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August 29, 2025                                                                                       (916) 553-4093

New on Substack
What Businesses Really Pay in California

In his most recent Substack article, California Business Roundtable President Rob Lapsley pushes back against ongoing inaccurate reports that corporations don't pay their "fair share" of taxes in California. 

Lapsley writes: 

Corporate income tax is only one of many taxes businesses pay. Since voters approved Prop 30 in 2012, boosting personal income tax rates, the corporate income tax has made up only about 10% of all state and local business taxes. Even in 2022, after changes that pushed some pass-throughs into the CIT system, the corporate tax share was still just 20%.

Meanwhile, total state and local business taxes more than doubled from 2012 to 2022—rising by nearly $87 billion to $167 billion. And that doesn’t even capture the countless fees businesses face: from environmental regulations, to California-only product requirements, to hidden costs like cap-and-trade charges and the Low Carbon Fuel Standard baked into energy prices.

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