I’m the chief financial officer of Marco’s Franchising, a company founded and headquartered in Ohio that franchises Marco’s Pizza stores across the country. We don’t own the 300-plus stores that operate under our name nor do we pay their employees. So why should we be asked to pay corporate income taxes – in Wisconsin?
That’s a question I’ve been mulling since early this year when Wisconsin told us that we owed it back taxes. Its reasoning was bizarre. Because a single employee of ours visited the single store we franchise – but don’t own – in the state for less than 24 hours, Wisconsin says we must pay corporate taxes there.
With Congress seemingly paralyzed by partisan gridlock, it’s good to see a Republican and a Democrat from a battleground state working together to promote the common good. That’s what Virginia Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R, and Bobby Scott, D, did last year when they co-sponsored the Business Activity Tax Simplification Act. The purpose of the bill is to prohibit states from imposing corporate income taxes on companies with no physical presence within their borders. It is intended to protect businesses from tax grabs by 30 revenue-hungry states.