[Vision2020] Fwd: Tax Commission

[Tom Trail]

>Visionaries


Stan Howland has worked for the Idaho Tax Commission for almost 20 years. His
recent report hit the news several weeks ago allegedly exposing "deals" cut
by Idaho Tax Commissioners with out of state businesses to reduce their taxes
owed to Idaho.  These are businesses that have their corporate headquarters
out of state but do business in Idaho and owe the State taxes.  Auditors
from the Tax Commission pursue these companies and present them with a tax
bill owed the State.  I remember that several years under Gov. Batt these
auditors recovered more than $20 million/year and the average auditor collected
more than one million per auditor--not a bad return.

Mr. Howland reports that in his investigation it was "apparent" that 
Commissioners from the Idaho Tax Commission cut deals with out of 
state
businesses thereby reducing their tax bill.  He also pointed out that the
average Idaho citizen does not have this luxury to "cut" deals.  No charges
were made that commissioners profited from this practice but Mr. Howland
was greatly disturbed that the practice was costing Idaho millions of dollars
in lost revenue.  His second and third reports are attached.

Rep. Tom Trail

>
>
>I have attached second and third supplemental reports that support 
>my concerns and recommendations contained in my initial report dated 
>May 15, 2008. 
>
>
>
>The second report primarily provides additional documentation on the 
>audit cases referred to in my first report.  The third report is a 
>copy of the original legislative audit report issued in 1996 that 
>was written by the legislative auditors.  This is NOT the final 
>report that was issued at that time.
>
>
>
>
>
>


-- 
Dr. Tom Trail
International Trails
1375 Mt. View Rd.
Moscow, Id. 83843
Tel:  (208) 882-6077
Fax:  (208) 882-0896
e mail ttrail at moscow.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20080617/35ad11bf/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: TAX COMMISSION Second Report.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 257188 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20080617/35ad11bf/attachment-0002.pdf 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: TAX COMMISSION Third Report.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 548443 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20080617/35ad11bf/attachment-0003.pdf