FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Open for Business
New Civitas Study Finds that Eliminating the Corporate Income Tax Would be a Boon to the State Economy
RALEIGH, N.C. – A newly-released academic study from the Civitas Institute finds that eliminating the state’s corporate income tax would create more than 43,000 jobs and grow average worker salaries by more than $1,500, over ten years.
Moreover, thanks to the economic growth, in just a short period, eliminating the corporate income tax would end up increasing total tax revenue to the state.
According to the Tax Foundation, eliminating the corporate income tax would improve North Carolina to the fifth best business tax climate in the nation.
“Research shows that the state corporate income tax is the most harmful of all taxes to a state’s economic growth,” said Civitas President and CEO Donald Bryson. “North Carolina can take its positive economic momentum to the next level by eliminating this job-killing tax.”
An added benefit would be to curb crony government handouts, where politicians use taxpayer dollars to bribe big corporations to locate in North Carolina. Without a corporate income tax, there would be no need for this unfair political favoritism that rewards politically-connected businesses at taxpayer expense.
“North Carolina would not only be among the five best tax climates for business, but we could greatly curb the practice of state politicians picking winners and losers in our economy and apply a more fair tax code to hardworking North Carolinians,” added Bryson.
Conducted by Stephanie O. Crofton, the Charles T. Ingram Professor of Economics at High Point University, and economic consultant Luis G. Dopico, this study meticulously examines the impact of North Carolina’s state corporate income tax and concludes that eliminating the tax would yield significant positive results for the Tar Heel state.
And at only 2.5 percent, North Carolina’s is the lowest of any state that imposes a corporate tax, meaning that this tax generates less than three percent of all state tax revenue while imposing significant administrative costs on businesses. Historic trends indicate that the state corporate income tax is also the most volatile of tax revenue sources.
A highly volatile, job-killing, administratively difficult tax that generates a small fraction of state income – that’s the corporate income tax.
Why not just lower it to zero?
More information can be found at openforbusinessnc.com.
For questions or interview requests, please contact Brooke Medina, communications director, at bmedina@nccivitas.org.
Founded in 2005, the Civitas Institute is a Raleigh, NC-based, 501(c)(3) nonprofit policy organization that fights to remove barriers to freedom so that all North Carolinians can enjoy a better life.
