Corporate Taxes

Politicians don't like to talk about taxes except to brag about cutting them. But with California's widening budget deficit threatening deep cuts in education and other public services, it's difficult to avoid discussions about raising taxes.

Unfortunately, what's likely to be lost in the upcoming partisan melee over whether new taxes are needed to close the $16-billion gap is an equally important tax issue -- California's aging and often unfair tax system needs to be overhauled.

The goal of tax… more

Last week, a bill was proposed by a majority of Assemly Democrats to impose extra taxes on oil companies to help prevent pink slips for teachers. A March 12 vote, mostly along party lines, failed to garner the required two-thirds majority for passage of a tax increase.

But Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez has said he does not plan to give up on the idea.

Despite the importance of not laying off teachers, failure to pass was a good result. The bill, ABX3… more

S corporations now account for two-thirds of U.S. corporate tax returns (see NTA report) and while designed for simplicity, they’ve become increasingly complex and harder for regulators to standardize and monitor.

As the number of small businesses has exploded, the number of S corporations formed has more than quadrupled since the last review (of 1984 returns) while the number with assets exceeding $10 million has increased 10-fold. Today’s S corporations are not necessarily small, and not necessarily easy to classify… more

Two great concerns leading to calls for tax reform are (1) that changes in the world economy are reducing the likelihood that the U.S. will be assured of a dominant role and (2) inordinate complexity that leads to disrespect for the tax system, economic inefficiencies and increased costs of tax compliance. Yet, despite numerous calls for tax reform, the major changes we have seen to the system recently have actually increased its complexity. Examples include the addition of Schedule M-3… more

The best way for a business to simplify its nexus determination for sales tax purposes is to set up a sales office in the state in question. Then, it clearly has nexus and must collect sales tax there. But, this approach isn’t the business reality or plan for Internet-era businesses. Businesses without an obvious physical presence in a state, but with customers there, may be challenged to know if they should collect sales and use tax. This article looks at… more

If Los Angeles business leaders were looking for somebody to carry the torch on one of their most important causes, it’s a safe bet that Wally Knox wouldn’t rank very high on the list.

The former Democratic assemblyman acknowledges that he had a reputation in the state capital as a "wild-eyed, union-loyal liberal." He is perhaps best remembered for his authorship of the 1999 law that secured overtime pay for Californians who work more than eight hours a day --… more

Annette Nellen is a professor in the department of accounting and finance at San José State University, where she teaches graduate-level tax courses. She speaks and writes frequently on tax policy matters, tax reform, tax accounting, and high-technology tax issues. In 2000, she served on the academic panel that advised… more

Jodie Allen Introduced the panel by highlighting the growing mainstream awareness of class-based issues, as evidenced by the recent New York Times and Wall Street Journal series on the topic.

Al Checchi identified five areas which need to be addressed to improve the plight of the middle class: technology, immigration, public education, the strength of the labor movement, and functioning of the political system. Also advocated increasing the minimum wage to the level of the living wage. The gap between the… more

The corporate income tax has always had enemies. Introduced in 1909 as an effort to close the country's worst budget gap since the Civil War, economists and capitalists almost immediately began to argue that it was inefficient and slowed down business. More recently, Presidents Reagan and Carter, as well as conservative economist Milton Friedman and liberal economist Lester Thurow, have all recommended that the country scrap it. In May 2001, then-Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill called the tax… more

Republicans are smiling and high-fiving at the prospect of Howard Dean being elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, which seems like a sure thing this Saturday. But as Oscar Wilde said, "When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers." In other words, Dean may not be temperamentally fit to be elected president of the United States, but he might well be fit to be an effective leader of the Democratic Party. And so Republicans might yet… more