed by Rockwell-Collins at $14,000,000 and Deere at $13,000,000. Over $43,000,000 were paid out to companies overall under this credit, and at least $37,500,000 to the nine companies that are listed.
Give that a long, long think next time a Republican governor or legislator tells you how poor the state government is. Maybe, just maybe, if we didn’t have tax loopholes that businesses could drive semis through, maybe if the Walmarts of the world didn’t have tax dodges, maybe if some of our larger corporations didn’t get HUGE refunds from the state, then maybe we would not be talking about cutting back on teachers, maybe we wouldn’t be talking about pulling back aid to the poor and cutting other essential services.
Two take-aways from this article:
1) I highly recommend that every Iowan who wishes to be truly informed, at least once a week go to the Iowa Policy Project and its partner Iowa Fiscal Project weekly.
2) I would not have to be telling you folks about this if there were a competitive media in this country and state. But there isn’t. And the fact that important work like this is buried by a one-sided media should be absolutely enraging.
A truly free media is absolutely essential to a well working democracy!
DaveBradley
E-mail Dave here Dave Bradley is a self-described
retired observer of American politics “trying to figure out how we got
so screwed up.” An
Iowa City native currently living in West Liberty, Dave and his wife
Carol have two grown children who “sadly had to leave the state to find
decent paying jobs.“
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