Senate Dem’s Tax Plan Assault on Small Business

NEWS RELEASE
CONTACT: Suzanne Collins Stoltenberg, NFIB/PA Communications Director 717-232-8582 [email protected]

Pennsylvania Senate Democrats’ Tax Plan an Assault on Small Business
Could hinder job growth, stunt hiring and hurt the middle class

HARRISBURG, PA. (May 11, 2016) – Pennsylvania Senate Democrats today proposed a set of tax bills that impose a higher tax burden on small businesses throughout the Commonwealth. Their proposal includes a graduated income tax and higher taxes that target small-business income. The plan would negatively impact the majority of Pennsylvania’s nearly one million small businesses. That’s because 80-percent of those small businesses pay business taxes through the owners’ personal income tax return.

"The proponents say the plan would help the middle class, but nothing could be further from the truth," said Neal Lesher, legislative director for NFIB Pennsylvania. "When about half of the private sector workforce works at a small business, new small business taxes endanger those workers’ jobs.

"Instead of thinking of new ways to tax small businesses, lawmakers should focus on simplifying the tax code and reducing the regulatory burden so that we can unleash this economic driver of our economy and create new jobs and higher wages for all Pennsylvanians," said Lesher.

Small-business owners frequently reinvest their profits to grow their companies which create jobs. New higher taxes on those profits will directly impact small business growth, discourage entrepreneurship and stifle this important sector of the Pennsylvania economy.

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NFIB is the nation’s leading small-business association, with offices in Washington, D.C. and all 50 state capitals. Founded in 1943 as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, NFIB gives small and independent business owners a voice in shaping the public policy issues that affect their business. NFIB’s powerful network of grassroots activists sends their views directly to state and federal lawmakers through our unique member-only ballot, thus playing a critical role in supporting America’s free enterprise system. NFIB’s mission is to promote and protect the right of our members to own, operate and grow their businesses. More information is available online at www.NFIB.com/newsroom