As a small businessman, a 2% tax cut would put $200 extra in my pocket a month. a 2% tax cut for Exxon and Walmart would get them $8 billion each year.
I too am tired of the "tax cut" mantra.
I would estimate that 90% of small business wouldn't even see a dent in their tax burden with a tax cut. My last company made $1.2 million a year in sales with 8 employees (who we paid taxes on FICA, FWT, FUTA etc.) and we had so many write-offs that we haven't had a corporate or personal tax bill for 5 years. Since we were an LLC corporation all losses flowed thru to the owners and reduced our personal taxes to nothing. Sub-S corporations allow the same.
Thus it is, across America. Tax cuts only benefit the rich.
According to the lastest Census Bureau statistics there were 25,409,525 business firms in America in 2004.
19,523,741 were non-payroll firms. (Home businesses, single owner/worker, shell corporations, contract worker etc.)
5,885,784 were payroll firms.
17,047 were payroll firms with 500 employees or more.
Out of 25,409,525 businesses: my firm was in the top 9% in the number of employees we employed... and we paid no taxes due to massive tax cuts from 2001 and 2003. The charts below tell the story of Republican priorities in relation to the jobs and tax situation in the ongoing debates of a recovery package for working people and small business. Small business is the real backbone of American free enterprise, employment and the American dream.
Firms with no employees, but with payroll at some time during the year 802,034
Firms with 1 to 4 employees 2,777,680
Firms with 5 to 9 employees 1,043,448
Firms with 10 to 19 employees 632,682
Firms with 20 to 99 employees 526,355
Firms with 100 to 499 employees 86,538
Total 5,868,737
Businesses over 500 employees:
Firms with 500 to 749 employees 5,695
Firms with 750 to 999 employees 2,709
Firms with 1,000 to 1,499 employees 2,828
Firms with 1,500 to 2,499 employees 2,281
Firms with 2,500 to 4,999 employees 1,739
Firms with 5,000 to 9,999 employees 905
Firms with 10,000 employees or more 890
Total 17,047
The stimulus package is already weighted toward large corporations anyway. Are we going to offer tax cuts to the several thousand companies who will deplete the Treasury and enrich their executives?
Adding tax cuts to the Recovery Bill from the Republicans does little, if anything, IMHO for the other 25,000,000+ small businesses in America or the millions of workers.
So stop the tax cut bullshit already. Fund the infrastructure and put people back to work.
Personal Tax rates are at historic lows. Business tax cuts for mega-corporations will continue to hurt the economy for millions of American businesses and workers. What is needed are infrastructure, healthcare and loan accessibility for small businesses. Not tax cuts.
Actually, we need to increase taxes on large corporations and wealthy individuals so they pay their fair share. We need windfall profits taxes on the oil sector to pay for the recovery package.
Punitive graduated taxes for the modern day robber barons.
Increase taxes like we had to do in 1932.