Public hearing announced late
As if there weren't enough disincentives for business in Oregon with increasing taxation coming from the Kate Brown administration, more tax bills keep coming, with the intent of finding additional sources of revenue to cover the State's out of control spending habit.
There is yet another small business tax proposal from Oregon Democrats that is scheduled for a public hearing in the
Senate Finance and Revenue hearing this Monday, June 7, at 1:00. It was only made public on late on Friday before the weekend so that people would not know about it until the last minute. You can find
the link to that meeting by clicking here.
The bill is
SB 139 and it will raise the tax rate for small businesses that are also known as pass-throughs income.
This tax only applies to small businesses.
Scott Bruun, Director of Tax and Fiscal Policy for
Oregon Business and Industry gave the following
testimony earlier this session:
"SB 139 would raise taxes on thousands of Oregon partnership businesses at a time
when many of those businesses are still reeling from the economic effects of COVID.
These businesses are not the euphemistic “large corporations,†they are small and
medium-size businesses that operate in every corner of our state, and in every
commercial business activity you could think of. These could be businesses with two
employees, 20 employees, or even 200 employees, each with an interest in keeping
those employees working and maintaining operations during perhaps the biggest
economic challenge of our lifetime."
"There is no question that some Oregon businesses have done well during the current
crisis. Some have even done exceptionally well. That’s actually great news! It’s
something we should celebrate, not punish or lament. Those businesses, whether they
employ 2 or 200, have kept Oregon moving forward. They’ve kept their people working;
they have played by the rules; they’ve overcome hurdles; and they will pay the full taxes
they owe under current statute - more than they would pay, of course, if they had not
done as well."
"But we shouldn’t let success stories sidetrack us. The fact is most businesses have
suffered and are behind where they would otherwise be if not for COVID. SB 139 would
raise taxes on those businesses during this time of economic stress. These tax
increases would make it harder for Oregon businesses to compete, harder for them to
hire, harder for them to give raises, and maybe even harder for them to retain the
people they currently employ."
"It is also important to remember, as we’ve discussed before, that every Oregon
business, partnership or not, will already be experiencing a 41% increase in their overall
tax burden by 2022 when tax measures approved in 2019 are fully implemented.
COVID notwithstanding, Oregon’s business tax burden has increased from 40th highest in the nation, to 19th highest in a very short period of time. Respectfully, the businesses
which employ Oregonians are having a hard enough time swallowing that big pill, they
are certainly not in a position to take on yet another tax increase.
--Bruce Armstrong| Post Date: 2021-06-06 16:12:34 | Last Update: 2021-06-07 18:30:37 |
