(Photo by Karolina Grabowska of Pexels)
Registrations for Oregon’s Corporate Activity Tax have topped more than 19,000 in its first year. Through Thursday of last week, 19,043 businesses had registered for the CAT, which was created by the Oregon Legislature in 2019 to raise funding for education.
The Department of Revenue opened registration through Revenue Online a year ago on December 4, 2019, four weeks before the tax went into effect January 1, 2020.
The CAT is imposed on businesses for the privilege of doing business in Oregon. It applies to all types of business entities, including those located inside and outside of Oregon.
The CAT is measured on a business’s commercial activity: the total amount a business realizes from transactions and activity in Oregon.
Once a business reaches $750,000 in Oregon commercial activity for the calendar year, it has 30 days in which to register for the CAT. Businesses with taxable commercial activity in excess of $1 million will have Corporate Activity Tax to pay. The tax is $250 plus 0.57 percent of commercial activity greater than $1 million after subtractions.
The CAT is a calendar-year tax. Taxpayers expecting to owe $10,000 or more for 2020 must make estimated payments. Estimated payments for the fourth quarter will be due February 1. Returns are due April 15.
Training aids to assist with registration and making payments can be found on the CAT page of the agency’s website.
Taxpayers with general questions about the CAT can email cat.help.dor@oregon.gov or call 503-945-8005.
To get tax forms, check the status of your refund, or make tax payments, visit oregon.gov/dor or email questions.dor@oregon.gov. You also can call 800-356-4222 toll-free from an Oregon prefix (English or Spanish) or 503-378-4988 in Salem and outside Oregon. For TTY (hearing- or speech-impaired), we accept all relay calls.
