Small-business association calls on other counties to emulate relief
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tony Gagliardi, Colorado State Director, [email protected]
or Tony Malandra, Senior Media Manager, [email protected]
DENVER (Sept. 19, 2018)—Yesterday’s 2-1 vote by Jefferson County commissioners to give up the county’s share of the business personal property tax drew a hearty round of applause, today, from the representative association for Colorado’s small-business owners.
“We encourage every county to follow Jefferson County’s lead,” said Tony Gagliardi, Colorado state director for NFIB, the state’s leading small-business association. “The Main Street enterprises of Jefferson County thank Commissioners Tina Francone and Libby Szabo, and Jefferson County Economic Development CEO Kristi Pollard, for alleviating a headache that businesses must deal with every year.”
The business personal property tax is a tax on equipment used in any business, such as a laptop computer, a million-dollar milling machine, or a 3D printer. The tax is applied regardless of how old or dilapidated the equipment is. According to Gagliardi, the tax is:
- difficult to administer for government
- difficult to comply with for small-business employers, not having the legal and accounting departments big businesses have
- unevenly applied from county to county
- not a huge revenue source
The nonpartisan Tax Foundation says the business personal property tax imposes significant economic distortions. “States and local governments seeking to reduce economic distortions and improve competitiveness through the tax code should reduce (or eliminate) TPP taxation,” advises the Foundation.”
Added Gagliardi, “This tax is burdensome, outdated, and an albatross around the necks of small businesses everywhere in Colorado. The State Legislature also needs to eliminate the tax or give a real-dollar exemption to small businesses.”
Several businesses were represented at the hearing, including Yeti Cycles of Golden and Lockheed-Martin Aerospace of Southern Jefferson County.
Follow NFIB Colorado at www.nfib.com/CO and on Twitter @nfib_co.
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For more than 75 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven. Since our founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.
National Federation of Independent Business/Colorado
1580 Logan St. Suite 520
Denver, CO 80203
303-831-6099
www.nfib.com/colorado
Twitter: @NFIB_CO
