Kansas Tried a Tax Plan Similar to Trump’s. It Failed.

The following article by Jim Tankersley was posted on the New York Times website October 10, 2017:

Gov. Sam Brownback, center, signed the tax bill into law in May 2012. The law cut individual income taxes and eliminated state income taxes entirely for pass-through entities in an attempt to attract investment and create jobs. Credit Thad Allton/Topeka Capital-Journal, via Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. — In December 2014, the University of Kansas agreed to pay David Beaty $800,000 a year, plus incentives, to be the football program’s head coach, but with an interesting structure: More than two-thirds of that pay would be channeled to an organization called DB Sports L.L.C.

DB Sports is what accountants call a pass-through entity, and it pays all of its profits directly to Mr. Beaty. As a result of a tax law that Kansas lawmakers passed in 2012, ostensibly to benefit beleaguered small businesses in the state, that contract structure allowed Mr. Beaty to avoid paying about $37,000 a year in state income taxes, nearly enough to fund a first-year teacher’s salary in the Wichita school district. Continue reading “Kansas Tried a Tax Plan Similar to Trump’s. It Failed.”