Beaver County Chamber of Commerce

The Beaver County Chamber of Commerce recently partnered with CompetePA, a coalition of businesses and organizations from across the state that want to see Pennsylvania compete successfully for new jobs and investment. The Coalition is working to solve the serious business tax competitiveness problems that are contributing to the low rate of job creation in Pennsylvania.

Coalition members believe that state business taxes need to be made significantly more competitive to improve Pennsylvania’s economy and increase job growth. Coalition members agree that success in realizing business tax competitiveness improvements will require a united and coordinated message from businesses, economic development organizations, and others across the Commonwealth. We will focus on the following priorities:

Pennsylvania’s Corporate Net Income tax (CNI) is the most uncompetitive in the nation:

Pennsylvania is one of only two states (New Hampshire being the other) that cap the amount of net operating losses (NOLs) that a company can carry forward and offset against their CNI tax liabilities in future years.

Pennsylvania, with its 60% CNI sales factor apportionment, is not as attractive for multi-state firms as those states that have already moved to a 100% sales factor apportionment.

The 9.99% CNI tax rate is now the second highest in the nation.

The uncompetitive cap on NOLs must be removed.

A single sales factor should be adopted (i.e., the sales factor in the apportionment formula should be increased to 100%.)

The Coalition members believe that Pennsylvania's Corporate Net Income tax rate of 9.99% should be lowered to make Pennsylvania more competitive. The rate should be lowered as soon as possible, but after enactment of legislation removing the cap on NOLs and establishing a single sales factor apportionment formula.

The Coalition members believe that the current planned phase-out of the uncompetitive Capital Stock and Franchise Tax (CSFT) by 2011 must remain on schedule.