Chicago City Wire

Illinois GOP Chairman Tim Schneider wants to see Gov. J.B. Pritzker lead by example with regard to his plan to raise taxes that he has been pushing since before winning the election last November.  

In a March 12 press release, Republican leaders called on Pritzker, a millionaire businessman, to domesticate his vast overseas holdings in Illinois, where they would be subject to the same drastically higher tax rates he has proposed for the state's wealthiest residents.

“As one of Illinois' richest residents and leading tax-hike proponents, it’s time for Gov. Pritzker to pay his fair share,” Schneider was quoted in the press release. "It’s time to end Gov. Pritzker’s tax hypocrisy.”

Illinois GOP Chairman Tim Schneider

Based on the rates Pritzker recently released for his plan, tax rates could swell as high as 10.45 percent for some Illinois residents, easily making the state one of the most heavily taxed in the country, ILGOP officials said in the release. 

“If Pritzker truly believes that rich people such as himself have an obligation to pay more in taxes to the State of Illinois, Pritzker should take the first step and domesticate his overseas holdings in Illinois so they would be subject to the higher tax rates he has proposed for the people of Illinois,” Schneider said. 

Early last year, a Chicago Tribune special investigation found that Pritzker makes use of a web of overseas tax havens to shield many of his personal business ventures. The newspaper added that in addition to dozens of “offshore investment funds,” as many as 35 shell corporations with ties to the family were established over a three-year window beginning in 2008.

As far back as over a decade ago, a New York Times special report deemed the Pritzker family “pioneers in using tax loopholes to shelter their holdings from the Internal Revenue Service.”