San Francisco Controller's Report Outlines Plan To Ditch City's Payroll Tax
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — A new report from the San Francisco City Controller lays out a plan for businesses to switch from a payroll tax to a gross receipts tax, something Supervisor David Chiu is anxious to do.
San Francisco generates $410 million in revenue from the payroll tax, but only 10 percent of businesses pay that. Critics have said it acts as a disincentive to companies that want to increase their workforce.
"The new tax system would capture some more companies. In addition to that it would make sure that we are collecting tax revenues from companies that are seeing income and revenue," Chiu said.
About 34,000 companies would pay the new tax compared to only 7,500 that pay the payroll tax.
Chiu hopes to put a new tax plan on the November ballot.
KCBS' Barbara Taylor Reports:
"I do expect that there would be further refinements or tweaks to some specific tax breaks to make sure that we are doing this in a way that's fair," said Chiu.
According to the report, San Francisco has the highest business taxes in the state.
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