Corporations can pay their
franchise taxes online by visiting the Secretary of State's website at SoS.
Following this advice can help taxpayers avoid surprising demands by New York for
franchise taxes, interest, and penalties.
The client saved $2 million in state income taxes by filing amended returns that apportioned income from its home state into the other states where it had paid
franchise taxes. Doing so substantially reduced the company's effective tax rate.
For income tax purposes, including
franchise taxes based on income, federal law (P.L.
Some speakers at the meeting Monday suggested that all businesses pay
franchise taxes. One suggested that the state look into ways to tax catalog sales, a suggestion McDonald said could be expanded to include Internet sales.
Twenty-nine percent mentioned low income or
franchise taxes and 27 percent cited a low wage base.
(This article is limited to a discussion of income and
franchise taxes. The company should balance these strategies with strategies for other state and local taxes, such as property taxes.)
The state's sales tax - it's biggest single source of revenue - could also take a hit, because the court's ruling on
franchise taxes turned on a legal definition that is also used in the sales tax code.
Under this very broad definition, most state assessments, including some
franchise taxes based on earned surplus or income taxes, qualify as income tax payments under the umbrella of ASC 740.
On August 23, TEI submitted comments to the Multistate Tax Commission on the MTC's uniformity proposed for a factor-presence nexus standard for apportioned and income and
franchise taxes. While the Institute embraced the goal of crafting a "simple and certain standard for income and franchise tax nexus," it urged the MTC to abandon its uniformity proposal.
For example, she said
franchise taxes were not really taxes but, rather, they were exchange transactions.
At 25 percent of the state and local tax burden, property taxes are substantially greater than sales and use taxes (19 percent) and
franchise taxes (12 percent) as an economic concern.