Manufacturers of durable goods and the transportation, communications and utilities group both experienced increases in shares. The WTA also addressed the issue of tax incidence-who ultimately pays the corporate tax. Al- though corporations initially pay corporate income taxes, most economists agree that the burden is ultimately shifted on to consumers, workers and shareholders. A recent Minnesota study illustrates this. Apart from examining statistical information relating to the corporate income tax, the report addresses important policy issues such as apportionment and combined reporting.
Apportionment determines how much of a multistate corporation's income is taxable in Wisconsin.
There have been several recent proposals to change the weighting formula to count only sales. Wisconsin currently allows these corporations to report earnings separately for each of the companies. A minority of states require the parent corporation to combine the finances of all its subsidiaries for tax purposes. The report suggests state sharing in federally-collected corporate tax revenues as an alternative worth consideration.