NC business taxes lowest in nation (again)

The Council on State Taxation and Ernst and Young accounting firm just released their annual analysis of state tax burdens on business. Ranking last, i.e. having the lowest taxes on business, is our own home state of North Carolina. That’s right. NC’s state and local taxes paid by businesses represent 3.5% of total Gross State Product which ties our state with Oregon for the lowest taxes on business. The analysis certainly isn’t perfect. A good argument can be made that it actually overstates the share of state and local taxes that are paid by businesses and that it understates the benefits to businesses of some types of government spending (educating current and future workers, administering the courts, etc.). Nonetheless, the report makes it pretty obvious that cutting business taxes in North Carolina is not the ticket to growing our state’s economy.