For Immediate Release
Jack Mozloom, 202-406-4450 or 609-462-5610
Small
Business Offers Tax Puzzle Answer: Cut Rates
NFIB applauds Speaker for
Including Small Business in Tax Reform Debate
Washington, D.C., (April 23, 2015) – House Speaker John
Boehner asked exactly the right question Thursday when
it comes to tax reform, according to the National
Federation of Independent Business (NFIB): how to deal with the 70 percent
of American businesses that don’t pay corporate tax rates?
“Cut their rates too,” said NFIB CEO and President Dan Danner.
President Obama in his budget proposal calls for a
substantial cut in the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent. Three quarters of US businesses,
overwhelmingly small and local, pay taxes as individuals, however. They wouldn’t benefit.
“If the goal of tax reform is to improve the
competitiveness of US businesses than it should start with lower rates for the
businesses that employ more Americans and pay the largest share of federal
taxes,” said Danner. “Speaker Boehner is
a former small business owner and he brings a perspective that this
conversation badly needs. We’re grateful
that he has included small business in the debate.”
Some members of Congress might be reluctant to address the
individual side of the code because of perceived political difficulty. They may be over-thinking the issue, said
Danner.
“Every member of Congress and the President have said
clearly and often that they care most about helping small business,” he
said. “There’s an obvious consensus
there. And there’s a consensus among
small business owners that tax rates are too high and that the tax code is too
complicated. The obvious answer, then,
is to simplify the code and reduce rates for businesses that aren’t organized
as corporations.”
In fact, to the extent that Democrats and Republicans have
discussed tax reform, they’ve done so in the context of economic policy. Their goal, they say, is to boost jobs and
make American businesses more competitive.
“They’re all right,” said Danner. “So let’s reform the code
in a way that boosts the whole economy and creates the most jobs.”
The Administration has been so far reluctant to consider
tax cuts on the individual side of the code.
But it hasn’t been pressed to explain how a corporate-only reduction
would be better for the economy or for that matter fair to a majority of US
businesses.
“When the President says that he supports small business we
take him at his word. The most effective
way to help small business is to cut their tax rates. Congress should send him a bill this year
that does that,” said Danner.
For more information about NFIB please visit www.nfib.com
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