From One Wisconsin Now comes news that PACUR LLC, the plastics company owned by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson, had zero net state income taxes from 1997 to 2008:
One Wisconsin Now obtained tax records for both Johnson and PACUR LLC, which show Johnson had net personal state income tax of $645,092 between 1997-2008, an estimated $9.5 million in earnings. Over the same period of time PACUR LLC had zero net state income taxes. (Figures for 2009 were not available.) [Wisconsin Department of Revenue]
Johnson has regularly criticized the tax system as it relates to businesses and individuals, including appearing at the April 15, 2010 so-called Tea Party anti-tax event at the state capitol in Madison just prior to entering the race for U.S. Senate.
“Ron Johnson will have to explain the scheme by which PACUR LLC is able to make political contributions while paying no state income taxes,” said Ross. “Perhaps Ron Johnson can get out his dry erase board and draw up the complicated tax shelters his accountants crafted in order to shield his business’s assets.”
Heh….sounds familiar.
Hello, NO LLC’s Pay State of WI Income Taxes. Perhaps you should be educating yourselves on the Tax laws for Businesses instead of wasting money and time on this.
John’s correct. LLC’s provide flow through taxation:
“Flow Through Taxation: All your business losses, profits, and expenses flow through the company to the individual members. You avoid the double taxation of paying corporate tax and individual tax. Generally, this will be a tax advantage, but circumstances can favor a corporate tax structure.”
http://sbinformation.about.com/cs/ownership1/a/LLC.htm
Since (I believe) this information came from OWN and other persons with legal expertise I guess it’s up to them to research and clarify, not Zach.
It would be nice to hear some kind of response to your charges. If info comes from a blog/source you trust you take stuff on faith sometimes.
We can’t all become corporate lawyers before re=posting information.
I hope to hear a follow up at some point. I don’t find the link you posted that clarifying and I like my own legal advice fro something other than About.com
But, the page you linked to says the flow thru is an option and that for some a corporate tax structure is more appropriate.
“A LLC may federally be classified as a sole-proprietorship, partnership, or corporation for tax purposes. Classification can be selected or a default may apply.”
Do you know what Johnson’s business tax structure actually is? or are YOU just surmising and assigning best possible motives to Johnson? It looks to me like you don’t know any more than we do really.
The important thing is, now that the issue has been raised, people who know about this will “find” the truth.
With all the funky bookwork from all kinds of people these days, raising this issue is not a waste of time. Going public in an accusatory fashion (if that’s what the initial writer did) before you ‘get educated” isn’t all that cool.
But you know, there was that woman who got fired because of mis-leading accusations by a conservative blogger that got picked up and repeated with nasty consequences before it was proven false.
Zach and even OWN didn’t exactly invent this crap.
Say, did you hear that Obama’s a Muuuuzlim? and I hear Limbaugh says he looks “demonic” too.
So Y’know, get the log outta your own eye first, my brethren. right?
http://nlt.scripturetext.com/matthew/7.htm
“A LLC may federally be classified as a sole-proprietorship, partnership, or corporation for tax purposes. Classification can be selected or a default may apply.”
See the thing Annie,is that I acatually am a corporate lawyer. With the exception of the ability to be taxed as “coporation” each of the entity forms also provide for flow through taxation.
However, to be taxed as a corporation, an LLC must actually file Form 8832 and choose to be taxed as part of its tax return. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8832.pdf
I have seen no evidence that such a form was ever filed. From a tax planning perspective, the only reason for an LLC to be taxed as a corporation is if it intends to retain profits and use them for future expansion. Yet, the the article states that Johnson had paid taxes. In other words, the LLC did not retain profits–it distributed them.
Finally, it would defy logic to suggest that any corporation would actually take the time to file a return for 11 years but forget to pay taxes. But your right it is only an assumption. Specfically, I am assuming that an LLC which is represented by some of the most prominent law firms and accounting firms, would not file the required forms and then forget to pay taxes for 11 years.
Further, OWN made this statement as part of a press release to insinuate that Johnson’s company was illegally failing to pay taxes. Zach has cateogrized it as “Breaking! Shock! … . Of course, its hardly breaking news if an LLC doesn’t pay taxes because avoiding the double taxation is the most salient feature of an LLC.
But Corporate/Profits = Greed = Evil.
Don’t cloud the issue with facts. 🙂
Partisan gotcha’ always lays waste to the truth this time of year.