ANNALS OF DeSANTISTAN: Don’t overtax Floridians while giving corporations a pass. (Scott Maxwell column, Orlando Sentinel, May 22, 2025)

Thanks to the courage of Governor Reuben Askew, Florida voters adopted a corporate income tax.  Thanks to the power of lobbyists, in short order it was largely foiled by creating a new form of governance for corporations, the Limited Liability Corporation, which is not technically a corporation.  

Here's Scott Maxwell's column from Orlando Sentinel:

Maxwell: Don’t overtax Floridians while giving corporations a pass

Lawmakers in Tallahassee are debating whether to reform reform sales taxes or properties. Meanwhile, 99% of Florida corporations pay no corporate income tax at all. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

By SCOTT MAXWELL | smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com | Orlando Sentinel

UPDATED: May 22, 2025 at 8:43 PM EDT

This year’s legislative session was basically a political pu pu platter, offering a little bit of everything — political infighting, lobbyist-driven favoritism and a few good bills.

But everything blew up when lawmakers couldn’t pass a budget, sending the session into overtime.

The main point of contention is tax reform. Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to focus on property taxes while some GOP legislators want to look at sales taxes.

Well, I’m here today to suggest these folks are staging the wrong debate. Instead of focusing on how much money you pay in taxes on your house and at the cash register, they should be looking at how little corporations pay.

Because right now, this state’s tax system is wickedly unbalanced, forcing citizens to carry this state’s tax burden while most corporations get a free ride. Yes, most.

While most Floridians pay property taxes and virtually all pay sales taxes, would you like to guess what percentage of Florida businesses pay corporate income taxes?

Would you guess 90%? Maybe 80%.

Try 1%.

As a result, you, the individual taxpayer, bear the lion’s share of the tax burden.

The national Tax Foundation says Florida has one of the lowest corporate tax burdens in America. Yet you face above-average sales taxes, high gas taxes and the highest number of toll road miles in America.

The corporate tax dodge also leaves Floridians short-changed — with one of the worst-funded public school systems in the country and more than 20,000 families with disabilities on a years-long waiting list for services.

Much of this was detailed in an in-depth series the Orlando Sentinel produced a few years ago called “Big Profits, Tiny Taxes.”

The series showed how Florida allows companies to shuffle their profits and losses through a maze of subsidiaries to dodge tax payments. Most states require what’s known as “combined reporting,” a single tax filing for every company. Florida does not.

As a result, a company like eBay— which posted $34 million worth of profits mined from Florida one year and theoretically should’ve paid $1.8 million in taxes — was able to pay only $18,810.

How often have you been able to get a 99% discount on your taxes?

One tax law expert told the Sentinel at the time: “The Florida corporate income tax leaks like a sieve. Business has it pretty much the way they want it.”

Listen, I know tax policy can be boring. Heck, I practically dozed off while typing the phrase “combined reporting.”

But this is the stuff that leads to you paying higher taxes. And to more toll roads. And to your kids losing out on AP class offerings. Because when one group of taxpayers gets a break, one of only two things happens: Services are cut, or other taxpayers pay more. In recent years, GOP lawmakers have cut business taxes by more than $5 billion while hiking taxes on consumers by more than $1 billion.

Big businesses and their puppet politicians don’t like talking about all this. In fact, the last time we wrote about all this, Florida’s business lobby freaked out and launched a PR push that claimed low corporate taxes have made Florida an economic utopia to which employers flock.

Except some of their claims were baloney.

When the Florida Chamber of Commerce crowed that this state was home to “home to 19 Fortune 500 companies,” it hoped you wouldn’t know that 19 was actually pathetic for a state this size. Some states half our size have more than that. In fact, per capita, Florida had the lowest number of Fortune 500 companies of any big state in America. Low corporate tax rates don’t attract companies nearly as much as ready workforces full of educated and trained employees and a solid quality of life.

Another bogus argument for low corporate taxes is that they lead to lower consumer prices. Again, baloney. Florida has one of the lowest corporate tax burdens, yet an above-averagecost of living.

One of the best stories proving that corporate tax dodges don’t lead to consumer savings involves SeaWorld.

Years ago, the company was able to completely avoid paying any taxes. SeaWorld’s CEO actually bragged about it to investors on an earnings call, saying: “We won’t be a taxpayer for several years to come. That’s a great advantage for us.”

Well, would you like to guess what SeaWorld did that year when it managed to dodge taxes entirely? It raised the price of tickets.

People who argue that consumers always benefit from corporate tax breaks hope you are ignorant of the facts. Companies can use tax savings for everything from CEO salaries and bonuses to stock buybacks and stocking their reserves.

If lawmakers really want to look at meaningful tax reform, they will look at the gigantic lobbyist-funded elephant in the room — this state’s corporate tax dodge. Rather than nibbling around the edges with gimmicks like sales tax “holidays” or one-time, $1,000 rebate checks.

Real reform requires systemic change, which is the last thing corporate lobbyists want.

In fact, while chiding legislators for not reaching a budget deal on time, DeSantis said lawmakers should just stick with the status quo. “It’s honestly not that hard to do any of this stuff,” he said. “You know what you do? You just look back at what’s been done over the last six years. … and you basically copy and paste.”

Well, that’s precisely what the corporate lobbyists want — to keep the tax burden primarily on you.

smaxwell@orlandoentinel.com

Originally Published: May 22, 2025 at 3:22 PM EDT