WBAA: Think Tank Questions Effort to Eliminate Business Personal Property Tax
media mentionMatt Gardner with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy says property taxes nationwide are increasingly limited to real property. But he says for equipment that has significant value to a business‘s profit-making ability, it makes sense to tax that equipment.
“It’s a rough proxy for the benefits you derive from government services,” says Gardner. “Any asset of any value generates police protection needs and fire protection needs.”
Gardner says the most straightforward tax reform would be another local option included in the law: exempting businesses who don‘t have enough equipment to make it worth the trouble to file the form.
He questions whether trimming business taxes plays that big a role in economic development.