Two of every three companies that filed Wisconsin tax returns in 2003 paid no state corporate income tax, according to state tax records unveiled Monday.

The assertion Monday by the Institute for Wisconsin's Future, a self-described "progressive" policy center in Milwaukee, that the data shows corporations aren't paying what they should was immediately disputed by the state's business lobby.

The companies that didn't pay any business income taxes include such state corporations as Johnson Controls, Kohl's, Harley-Davidson, and such national companies as Kraft Foods and PepsiCo, according to the institute's data.

The data rebut claims by state businesses that they are overtaxed, said Jack Norman, research director at the institute. The institute was founded in 1994 by the state AFL-CIO, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the Wisconsin Conference of Churches and the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families.

"You're getting double talk from the big corporate lobby. They're not paying their fair share," Norman said, suggesting that tax lawyers have helped the corporations reduce their tax burden.

But an official from the state's business lobby, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, said there could be many reasons why companies didn't pay state income tax - including that subsidiary companies paid it and that the companies didn't make a profit.

"I have no doubt that they're going to spin the story their way, spin the data their way, to show that businesses don't pay taxes, but that's not true," said Jeff Schoepke, WMC's director of tax and corporate policy.

WMC spokesman Jim Pugh said the institute's data can't be trusted because its founders have a vested interest in high taxes and big government.

Norman acknowledged that some subsidiary companies may have paid corporate income taxes while their corporate parents did not.

Meredith Helgerson, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Revenue, couldn't immediately confirm the data.

But she acknowledged that the department had responded to requests by the group to provide the taxes paid by state and national corporations.

Officials with Johnson Controls, Kohl's, and Harley- Davidson could not be reached for comment Monday.

Norman said individuals are paying a greater share of state taxes, and that lower payments by companies put added pressure on schools and local governments to fund services.

The corporate income tax, as of 2004, generated 3 percent of state and local revenue in Wisconsin - far behind property taxes (36 percent), sales taxes (29 percent), the individual income tax (26 percent) and others (6 percent).

Under state law, anyone can request information on the tax paid by any individual or corporation, Helgerson said.

State law bars the tax information from being disclosed other than in a newspaper or a public forum.

Norman said he spent about 14 months collecting the 2003 tax information - the latest data available - from the Department of Revenue. He held three news conferences Monday to unveil the data.

He said the difficulty in getting the data and restrictions on its disclosure illustrate the need for better disclosure of corporate tax payments.

"The debate in Wisconsin about tax policy . . . is incomplete unless we have a full understanding of who is paying taxes and how much," Norman said.

Schoepke said WMC would oppose additional disclosure of business tax information.

The state data show 54,644 businesses filed tax returns with the state in 2003, Norman said. Of those, 67 percent paid no state corporate income tax, he said.

Of the 4,275 companies with more than $100 million in gross receipts in 2003, 62 percent paid no state corporate income tax, Norman said.

The data also show that some of Wisconsin's biggest corporations didn't pay any income tax, and some companies whose chairmen or presidents sit on WMC's board of directors also didn't pay corporate income tax in 2003, Norman said.

Norman acknowledged that federal data show Wisconsin taxpayers pay the eighth highest property tax in the U.S. as a percentage of personal income, and that state income tax revenue is ninth-highest as a percentage of income.

But he also cited a report by the accounting company Ernst & Young showing that Wisconsin ranked 33rd among states in business taxes as a percentage of private-sector gross state product and 31st for business taxes as a percentage of total personal income.

The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research organization in Washington, D.C., that promotes a transparent tax system to promote economic growth, ranked Wisconsin as the 38th best state for business taxes in 2007.

Schoepke said that ranking shows that the state has a high tax burden for businesses.

Who's paying corporate taxes?

The Institute for Wisconsin's Future released data Monday it says show that two-thirds of the 54,644 companies that filed Wisconsin tax returns in 2003 paid no state corporate income tax.

Among those companies, it said, were: Johnson Controls, Manpower, Kohl's, Harley-Davidson, Rockwell Automation, Fiserv, Snap-on and Marshall & Illsley (M&I subsidiaries paid corporate income taxes that year).

Briggs & Stratton ($2.4 million) and Oshkosh Truck ($2.6 million) were among the companies the group said did pay corporate income taxes.