Currently, businesses and corporations in Pennsylvania can shift their earnings to states with lighter tax burdens to pay less in corporate net income taxes.

It’s a strategy that is commonly referred to as the “Delaware loophole” since Delaware does not levy a corporate net income tax on business subsidiaries holding intangible assets. This allows multi-state businesses to transfer money to their Delaware-based subsidiary through transactions and other maneuvers to avoid paying the CNIT in other states, including Pennsylvania.

A recently released Independent Fiscal Office review of Governor Tom Wolf’s 2018 budget analyzed three marquee proposals found within — a cut in the state’s corporate net income tax, a natural gas severance tax and raising the minimum wage to $12.00.

Taken together, the IFO predicted an average annual gain of $418 million each year in state revenue, which peaks in the early 2020s before falling down by 2023.