tax expenditure budget

Filmmaker Daniel Adams is being charged with fraudulently selling $4.7 million in MA film tax credits to Wal-Mart and Bank of America so they could reduce their MA taxes.  Supposedly the corporations did not know Mr. Adams had committed fraud by inaccurately reporting the costs of the films he produced, thereby increasing the tax credits he could get.  $4.7 million, that translates into a lot of jobs and services we need to restore to our communities to make them healthier and safer for all of us.

Assistant Attorney General Margaret Parks said the state cannot recover the $4.7 million in lost tax revenue from Wal-Mart and Bank of America because Adams’s expenses had been certified as accurate by an independent accountant, whose name has not been disclosed. The state’s film tax credit law awards to filmmakers tax credits equal to 25 percent of whatever they spend in Massachusetts; the tax credits can be sold back to the state or to a third party. [CommonWealth Magazine]

The Joint Committee on Revenue is taking the plunge and has reported out of committee the bill calling for the 6.25% sales tax to be collected by the state on phone, online and mail vendors.  Approval and implementation of this bill has the potential to bring in $335 million per year...revenue that could be used to restore cuts to desparately needed programs and to restore jobs.  Congressional enabling legislation is a necessary precursor, and MA would be added to 24 other states seeking the sales and use tax agreement with this new bill, when signed by MA legislators and the Governor.

Revenue Committee Co-chairman Rep. Jay Kaufman (D-Lexington) also said he hoped the debate over deficit reduction would spur federal lawmakers to empower states to collect taxes owed to them.  [Full Article: Wicked Local Wellesley]

Former Senator Alan Simpson is interviewed about the federal credit rating downgrade by S&P, the debt ceiling debate and resulting legislation, and ongoing deficit reduction debates, which he hopes are taken seriously.

The Senator has much to say about many topics... Obamacare, AARP, entitlements, tax expenditures, and Grover Norquist - who he thinks "... will be irrelevant in a couple of years"  [Full Audio: npr]

With the economy not yet recovered, many around the country are concerned the outcome on the debt ceiling legislation will adversely affect states and cities that have already been struggling financially.

Tom Cochran, the executive director of the United States Conference of Mayors, said that the proposed cuts in the debt ceiling deal were “devastating” to cities...“They mean fewer cops, fewer firefighters and less money for job creation projects, housing and elderly care,” he said in a statement. “... We must close tax loopholes to the wealthy and corporations and look at other revenue adjustments. The focus now must be on investments for job creation because we can’t cut our way to economic prosperity.”  [Full Article: The New York Times]

Marlborough recommends the tax incentive proposal, amount not stated, for Vestas, the world's largest manufacturer of utility-scale wind turbines.  With this partial property tax exemption comes the promise of jobs and involvement in K-12 STEM education programs.

[Mark] Buschenfeldt said Vestas employs 22,000 employees across 65 countries and five continents and controls about 15 percent of the global wind technology market. He said the Marlborough facility would be used to research, develop and test generators used in Vestas turbines.  ..."Vestas is truly a global company," he said. "This is the future and I'm really pleased to have a headquarters here in Marlborough."  [Full Article: Wicked Local Hudson]

Tax incentives for job creation... first business promises 4 jobs over 10 years...and 11 other parcels may be eligible for same tax deal.

A statement released Thursday by the Economic Development Task Force said this development was the first step toward designating Westport as an "Economic Target Area," which would make businesses in the area eligible for tax incentives "in exchange for job creation, manufacturing job retention and private investment commitments."   [Full Article: SouthCoast Today]

Imagine if corporations invested in our communities, via taxes without legislative loopholes, how much more financially sound this country would be. Noble goal, indeed.

They are high-tech companies, financial players, and manufacturers. What they all have in common: They paid no federal income taxes last year, despite making millions of dollars in profits… They are beneficiaries of longtime tax breaks for corporations, tax specialists say, coupled in some cases with shorter-term tax benefits that lawmakers introduced in the past three years to help companies during the recession. Indeed, more than one-quarter of 112 profitable, publicly traded companies in the Commonwealth did not write checks to Uncle Sam for the 2010 tax year, according to a Globe review of tax data filed with regulators and compiled by Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ. [Full Article: Boston Globe]

The state hands out more than $2 billion in business tax breaks annually with no mechanisms for reviewing their effectiveness or recouping lost revenue if the exemptions fail to produce the desired results, an analysis by the state auditor shows. [Full Article: Boston Globe] [Video: News 22]

The Executive Director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities testified recently on the scope and regressive nature of tax expenditures (loopholes)...