When Corporate Tax Cheats Complain

Well, it’s tax time, and apparently Corporate America doesn’t like the idea of having to pay up. Here in Montana, Big Business is howling mad about a bill by State Sen. Jim Elliott (D) and Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) that would crack down on Montana's growing problem with tax cheaters. As Elliott’s website shows, about half of the largest 500 companies doing business in Montana pay less than $500 in Montana corporate income tax.

Elliott's bill to crack down on corporate tax loopholes would raise $18.3 million in new revenue over the next two years from businesses and individuals not paying their fair share of taxes – and that’s a big amount for Montana.

Not surprisingly, the Billings Gazette reports that "lobbyists for a number of Montana businesses either sought to be exempted from Elliott’s bill or testified they hadn't had sufficient time to study the [bill]."

But as the Helena Independent Record editorial board notes, "major corporations doing business in Montana aren't what you might call babes in the woods when it comes to taxation imposed by the various states they operate in." The Daily Interlake, from the conservative Flathead Valley, agrees, saying, “it's hard to find anything wrong with Gov. Brian Schweitzer's multi-pronged plan to crack down on tax cheats.” And in case the GOP tries to distort the bill, the Interlake notes, “it is important to remember that the Schweitzer plan is not a tax hike of any kind. Instead, it simply would apply more scrutiny to certain taxpayers.”

As I noted earlier at Thinkprogress, this is a national problem. The General Accounting Office estimates that the federal government lost up to $85 billion over the past decade to improper tax shelters. And the Multistate Tax Commission estimates the states lost $12 billion in corporate taxes in 2001 alone.

Let's hope Montana has the courage to move forward and lead the nation in stopping the corporate tax ripoff. And let's hope Democrats throughout the country see this issue as a new way to talk about taxes in populist terms.