Paying the taxman isn’t much fun. But is it any better if your income taxes go to your employer?

In many states across the country, companies receive their employees’ personal income tax payments, either directly or indirectly, because of tax-break programs designed to encourage job creation or job retention.

According to a new report by Good Jobs First, a nonprofit taxpayer watchdog organization, more than 2,700 companies in 16 states are collecting nearly $700 million each year in tax payments.

Some states (Kentucky and Missouri, for example) allow businesses to keep their workers’ tax payments, while others (see New Jersey and North Carolina) collect the payments from taxpayers and then give the money to corporations.

Both domestic and foreign companies have taken advantage of these programs, including General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Procter & Gamble, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, and AMC Theatres, plus Nissan, Toyota, and others.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Paying Your Boss: How States Are Letting Corporations Pocket Their Workers’ Tax Payments (by Pat Garofalo, Think Progress)

Paying Taxes To The Boss: How A Growing Number Of States Subsidize Companies With The Withholding Taxes Of Workers (by Philip Mattera, Kasia Tarczynska, Leigh McIlvaine, Thomas Cafcas and Greg LeRoy, Good Jobs First)

Taxed by the Boss (by David Cay Johnston, Reuters)