Boeing data filed with the Washington Department of Revenue shows the state’s aerospace tax breaks have saved the jet maker half a billion dollars over the past two years.
Boeing data filed with the Department of Revenue shows the state’s aerospace tax breaks have saved the jet maker half a billion dollars over the past two years.
Last week, Boeing for the first time released the precise figure for its 2015 tax savings — $305 million that year.
On Monday, the company filed more data, disclosing that in 2014 it saved $217 million, for a two-year total savings of $522 million.
Boeing state tax savings in 2014 and 2015
• Aerospace Computer, Software, and Peripherals Sales & Use Tax Exemption
2015: $3,000,000
2014: N/A
• Aerospace Manufacturers Reduced B&O Tax Rates
2015: $106,059,430
2014: $102,702,704
• Aerospace Manufacturing Site Sales & Use Tax Exemption
2015 $51,400,000
2014 $19,586,512
• Aerospace Preproduction Expenditures B&O Tax Credit
2015 $105,677,735
2014 $75,383,434
• Aerospace Property & Leasehold Excise Taxes B&O Tax Credit
2015 $34,329,766
2014 $19,290,849
• Data Center Sales & Use Tax Exemption
2015 $4,300,000.00
2014 N/A
Total Incentive Amount Claimed
2015 $304,766,932
2014 $216,963,499
source: Washington State Department of Revenue.
The main tax breaks, which apply to all aerospace companies, consist of a 40 percent reduction in the state’s business tax rate, plus various business tax credits for capital expenditure on preproduction work — in Boeing’s case, the money spent on buildings and equipment in Everett to prepare for production of the new 777X jet.
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To Boeing these B&O tax breaks were worth $246 million last year and $197 million the year before.
Boeing also received sales-tax exemptions for computer equipment and for purchases related to its construction of the new 777X buildings. Those were worth $54 million last year. The figure for 2014 was not fully disclosed but included $20 million related to construction purchases.
Boeing separately received another sales and use tax exemption for purchases related to its construction of a large data center in Quincy, Grant County. In 2015 that was worth $4.3 million. The data center’s tax break for 2014 was not disclosed.
The disclosures came after The Seattle Times successfully reversed an initial ruling by state tax officials that the information would not be made public for a decade.
The aerospace tax incentives claimed by Boeing were first approved by the Legislature in 2003. In 2013, Gov. Jay Inslee and state lawmakers agreed to extend the tax breaks to 2040 in exchange for the 777X work.
Since then, the tax breaks have become controversial as Boeing has shed more than 6,000 jobs.
Boeing contends the tax break still represent good value for the state, noting that the company spent more than $13 billion here in 2015.