Show us the money wealthy corporations owe Maine

From individuals to families, small towns to cities, and local businesses to corporations, everyone benefits from the things only revenue from tax dollars can buy, like roads, ports and an educated workforce. This is why generations of Mainers have come together to pitch in to pay for the services and infrastructure that build a thriving economy and a strong foundation for a society where everyone has tools and opportunities to thrive.

But even as corporate profits are on the rise, lawmakers continue to allow billion-dollar businesses to exploit loopholes to pay little or nothing in taxes while simultaneously giving them tax breaks that leave hardworking Mainers and small businesses to foot the bill for public resources.

Massive multibillion-dollar corporations doing business in Maine take advantage of complex tax loopholes and accounting schemes to rig the rules in their favor and refuse to contribute what they owe. The result is fewer dollars flowing into our communities to provide services we all use and need, including corporations, who profit from the infrastructure and educated workforce our tax dollars pay for. Mainers and small businesses are left to pick up the tab when corporations don’t pay their fair share.

Due to lack of transparency and data, Mainers are in the dark about how much large corporations contribute to Maine through taxes or take from us in tax breaks. And there’s no way of knowing how much Maine cuts in checks to wealthy, out-of-state corporations that don’t pay taxes here.

Shareholders can gauge the financial health of a company before they invest in it, but the same opportunity is not afforded to Maine taxpayers. Corporations are already required by law to include profit and loss information in their annual Securities and Exchange Commission filings to be transparent to investors, but they aren’t required to report the same information at the state level.

At the federal level, data clearly show massive corporate tax avoidance – for example, in 2020, 55 of the largest corporations in the U.S. paid $0 in taxes. Information obtained by the Economic Policy Institute from seven states reveals that more than 60% of corporations operating in those seven states pay no state income tax. As it stands, we have no state-level data to know what is happening in Maine.

Instead of asking more from wealthy corporations who are shortchanging our communities to pad their profits, lawmakers continue to give them more. Year after year, Maine taxpayers help fund wealthy corporations with their tax dollars when the State of Maine gives away millions of public dollars in subsidies to big businesses in the form of tax breaks – and even direct payments in the form of refundable credits – that are often not proven to deliver the outcomes they promise, and in some cases are proven to be ineffective. These tax incentives could instead be used to support our schools, roads, communities and any number of other critical resources that make our state a great place to live and work.

By continuing to allow big businesses to avoid paying the taxes they owe even while raking in record profits, lawmakers are contributing to the outsized power of corporations to avoid accountability for exploiting Maine’s tax laws for their own gain at the expense of Maine people, communities and small businesses.

Maine has an opportunity this legislative session to finally bring shady corporate tax avoidance into the daylight. L.D. 1337, An Act to Require Biennial Reporting of Aggregate Corporate Income Tax Data, sponsored by Rep. Ann Matlack, would require Maine Revenue Services to report on a biennial basis how many of the biggest corporations doing business in Maine pay $0 in taxes.

When corporations receive lucrative tax breaks and fail to pay their fair share in taxes, they profit from the hard work of Mainers and exploit the resources in our communities while undercutting our prosperity. Maine taxpayers deserve to know whether big businesses are paying their fair share in taxes. It’s time to shine a light on corporate tax avoidance and show us the money wealthy corporations owe Maine.

« Previous

Next »