Publications
Gross Receipts Taxes
State governments have traditionally raised revenue from business by taxing corporate income. But in recent years the growing difficulty of administering state corporate income taxes has prompted a resurgence in one of the world's oldest broad-based tax structures: the gross receipts tax, also known as the "turnover tax." Gross receipts taxes have a simple structure, taxing all business sales with few or no deductions. Because they tax transactions, they are often compared to retail sales taxes. However, while well designed sales taxes apply only to final sales to consumers, gross receipts taxes tax all transactions, including intermediate business-to-business purchases of supplies, raw materials and equipment. As a result, gross receipts taxes create an extra layer of taxation at each stage of production that sales and other taxes do not—something economists call "tax pyramiding."
Additional questions about gross receipts taxes? Contact us at (202) 464-6200.
Publications from The Tax Foundation
- Economic Incidence: Consumers May Not Remit Ohio’s Tax on Grocery Sales, But They Pay It, by Joseph Henchman, Maurice Thompson and Justin Burrows, May 26, 2009
- The Hidden Tax for Sm(all) Business in Governor Blagojevich's Gross Receipts Tax, by Chris Atkins, March 29, 2007
- Gross Receipts Taxes in State Government Finances: A Review of Their History and Performance, by John L. Mikesell, January 31, 2007
- Tax Reform in Michigan: Replacing the Single Business Tax, by Chris Atkins and Jonathan Williams, January 24, 2007
- Tax Pyramiding: The Economic Consequences of Gross Receipts Taxes, by Andrew Chamberlain and Patrick Fleenor, December 4, 2006