Is New Jersey’s Corporation Business Tax the Canary in the Coal Mine?

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In a recent Op-Ed, the President and CEO of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, Tom Bracken, sounded the alarm bells over the drop in corporation business tax receipts in the first two months of the new fiscal year (7/1). In the op-ed, Bracken points out that corporation business tax collections were down 54.8% through August 31, 2025 compared to the same period last year, and that the related Business Alternative Income Tax collections were down 36% y/y. Bracken calls this a “warning sign that the state’s economic engine is stalling”. Not surprisingly, the State Treasurer’s Office begs to differ and retorts that it’s too early in the fiscal year to draw these kinds of conclusions and notes that the quarterly estimated corporate business tax payments, which are typically larger than the July-August collections, don’t come in until September.


You can find a link to Tom Bracken’s op-ed here and a related article by NJ Spotlight News here.

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