Indiana

Indiana has a history of doling out large incentive packages to large companies. Its Research Expense Credit costs $74 million a year and is available to all eligible companies without competition. Other large programs include the Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) and the Hoosier Business Investment (HBI) tax credit programs

Most of Indiana’s incentive programs are administered by the privatized Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC), which succeeded the Department of Commerce in 2005. Since 2010, the agency has been enmeshed in one scandal after another. Most recently, the state appropriated a controversial $500 million “deal closing fund” that IEDC could use to attract companies to the state. Despite the problematic publicity IEDC receives, the organization holds considerable influence in the state, with an expected budget of $1.1 billion for FY 2024-2025.

Despite state confidentiality laws prohibiting the full-cost report of some programs, Indiana is quite transparent at the recipient level. The IEDC maintains a database of tax credits, grants, and loans, and it is one of the few state incentive databases that include full agreements for every project. Furthermore, users can download a spreadsheet of all projects that satisfy the parameters they choose.

The Indiana State Budget Agency publishes a tax expenditure analysis every two years with three-year forecasts broken down by program and type of tax. Due to confidentiality laws, the state auditor’s office issues Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports (ACFRs) and omits the amount of corporate income tax abated for the Headquarters Relocation Tax Credit and Skills Enhancement Fund programs. A few of Indiana’s local governments report tax abatements, but its school districts use an alternative accounting standard and are therefore not subject to Statement No.77.

The Office of Fiscal and Management Analysis of the Legislative Services Agency (LSA) publishes annual reports evaluating subsets of Indiana’s tax incentives on a five-year-cycle. These reports contain academic literature reviews and fairly sophisticated economic analyses.  

Our database tracking corporate misconduct, Violation Tracker, scours 450 federal, state and local agencies in compiling resolved civil and criminal cases against companies. See the list of state agencies from which we collect information in Indiana.

Last Updated November 2023.

For more information, contact Nya Anthony at [email protected].