Tax Group Tries to Align Big, Small Businesses - Washington Wire ...

By Siobhan Hughes

WASHINGTON ? A new coalition wants Congress to lower effective tax rates for both small and large businesses ? a strategy that aims to combine the political clout of two groups that can at times be at odds .

The group, called the Coalition for Fair Effective Tax Rates, is led by Dan Danner, the president of the National Federation of Independent Business, which represents thousands of small businesses, and Bill Hughes, senior vice president of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, whose members include companies like Target Corp. and Home Depot Inc. Its formula relies on focusing on the tax rate that companies end up paying after credits and deductions are factored in.

Big and small businesses sometimes differ over tax policy because the groups are frequently subject to two different tax policies. Most small businesses pay taxes through the tax forms of individual owners, and face a maximum rate of 39.6%, while many large businesses pay the corporate tax rate, which tops out at 35%. With various tax breaks layered in to the mix, companies end up paying tax rates that can being even more varied.

?Our goal is for the overall rate to come down and therefore for there to be less disparity between companies large and small,? Mr. Danner told reporters.

Small businesses have at times faced the prospect that their concerns will be minimized, as lawmakers and the Obama administration have floated the idea of overhauling only the corporate side of the tax code.

The new group gives small businesses a way to have a louder voice. It also reflects the political reality of a tax rewrite: no single group has enough influence to shape the outcome of a tax overhaul, so companies will have to team up.

The effective-tax rate coalition deals with only one tension in the tax debate, and does not appear to include any of the large multinational companies that have a stake in another feature of the tax code, the treatment of foreign income. That issue is already dividing the business community, with large companies that shift profits to offshore subsidiaries concern about their own tax treatment.

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/07/23/tax-group-tries-to-align-big-small-businesses/

Ryan Freel Melissa Nelson sound of music foot locker champs champs calvin johnson