Thanks for reading and commenting! When I described The Tax Foundation as “pro-business” that’s based upon my understanding of a lot of your positions and more of a shorthand for people unfamiliar with the organization. I did not mean to imply that you are on one side of the aisle or the other. John Conyers is about as left as you get in Congress and is one of the auto industry’s best friends, for instance. I see that it could have been taken that way but I did not mean to imply it.

As far as combined reporting goes, I’m glad you are studying it. I was apparently reading more into your statements. I think it is the best way for states to combat shelters like the Geoffrey structure (and the REIT and other structures that have popped up since then) without disallowing legitimate transactions that have no tax avoidance purpose (a centralized Treasury function for example).

I do want the Foundation to keep up the good work. You do provide an excellent (and free) resource for those that actually want to learn about taxes from more than a political perspective.

I would, however, like to respond to two of your contentions:

1. I don’t think I was dismissive of combined reporting. In the second to last paragraph I did say that combined reporting is one tool that states can use to combat tax sheltering. The focus of my post, however, was that lawmakers shouldn’t enact any corporate tax policy (including combined reporting) based on the Comptroller’s report, because it does not tell lawmakers why corporations are paying zero tax. As far as the issue itself, we have no official position on combined reporting though we are studying the issue.

2. The Tax Foundation is not a pro-business lobbying group, we are a non-partisan think tank. Our principles guide our work which, naturally, leads to criticism from both sides of the aisle.

Thanks again for reading the Tax Policy Blog!

Sincerely,

Chris Atkins
Senior Tax Counsel
Tax Foundation