{"id":1548,"date":"2011-10-27T15:32:38","date_gmt":"2011-10-27T20:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=1548"},"modified":"2012-12-27T13:26:36","modified_gmt":"2012-12-27T19:26:36","slug":"billions-in-state-tax-breaks-but-no-complete-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2011\/10\/27\/billions-in-state-tax-breaks-but-no-complete-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Billions in State Tax Breaks, But No Complete List"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Logan Layden \/ NPR StateImpact<\/p>\n

This pile of poultry litter will be used as fertilizer and mixed with soil at Conrad Farms in Gore, Okla.<\/p>\n<\/div>

When Oklahomans fill out their state tax forms, most receive some form of break on what\u2019s owed, whether it\u2019s credits, deductions or exemptions on income, sales, excise, franchise or gross production taxes.<\/p>

So just how many tax and fee breaks does Oklahoma have on the books?<\/p>

StateImpact Oklahoma has been asking for a few months now.<\/p>

What we found out: No one really knows for sure.<\/p>


\nhttps:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2011\/10\/WackyCredits-FinalAudio.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/p>

State Sen. Tom Adelson, D-Tulsa, is a fixture at meetings of the Task Force for the Study of State Tax Credits and Economic Incentives and a member of the finance committee. Even he isn\u2019t sure.<\/p>

“The Tax Commission isn\u2019t even able to track all of them,” Adelson said.\u00a0“And I might refer you to Representative Dank, because he\u2019s had his House staff look at it.”<\/p>

Rep. David Dank, R-Oklahoma City, chairs the legislative task force and has railed against what he calls wasteful credits for years. Surely he\u2019ll know.<\/p>

“You\u2019re talking about two different things,” Dank said.\u00a0“One is you\u2019re talking about tax credits, then you\u2019re talking about tax incentives, and then, quite frankly, three or four different things. And you\u2019re talking about deductions from the tax code. You\u2019re talking about exemptions to the income tax. So there are a lot of areas.”<\/p>

So, there are \u201ca lot\u201d of tax breaks on Oklahoma\u2019s books. That\u2019s a given. Maybe state Tax Commission Administrator Tony Mastin has the answer.<\/p>

“We have a tax expenditure report,” Mastin said.\u00a0“It\u2019s on our website.”<\/p>

(To download the 2009-2010 Oklahoma Tax Expenditure Report, click here<\/a>.)<\/p>

The biannual tax expenditure report. It\u2019s an almost complete<\/em> list of every tax and fee break. There may be a few that slip through the cracks, but it\u2019s the commission\u2019s best effort to account for them all. And the total stands at about 467. They range from the popular and well known, like the income tax standard deduction, to the more obscure.<\/p>

[module align=”left” width=”half” type=”pull-quote”]<\/p>

“The Tax Commission isn\u2019t even able to track all of them.”<\/p>\n

-Sen. Tom Adelson, D-Tulsa<\/h6>

[\/module]<\/p>\n

For example, there are sales tax exemptions for property sold to organizations promoting second amendment rights, for the sale of paper napkins and cups to food venders, and for railroad track spikes manufactured and used in Oklahoma.<\/span><\/h6>

Those not having to pay vehicle registration fees include religious societies and owners of classic cars used in exhibitions. There are income tax credits for the removal of dry fire hydrants, for breeders of specially trained dogs, and even for the purchase of chicken manure.<\/p>

A farm hand fires up a tractor to begin planting spinach at Conrad Farms just outside of Gore in eastern Oklahoma. Taxpayers helped fertilize this soil in the form of a $5 tax credit for each ton of poultry litter purchased. It\u2019s supposed to be an incentive is to move the chicken waste out of the Illinois River Watershed.<\/p>

Steve Conrad owns the 2,100 acre farm and was shocked to hear how much he benefited from the credit. In 2009, Conrad got more than $37,000 in poultry litter credits.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

LOGAN LAYDEN\/NPR STATEIMPACT<\/p>\n

Steve Conrad, owner of Conrad Farms, shows off the tractor he converted to pick spinach.<\/p>\n<\/div>

“I could never really figure out for sure how many dollars I was actually saving,” Conrad said.\u00a0“Like I say, it\u2019s in the form of a credit. I don\u2019t know where exactly it fits into your return. I\u2019m really not \u2013 I\u2019m sure it\u2019s not on the bottom line. I\u2019d have to call my accountant.”<\/p>

He called his accountant and confirmed receiving about 7,500 tons.<\/p>

Despite the thousands of dollars that helped out Conrad Farms and dozens of others over the past few years, this credit represents a very small portion of Oklahoma\u2019s yearly tax expenditure, which is estimated to be as high as $5 billion. Though the Tax Commission says that number is too high and it\u2019s impossible to get an exact figure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Oklahomans fill out their state tax forms, most receive some form of break on what\u2019s owed, whether it\u2019s credits, deductions or exemptions on income, sales, excise, franchise or gross production taxes.So just how many tax and fee breaks does Oklahoma have on the books?StateImpact Oklahoma has been asking for a few months now.What we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":1595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[492,15],"tags":[55,118,148,60,147],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1548"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1648,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548\/revisions\/1648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}