CA Revenue & Taxation Committee holding hearing at SJSU on 12/5/11

The California Assembly Revenue & Taxation Committee is holding a hearing on the San Jose State University campus on Monday, December 5, 2011. Details:

REVENUE AND TAXATION
PEREA, Chair
9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. - San Jose State University
Student Union, Second Floor - Music
One Washington Square
San Jose

CALIFORNIA'S HIGH TECH SECTOR: PROMOTING JOB CREATION AND INNOVATION
THROUGH SOUND TAX POLICY

The agenda:

1) Introductory Remarks by Henry T. Perea, Chair (3 minutes)

2) Introductory Remarks by Tim Donnelly, Vice-Chair (3 minutes)

3) Tax Policy, Job Creation and Innovation: Perspectives from the Industry
(45 minutes)

a) Corey C. Owens, Associate Manager of Public Policy, Facebook

b) Jim Hawley, Senior Vice President & General Counsel, TechNet

c) Jon Haveman, Chief Economist, Bay Area Council Economic Institute

d) Gail Maderis, President & CEO, BayBio

4) Tax Policy, Job Creation and Innovation: Perspectives from Tax Experts
(60 minutes)

a) James Nachbaur, Economist, Legislative Analyst's Office

b) Robert D. Atkinson, President, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

c) Dan Berglund, President & CEO, State Science & Technology Institute

d) Robert S. Chirinko, Professor of Finance, University of Illinois at Chicago

e) Annette Nellen, Professor of Accounting and Finance, San Jose State University

5) Public-Private Partnerships (60 minutes)

a) Mohammad H. Qayoumi, President, San José State University

b) Carol Mimura, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Intellectual Property & Industry Research Alliances (IPIRA), University of California, Berkeley

c) Elizabeth Seifel, President, Seifel Consulting, Inc.

d) Kim Walesh, Director of Economic Development, City of San José

6) Public Comments (15 minutes)

7) Chair's Closing Remarks

I'm glad to hear the part about promoting "sound tax policy" - that's always good. How much should the tax law be used as a tool to try to promote job creation and innovation? Well, it should at least not be structured to hinder job creation and innovation. I'll be testifying on how tax policy should be considered in tax design. One point I like to make is that the taxing jurisdiction's economic, societal and environmental goals should be known and the tax law should not work counter to such goals. For example, in 2009, California adopted single sales factor apportionment which is generally good for in-state businesses, but at about the same time, increased the sales tax rate which hurts in-state companies buying equipment.

Well, back to drafting testimony!