With two tax cuts, unfunded wars, and ultimately harmful financal deregulations, the previous president, Bush, stepped down leaving Obama with a big mess to clean up. That’s not a big news flash but it’s something that seems to get glossed over.
The Tea Party, Romney, and Ryan keep going on about the dangers to business of raising the personal income tax rates as an idea for paying for what we’re doing. Their objections are a bit off-center. No one prefers more taxation, but it’s better than the wishful thinking the Republicans keep pushing.
Since I’m not a business owner, my opinion on business matters isn’t as valid as a business owner’s; which makes sense. So I was happy to see a post by a successful business owner, Josh Newman, with his take on the impact of the personal income tax on making business decisions:
As an owner and board member of several companies, I find a lot of the political rhetoric around ‘job creation’ very confusing.
When I’m thinking about whether we need to hire more people at a company, here are the things I consider:
- Is demand for the business’ product or service growing?
- Is the current team having trouble keeping up with that growing demand?
And here’s one thing that I’ve never even remotely considered:
- What’s my personal income tax rate?
Fellow business owners, are you honestly telling me your marginal income tax rate is what drives your hiring decisions?
That makes sense to me.