The Oregonian: 24 Oregon companies turned a profit but paid no income tax in 2011
media mentionBy Christian Gaston | [email protected]
on March 19, 2014 at 7:00 PM, updated March 19, 2014 at 7:08 PM
At least two dozen profitable corporations paid no Oregon income taxes in 2011, according to a new study by the Oregon Center for Public Policy.
The Silverton-based think tank sifted through data from the Oregon Department of Revenue in order to figure out how many companies were benefiting from a 2013 ruling by the Oregon Supreme Court that allowed companies to reduce their corporate minimum tax payments with credits.
Chuck Sheketoff, Oregon Center for Public Policy executive director, said as many as 98 companies appear to be using the ruling to their advantage, but it’s unclear from the data available how many paid no tax.
“They weren’t able to break down certain information for us,” Sheketoff said. “It’s at least 24, it may be more.”
Corporate tax records aren’t public in Oregon, so state officials only release aggregate data. And many companies will file amended returns in the coming months and years to take advantage of the court ruling, which is projected to cost the state $90 million over the next decade.
Sheketoff thinks lawmakers should close the loophole, which allows companies to sidestep the state’s corporate minimum tax which ranges from $150 to $100,000, but there doesn’t appear to be much support for doing so in the Legislature.
That’s why Oregon ought to disclose what companies were able to dodge Oregon’s corporate taxes, Sheketoff said. According to his group’s research, eight companies with profits greater than $5 million got off tax-free in 2011.
The Oregon Supreme Court case stemmed from Measure 67, which established the new corporate minimum tax.
Accountants for Con-way, a multinational logistics company, tried to use a Business Energy Tax Credit to reduce a $75,000 corporate minimum tax it owed but the Oregon Department of Revenue ruled the credit couldn’t be used that way. Con-way sued and eventually prevailed.
According to court records, Con-way reported $79 million in sales in 2009, but following the ruling, they won’t pay any tax.
“$79 million in sales and they didn’t pay a penny in corporate income taxes,” Sheketoff said.
If the list of big-name corporate tax dodgers was public, Sheketoff thinks voters would push for a change.
“If people saw things like that I think they might say, “huh, Legislature, why don’t you do something about it,”” Sheketoff said.
The release of the Oregon data coincides with a report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and Citizens for Tax Justice that found that Intel, Oregon’s largest employer, had a negative tax burden of $40 million in 2008 and 2009, while it made $9.4 billion in profits.
— Christian Gaston