Connecticut Business Taxes Actually Among The Lowest In The Nation

–BILL CIBES — Op-Ed in Hartford Courant–

Report shows Connecticut taxes on business as low, compared to other states

In recent days, there has been much speechifying about how business in Connecticut is overtaxed. The rhetoric is not compatible with reality.

Fortunately, an objective analysis of the absolute business tax burden in all 50 states is conducted annually by the accounting firm of Ernst & Young for the Council on State Taxation. That council, which began as an advisory committee to the Council of State Chambers, can hardly be characterized as a doctrinaire liberal organization.

The current study, published in August 2014 and available on the cost.org website, reviews total state and local business taxes in each state for tax year 2013, then the most recent year available. It disproves the commonly stated claim that Connecticut’s business tax burden is high. Information in the report indicates that:

• Businesses in Connecticut are not extremely highly taxed, as compared to businesses in other states:

The total state and local tax burden on business in Connecticut, as a share of private sector gross state product, was tied with North Carolina for second-lowest among all states (3.4 percent of gross state product), trailing only Oregon. Connecticut’s tax burden on business was 27 percent lower than the national average.