FBI Investigating NJ Tax Scheme

FBI+Investigating+NJ+Tax+Scheme

Czedric Datu

As of October 21st of 2019, the FBI has started an investigation on New Jersey’s multibillion-dollar tax corporate incentive program (a planned event/trip used to encourage people to achieve a specific business goal), which Governor Phil Murphy described as a “scheme,” that could target the state’s most high-ranked people, otherwise known as a Tax Scheme. A tax scheme by definition is, “States introduce this scheme when they believe that individuals are hiding their wealth from the tax authorities. Tax revenues raised through these schemes are used for the well being of the state.” 

A Philadelphia Inquirer reported that FBI agents interviewed the witnesses over the past month, and are mostly interested in the $1.6 billion in tax breaks(government reduces your tax prices) that the state’s Economic Development Authority awarded to companies.

“This is a rigged system. This was designed by special interests to benefit special interests. It allows hundreds of millions of dollars to flow to insiders based on misleading, false omitted, or fabricated information,” Gov. Phil Murphy stated, where Murphy has also pointed towards a report by The New York Times that revealed 12 companies were involved in the $12 million dollar tax scheme, inviting over “potential fraud and malfeasance (wrongdoing, especially by a public official).”

The New York Times has also given many different examples of these tax schemes, an example being Jaguar Land Rover North America, which holds offices in Mahwah, allegedly once telling New Jersey that it wanted to stay in the state. The state subsequently offered $26 million in tax credits, so Jaguar stayed according to the report. Murphy stated that his administration promises to further investigate after these revelations have been reported since September.