Ad Watch: Is Wolf dodging taxes?
They say Wolf is dodging taxes by shifting money to income-tax-free Delaware.
Bringing business inside Delaware’s borders is big. Sixty percent of all public companies are incorporated there – just miles from Pennsylvania.
It’s also home to Weidner University’s Institute of Delaware Corporate and Business Law. Professor Lawarence Hamermesh is a scholar of the state’s tax rules.
He’s not surprised that when Wolf sold the family cabinetry business to an investment firm in 2006, investors required the company incorporate in Delaware.
“There are so many good reasons, in my view at least, why companies setup and organize in Delaware, said Hamermesh “Under Delaware law, that has nothing to do with the Delaware loophole.”
The “Delaware loophole” is a gap in Pennsylvania law that allows companies to setup a shell company in Delaware to pay less in taxes.
Ads by Republican Tom Corbett imply that’s what Wolf has been doing. The ad says: Wolf moved his company to Delaware to keep from paying his fair share of Pennsylvania taxes.”
8 On Your Side obtained the same documents the Corbett campaign uses to back that claim and showed them to Hamermesh.
Corbett points to sale papers showing Wolf’s name listed as an officer and board member of the company.
“That’s a far cry from showing him as the driving force behind the organization – let alone as the driving force behind the move from Pennsylvania to Delaware,” said Hamermesh.
The company’s investors say it’s incorporated in Delaware because its more familiar with the state’s laws.
Hamermesh says there’s no way of knowing if the company saved on taxes by doing it.
Its Delaware filing does not show the company’s cash-flow.
Wolf says he will not be releasing company tax records.
“If tax avoidance is the question, you need to see a lot more than you’ve got here,” said hamermesh.
As part of News 8’s Ad Watch coverage, we’ve classified the claim that Wolf moved his company to Delaware to avoid paying taxes as “misleading.”
The Corbett campaign stands by it, even though the Wolf organization has a presence in more than a dozen other states.
