Lesley Stedman Weidenbener of the Louisville Courier-Journal reports again today (see Oct. 2 entry, along with links to the recent Aztar and Trump decisions; see also this entry posted after the April Tax Court decision in Aztar) on the impact of recent court rulings. Some quotes:
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana's 10 casinos owe the state about $130million in back taxes, penalties and interest for tax years 1995 through 2002, according to an audit the Indiana Department of Revenue finished this week.Posted by Marcia Oddi at October 16, 2004 11:49 AMThe casinos also could owe an additional $30million annually starting this year, said Cathy Henninger, a spokeswoman for the revenue department.
The total bill appears to be less than the Casino Association of Indiana estimated after the Indiana Tax Court ruled earlier this year that the boats had been making improper deductions from their taxable income.
But casino officials say the amount — combined with other recent tax changes — could be enough to stifle investment in the state's casino properties.
"It's a substantial amount of money," said Mike Smith, executive director of the casino association. "We are already a relatively high-taxing state. Once you include our local-share agreements, we pay more in taxes than the 294 casinos pay in Nevada." * * *
Smith said yesterday that the casino association's members haven't decided whether to ask lawmakers to change the law and allow the casinos to deduct what they pay in wagering taxes from their taxable income. But he said he's confident the result of the ruling is not what lawmakers originally intended when they wrote casino tax laws.
"I'm hopeful this is an inadvertent and unplanned event," said Smith, a former member of the Indiana House. "I don't think the legislature's intent would have been to tax a tax."