• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Politics / Govt / Group wants cap on business tax credits

Group wants cap on business tax credits

February 24, 2009 By admin

The Iowa Fiscal Partnership (IFP) is again urging lawmakers to consider placing a cap on tax credits offered to businesses. The I-F-P is a tax and budget policy analysis initiative between the Child and Family Policy Center in Des Moines and the Iowa Policy Project in Mount Vernon and Iowa City.

Victor Elias, with the Child and Family Policy Center, says any budget cutting should focus first on the Research Activities Credit, which offers a company cash once its tax liabilities are met. "This has gotten totally out of hand," Elias says of Iowa R-A-C. "In 2005, the state wrote about 30-million dollars in checks to ten corporations that don’t pay any Iowa corporate income tax because that was the refundable amount of their research activities credits."

In addition, Elias says there’s no requirement in Iowa for public disclosure of business tax expenditures. "Those top ten companies that are getting checks…we don’t know who they are, we don’t know how much each company gets, we don’t know what kind of research they’re doing," Elias said. "We are just spending money, in essence, buying a pig-in-a-poke. We don’t know what we’re getting for the money we’re spending, other some kind of research, but we don’t know who we’re funding and to what degree."

In addition to drafting "transparency" legislation regarding business tax expenditures, the I-F-P is calling for a cap of $250,000 that corporations could receive annually under the R-A-C. Elias says the limitation would affect only a handful of corporations but would save the state over $30-million a year.

David Osterberg, executive director of the Iowa Policy Project, says the R-A-C has been addressed in several of the partnership’s reports over the years. "Why would anybody think this is fair? That is what I for one think, we have not come to grips with," Osterberg said. "We’re giving away secret checks to a small number of companies at the same time we’re cutting budgets significantly. I think this has to stop."

Governor Culver has proposed eliminating the authority of the Iowa Department of Economic Development to double the size of the Research Activities Credit when used with other incentives. Osterberg calls that "a start," but says legislators should take it a step further.

The complete I-F-P report is available online here . 

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Politics / Govt Tagged With: Legislature, Taxes

Featured Stories

Summit has easements for 20% of carbon pipeline route through Iowa

Morel mushroom hunters on hold without warmer conditions

Trinity Health aquiring all MercyOne health properties

Field of Dreams site developer wants to bid on state baseball, softball tournaments

Governor gets bill targeting Iowa bars deemed ‘public safety nuisance’

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

Radio Iowa/Baseball Coaches Association High School Poll 5/16/22

Iowa assistant coach Kirk Speraw to retire

Northern Iowa prepares for Missouri Valley Conference softball tournament

T.J. Otzelberger announces staff changes at Iowa State

Iowa State adds transfer guard

More Sports

eNews and Updates

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives

Copyright © 2022 ยท Learfield News & Ag, LLC