WASHINGTON — Corporate income tax receipts fell $96 billion, or 25 percent, in the first 11 months of the fiscal year, the Congressional Budget Office reported. The office attributed the decline to the 2025 reconciliation act, which lets companies deduct more of certain investments, lowering some of their tax payments.
The Ternby Business Alliance, which represents 140 member businesses in Ternby and the surrounding county, responded the same afternoon with a plan. Its proposal is that companies make up the difference by paying less.
Warren Tebbs, a spokesman for the Alliance, said the Alliance had been studying the decline since the spring, when the first monthly figures showed corporate receipts running well below the year before. The Alliance’s conclusion, he said, was that the decline was a success that had not yet been fully appreciated.
“Corporations have already done their part. They paid a quarter less than last year, and nobody had to ask them twice,” Tebbs said. “If the government is short, the answer is not to take more from the companies. It is for the companies to cover the shortfall, at the lower rate.”
Tebbs said the mechanism is simple. A company would calculate what it owes, subtract the amount the government is missing, and remit the result as a voluntary contribution. The Alliance would then issue the company a certificate confirming it had covered its part of the gap.
“Everybody gets a certificate,” Tebbs said. “The government gets the difference. Nobody pays more than they did before, which is the whole point.”
The budget office has also reported a federal deficit of about $2.0 trillion for fiscal 2026, roughly $218 billion more than the year before. Revenue rose $169 billion. Spending rose $386 billion.
Tebbs said the members were pleased with the arrangement and would be sending the government a thank-you card. The Alliance will pay for the card at the reduced rate.
Dr. Marjorie Teller, director of the Center for Measured Outcomes, said the Center would need at least two years of voluntary-contribution data before drawing any conclusion about whether the method works. She said the Center had already applied for the funding to collect it.
Marla Kuhn, who owns a hardware store on Front Street in Ternby, said she had paid her taxes in full every year and was not certain she had been doing it correctly. She said she would ask the Alliance for a certificate at its next meeting.
Tebbs said the Alliance would announce a formal plan once its members had finished paying less. He then said he had to take a call from a member who had paid nothing at all and wanted to be recognized for it.
Glenn Whitacre filed from a parking lot outside the Ternby Business Alliance office.