Summary of tax exemption devices

(1) Declaration of policy. Because state policy objectives are sought and achieved by both governmental expenditures and tax exemption, and because both have an impact on the government’s capacity to lower tax rates or raise expenditures, both should receive regular comprehensive review by the governor and the legislature in the budgetary process. This section seeks to facilitate such comprehensive review by providing for the generation of information concerning tax exemptions and other similar devices comparable to expenditure information. (2) Definition. For the purposes of this section “tax exemption device” means any tax provision which exempts, in whole or in part, certain persons, income, goods, services, or property from the impact of established taxes, including, but not limited because of failure of enumeration, to those devices known as tax deductions, tax allowances, tax exclusions, tax credits and tax exemptions. (3) Report on tax exemption devices. The department of revenue shall, in each even-numbered year on the date prescribed for it by the secretary, furnish to the secretary a report detailing the approximate costs in lost revenue, the policy purposes and to the extent possible, indicators of effectiveness in achieving such purposes, for all state tax exemption devices, including those based on the internal revenue code, in effect at the time of the report. The report need relate only to chs. 71, 76 and 77 tax exemption devices and to property tax exemptions for which reports are required under s. 70.337. The report shall be prepared in such a manner as to facilitate the making of comparisons with the information reported in s. 16.46 (1) to (6).