Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget proposal includes $257 million in often arcane corporate income taxes that haven’t yet been detailed.

The taxes were included in the $1.4 billion in new taxes that Doyle and aides outlined in his budget address Tuesday but were only broken out in documents released by the administration Wednesday.

“The totality of all this stuff is breathtaking,” said Jeff Schoepke, director of tax policy for business lobby Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.

The $257 million in assorted corporate taxes come on top of a $215 million proposal to close out-of-state tax shelters for companies. They are also separate from a new tax on oil companies, a higher capital gains tax, and higher income taxes on married couples making more than $300,000 a year.

Schoepke said the corporate tax changes would affect the state’s largest employers, though he would not name those companies. 

The new taxes include:

• $93.2 million over two years by using all of certain sales that companies make to figure their corporate income taxes. The state currently counts only a portion of these “throwback” sales in figuring corporate taxes.
•  $71.2 million to eliminate a state match for a federal tax deduction for companies that have production in the United States
• $40.8 million to increase sales taxes on certain subsidiaries of parent companies.
• $8 million in higher taxes for “direct air carriers”

Officials from the state Department of Revenue have not yet responded to requests for comment about the proposed taxes.

A spokesman said that Doyle has also proposed in his budget tax credits and deductions for high-tech businesses and dairy and meat producers. He has also put forward some targeted tax cuts for families for items such as health care.

“First of all, the governor spelled out ways to help businesses grow,” Lee Sensenbrenner said, pointing to the tax credits. “Those are real incentives that can help businesses move to Wisconsin.”

Democrats such as Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, co-chairman of the Legislature’s budget committee, have praised Doyle’s moves as “tax fairness” that makes big companies and wealthy individuals pay their fair share.