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Bill would scrub old tax formula from books
Listen to this articleMaybe you thought Pennsylvania’s dreaded capital stock and franchise tax was dead.
You may even remember that former Gov. Tom Ridge signed a bill in 2000 to phase out the tax. It had been in place since 1927, and was largely hated by businesses.
The tax took longer than expected to die – it was finally eliminated at the start of 2016 after several extensions of the phase-out, initially scheduled for 2008.
But while no one has been collecting the tax, the complicated formula for calculating it remained on the books.
The state House, however, passed a bill Wednesday that would remove the formula, er, assessment methodology, from state law.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Zach Mako (R-Lehigh/Northampton), now goes to the Senate for consideration. It is part of a series of bills aiming to clear out antiquated and unenforced laws.
“While the capital stock and foreign franchise taxes are no longer collected, some may be confused that the explanation of how they are calculated is still in state law.” Mako said in a statement. “My bill would eliminate this unneeded language. It is important to periodically make sure contradictory laws are repealed to avoid misunderstandings.”
