Help us close the corporate tax loopholes

After Governor Patrick files the bill to close corporate tax loopholes, the bill will get a public hearing before the Joint Legislative Committee on Revenue. As you might imagine, big businesses will be opposing any measure to close the tax loopholes.  MASSPIRG will present this petition to the committee as a counterbalance to the overwhelming voice by many of the business lobbyists.

Petition Text

For too long, a few powerful corporations and industries have gotten away with paying little or no taxes thanks to tax loopholes in the law. Among Massachusetts’ biggest businesses, those with sales over $50 million a year, a third paid just the minimum corporate income tax of $456 last year. By contrast, the Bay State’s average taxpayer paid $3,532 in state income taxes.

All taxpayers, including businesses rely on public infrastructure and services including education, transportation, police, fire, sanitation, parks and recreation, and public health.

Whatever your perspective about the level of taxes, our taxes should be fair. Some taxpayers should not be required to pay more while other businesses pay less through unintended, outdated or unreasonable tax breaks.  

We urge you to close the corporate tax loopholes outlined in the Special Tax Commission’s report, making our tax code fairer to everyone. 

Help end a sweetheart deal this Valentine’s Day

This Thursday is Valentine’s Day, but some powerful interests have been receiving their gifts for too long; written right into the Commonwealth’s tax code.

Their sweetheart deal: corporate tax loopholes worth over $400 million annually in Massachusetts.

Of course, in any good relationship, both parties should be on an equal footing. But these loopholes allow a few powerful corporations to pay almost nothing in state taxes while the rest of us, including the vast majority of Massachusetts’ businesses, are left to foot the bill.

Right now, lawmakers on Beacon Hill are considering a bill that will close the tax loopholes.

Please ask someone special in your life to sign our petition.

(Photo credit: Arnaud Desbordes, under the Creative Commons license)