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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Pa. business tax climate not half bad

Adding fuel to the fire over the competitiveness of Pennsylvania's business tax climate, the Tax Foundation issued its annual rankings plunking the Keystone State at No. 26 among the 50 states.

So is the glass half-full or half-empty?

Gov. Rendell took to the podium Wednesday as an optimist. After all, most of Pennsylvania's neighbors had business tax climates that ranked much lower on the Tax Foundation's scale. Here's a link to the report.

New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Ohio were ranked among the Tax Foundation's 10 worst states for business taxes. Dead last was New York. New Jersey placed No. 48 after California.

Besides, Rendell said, the study is based on statutory tax rates and very few businesses really pay that.

The nonprofit, nonpartisan research group said in its report that "state lawmakers are always mindful of their states' business tax climates but they are often tempted to lure business with lucrative tax incentives and subsidies instead of broad-based tax reform."

Rendell said he's been doing just that, having cut the capital stock and franchise tax rates and lifted the cap on net operating losses.

He did mention Pennsylvania's tiny neighbor to the south, Delaware, the home of tax-free shopping, which ranked at No. 8 on the Tax Foundation's index.

The nation's best business tax climate? South Dakota, which has no corporate or individual income tax.
Posted by Mike Armstrong @ 11:25 AM  Permalink | File Under: Politics, Taxes | 3 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:31 PM, 10/28/2010
    Seems like this report must be flawed in it's methodology. PA ranks 44th in property taxes while Jersey ranks 48th. Anyone living here knows that Jersey property taxes are far, far worse than PA so why are they rakned so close? Apparently, what saved PA was that we rakned 14th in personal income tax rates. That too is hard to believe. Does it include city wage taxes? Add that 4.6% killer and then do the survey. And why is Rendell crowing about a rank of 26 out of 50 states? That ranking is nothing to write home about.
    — The Monk
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:55 AM, 10/29/2010
    PA was listed as 26th in the nation. So why is Skinny Ed crowing?
    — theresastofer
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 4:50 PM, 10/29/2010
    Why is 26th pretty good? Because, for the most part, the states that with lower taxes are not somewhere that any business would want to locate. Would you want to be an executive living in Wyoming or Utah? The majority of people in the top tax bracket live in urban areas - for a reason. We're far better than NY, NJ, CA, IL and other states that have attractive cities. If business taxes were so important, why aren't companies moving to PA? Complaints about business taxes are from people who live in states with cities that have the cultural and entertainment offerings thay find attractive but they don't want to pay the taxes. They have no plans on moving out of state.
    — MikeP


3 comments
About Mike Armstrong
Mike Armstrong, a business editor and writer for nearly two decades, is the Inquirer's business columnist and PhillyInc blog editor. Contact Mike via e-mail or at 215-854-2980
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