Proponents of government-run health care have a problem—they can’t pay for their trillion-dollar plan. So, they want to raise your taxes. Every week, there’s a new tax hike floated—a VAT, a soda tax, taxing your health care benefits, and taxing your charitable contributions to name just a few.
This week, House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) dusted an old idea off the shelf, a plan he proposed two years ago. He would like to impose a “surtax” (a disguised marginal income tax rate hike) on those making more than $250,000 per year.
This would mean that the top income tax rate would climb well over 40 percent. That would hit small businesses the hardest of all. Why is that?
- Small businesses pay taxes on their owners’ 1040s
- Two out of every three dollars of small business profits has tax paid in this top personal tax rate
- There are 28 million sole proprietors, business partners, and Subchapter-S corporation owners in America. Most of the profits generated by these companies will face a higher marginal tax rate
- One-third of Americans work for businesses with fewer than 100 employees. When these successful small businesses have to pay higher taxes, they will cut wages and lay people off
No matter which way you slice it, you can’t raise taxes on “the rich” without having most of that burden fall on small business. They, in turn, will shed jobs or even close up shop.
All for the sake of health care with the efficiency of the Post Office and the customer service of the DMV.