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Saturday, January 17, 2015

Bait & Switch: “Economic Development” in the States

Businesses do not locate in any one place solely because of the tax laws

North Carolina recently offered Boeing $683 million in tax incentives to open a plant in North Carolina to build Boeing’s new 777X jetliner.

The NC bid failed, as did those from some other states, when Boeing decided to build the 777X in its home state of Washington where there is no state, personal, or corporate income tax.

More recently, North Carolina was prepared to offer Toyota up to $107 million worth of incentives to lure the automaker’s North American headquarters from Los Angeles to Charlotte, bringing 2,900 jobs with it. The Charlotte Observer reported that Charlotte lost out to Plano, Texas. The Texas offer was only $40 million but Texas has no corporate or personal income tax and has direct flights to Japan.

Businesses do not locate in any one place solely because of the tax laws. However, as tax burdens climb, the tax treatment of the business itself, and of its higher-paid employees and executives, becomes a more important consideration. Thus the incentive packages, made up primarily of special tax abatements for a set period of time, are developed and used in recruiting new businesses.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Boeing "secretly" builds the perfectly triangular shaped planes that people from all over have reported seeing.Why they are such a big secret is a mystery.Maybe their ability to come to a complete stop and run silent is a major technological advancement?

Anonymous said...

This is SO true. We need to be focused on our downtown, our riverfront and our schools. Everything else is meaningless. Government shouldn't get in the way, but tax rates really truly don't matter one bit.