9 out of 10: Wall Pays No State Income Taxes
Republican Primary Candidate Doesn’t Shoot Straight
Madison, WI – The first thing most Wisconsinites learned about multimillionaire, real estate magnate Terrence Wall is that he didn’t pay any state income taxes four of the last five years. Now, a Wisconsin State Journal report has revealed that Wall hasn’t paid state income taxes for nine of the last 10 years.
According to state Department of Revenue figures, Wall paid no net taxes from 1999 to 2008, except in 2005.
“First, he paid no taxes in four of the last five years and he didn’t give a straight answer as to why he believes there is one set rules for him and another for the rest of us,” said Mike Tate, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, “Now we learn that he hasn’t paid them in nine of the last ten years and his shifting explanations just don’t hold up.”
When questioned over the last week, Wall has not denied the fact that he paid no state income taxes in four of the last five years. However, Wall’s answers as to why he paid no state income taxes, and why he owed no state income taxes, have changed over time.
January 16: Wall campaign tells wispolitics.com he paid $30 million in taxes
January 18: Wall campaign tells WTMJ 4, “Terrence Wall didn’t pay anything because he didn’t owe anything,” and that “tax incentives and charitable giving off set [his] income taxes.”
January 19: Wall tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “he paid no state income taxes for several years for two main reasons — he took advantage of investment tax credits and tax code provisions that permit offsetting income with depreciation of real estate.”
Wall did not include “charitable giving” as one his “two main reasons.”
January 19: Wall tells the media at his announcement kick-off that he and his companies have paid “over $65 million” in taxes.
January 20: Wall tells radio host Charlie Sykes that he “took advantage of a tax credit program, amended and passed into law by Governor Doyle and the Democrats in the State Legislature,” in 2004.
Of course this doesn’t explain why he didn’t pay any state income taxes from 1999-2004 or why he did pay state income taxes in 2005- the only year he paid state income taxes in the last ten years.
Sykes said: “Of course it’s going to be a problem. You know, and the more you try to explain it, the more you’re essentially explaining that you live in a completely different fiscal environment than most of the working people of Wisconsin.”
January 22: Wall’s campaign tells the Badger Herald that Wall paid no state income taxes because of “tax credits Wall received from the state for risky business investments, job creation and charitable contributions.”
January 23: The Wisconsin State Journal Reports Wall “has not paid personal state income taxes in nine of the last 10 years, according to state Department of Revenue figures.” The story states that the “document indicates Wall, a real estate developer, paid no net taxes from 1999 to 2008, except in 2005 when he paid $43,520.”
Wall’s Tax Trouble Trail
Previous news reports indicate Wall has also dodged over a hundred thousand dollars in property taxes by claiming commercial land he owns in the Madison area is for “farming.” The most infamous is a supposed “pumpkin patch” located in the heart of Wall’s Middleton development projects.
As the Capital Times reported, “The law has shifted millions in property taxes from farms to other types of property, including homes and businesses. Wall has tried claim that it’s the same thing as taking a “home mortgage deduction,” but that’s simply not true. Regular Wisconsinites don’t have a loophole that allows them to take a property tax deduction for their backyard vegetable and Mr. Wall doesn’t call a pumpkin patch “home.”
In a recent interview with Wisconsin Eye, Wall claimed to have only four companies registered in Delaware when public records indicate that at least 16 of Wall’s businesses are incorporated in Delaware, not Wisconsin. The media has reported that the practice is used “to help corporations avoid paying taxes in other states,” and that it is “an alleged ruse,” where Delaware acts as an “onshore Cayman Islands.”
