“San Francisco’s large companies are shouldering a tax burden that’s more than double that of the Bay Area city with the next-highest tax burden on big businesses – Oakland,” the San Francisco Business Times reported today, citing a new study by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.
“In recent years, downtown San Francisco has lost the headquarters of Fortune 500 companies such as Charles Schwab Corp. and McKesson Corp,” the Business Times wrote. “Companies with high growth in recent years, including Brex and Coinbase, gave up their San Francisco headquarters in favor of a no-HQ strategy. San Francisco’s business-tax structure provides powerful incentives for companies to take their headquarters and employees out of the city.”
The story noted that businesses don’t have to move very far to find a less expensive location.
“Much lower business taxes are found in San Jose, Walnut Creek and Sunnyvale, according to the institute’s study, which examined business taxes in 15 Bay Area cities,” the newspaper reported.