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Increasing Tax Rates: Bad for Small Businesses, Bad for American Workers

That’s why more Americans support tax reform than increasing tax rates
November 15, 2012 — The Tax Tracker   


While the President continues to call for a “balanced” approach to resolving the fiscal cliff, he conveniently fails to mention that he will put the burden of his “balanced” approach on the backs of America’s small business owners.  According to the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation, nearly one million businesses and more than half of all small business income earned will be hit by the tax hikes resulting from the President’s so-called “balanced” approach.  When small businesses are asked what these higher tax rates will mean, they all have the same answer – less money to invest, grow, and create new jobs.  No wonder more Americans support tax reform, which will help create more jobs, than these tax hikes.

National Federation of Independent Business
“In the current economic environment, the last thing small businesses should face is a tax increase. Furthermore, NFIB remains adamantly opposed to any fiscal cliff resolution that cuts taxes for large corporations at the expense of small businesses organized as pass-through entities.  The expiration of current individual tax rates is particularly important to small businesses because 75 percent of them are organized as pass-through entities that pay taxes at the individual rate. …Raising taxes on small businesses, especially in the current economic environment, stifles their ability to grow and create jobs. Congress must act to avoid this economic hit to over half of the business community that creates two-thirds of net new jobs and employs over half the private sector workforce.”

International Franchise Association
“Franchise business owners are local small businesses, and as pass-through entities, their business profits are taxed at the individual tax rate.  Many of these franchisees own the rights to develop multiple locations and have the strong desire to expand their businesses, creating more jobs and the economic output our country urgently needs. Yet in the current economic environment, with so much uncertainty about what tax rates will be next year, many franchisees have begun pulling back on developing additional locations, which means jobs are not created and economic growth is not realized.”

National Retail Federation

“It is particularly important during this debate that lawmakers listen to small businesses, including the independent Main Street retail stores that are some of our nation’s most important job creators. Many small business owners report their business income on their personal income tax returns and will be critically impacted by the outcome of this debate. The U.S. economy cannot afford a man-made disaster of the magnitude of the fiscal cliff.”

National Electrical Contractors Association

“Small businesses, the primary source of our nation’s’ job growth, continue to struggle and many are unable to keep their doors open.  The threat of going over the cliff has further increased uncertainty.  Business large and small cannot plan for the future and are delaying hiring of more workers which would grow and strengthen the U.S. economy.”

Associated Builders and Contractors

“While we appreciate that President Obama has turned his attention toward the looming fiscal cliff, we regret his decision to shut out the small business community from these important discussions.  While large, public corporations are important drivers of the economy, small, pass-through businesses in commercial construction and other industries stand to suffer the most from the president’s proposed tax increases.  Despite the administration’s continued rhetoric about millionaires and billionaires, these tax hikes begin at just $250,000, a threshold that would raise marginal tax rates on nearly one million small businesses…”

Financial Executives International

“While recognizing the need to address America’s fiscal situation, Financial Executives International cannot currently support any tax increases on privately-held and family-owned businesses. A majority of FEI’s 15,000 members represent pass-through entities, meaning that their companies are structured in a way that allows for business income to pass through to their owners’ individual tax returns. If rates on this income are allowed to increase, private companies will be negatively impacted on a potentially devastating scale. The expiration of the 2001/2003 tax rates, the estate tax, as well as rate increases on capital gains and dividends could have a detrimental effect on the very companies that serve as America’s economic backbone.”

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