The authors estimate the taxes paid by businesses to state and local governments in fiscal 2003: the total is $400 billion, the report says. Businesses paid 65 percent of the increase in state and local taxes from fiscal 2002 to fiscal 2003, according to the authors

The authors examine the effect of sales taxes on business services and say that states should not extend sales taxes to those services. States should not tax business inputs, the authors say; businesses are already paying more than $100 billion in sales taxes on services, they calculate