Gregg Thompson, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, released the following statement today in response to Senate leaders’ proposed state budget for fiscal 2017-18:
“We believe the spending plan Senate leaders outlined today is a good first step toward helping small businesses expand and create jobs, which will, in turn, help the state’s economy as a whole.
“Reducing the corporate tax rate from 3.0 percent to 2.5 percent in 2019 would ease the financial pressure on many businesses, but what a lot of people don’t realize is that a lot of small businesses are pass-through entities. That means their owners pay taxes at the individual rate rather than the lower corporate rate. The plan to further reduce the personal income tax rate from 5.49 percent to 5.3 percent would be a big help a lot of small, family-owned businesses.
“We were also encouraged by leadership’s plan to simplify the state franchise tax. In general, the franchise tax affects small- and medium-sized businesses more than it does large corporations. It’s levied against businesses without any regard to whether they’re profitable, breaking even, or losing money. Our members believe franchise tax reform is something that’s long overdue.
“We’ll be following the budget process closely over the coming weeks, and we’ll encourage the General Assembly to pass a spending plan that’s fair to small business.”
NFIB is North Carolina’s leading small business association. To learn more, visit www.NFIB.com/NC and follow @NFIB_NC on Twitter.
