GOP Tax Plan & Tariffs Benefit Big Corporations, Punish Small Business Owners
Small business owners and tax experts hosted a virtual panel today to discuss the impacts of the 2017 GOP tax law and new tariffs put in place by President Trump.
The 2017 law was unpopular because it gave massive tax breaks to billionaires and corporations while doing little to help working families and small businesses. Republicans want to give even more tax breaks to the ultra-rich and wealthy corporations in their latest plan to expand tax breaks for the wealthy as parts of the 2017 law expire.
The Republican plan that Representatives Nunn and Miller-Meeks voted for would cut important programs like Medicaid and food assistance to pay for more tax breaks for billionaires and corporations. Republicans also intend to use President Trump's latest consumer tax, — wide-reaching tariffs enacted this week that will increase the costs of gas, groceries, and goods for Iowa families and entrepreneurs—to pay for the corporate and billionaire tax handouts.
Speakers discussed how the tax plan and new tariffs shape the small business landscape, the disparities between corporate and small business tax treatment, and how these policies shape local economies.
Mike Draper, the Founder & Owner of Raygun said that it’s getting harder for small businesses to operate or even exist.
“As a small business, your labor costs are going to be higher as a percentage, health care costs will be higher, and your tax bill is the highest,” Draper said. “We have this inverted pyramid where the bigger your business gets the better things are going to be for you. Why our system is set up to punish the smallest businesses is beyond me, and it’s not a way to set up a healthy economy.”
Shawn Phetteplace, the National Campaigns Director for Main Street Alliance, talked about the impacts of recent tariffs.
“The tariff announcement by President Trump yesterday is already putting markets in chaos,” Phetteplace said. “Even Republicans like Sen. Chuck Grassley know how incredibly unpopular these tariffs are and how damaging they are going to be, having proposed a bill that would limit the ability of the President to implement them. Small businesses need a fair tax code, not tariffs and certainly not more corporate welfare.”
ReShonda Young, Co-Founder of Bank of Jabez from Waterloo, also works as an advisor for other small businesses in her area. She explained that the tax benefits to small businesses are almost non-existent.
“The business owners I work with are not making hundreds of thousands of dollars, and they see very, very minimum tax deductions in their businesses, while those who are bringing in millions every year are seeing the largest deductions,” Young said. “Lawmakers need to know that continuing to support the wealthiest of the wealthy with exorbitant tax breaks simply isn’t trickling down to the average American or small business owners.”
Shawn Gallagher, President at Adcraft Printing Company, Inc in Cedar Rapids, shared his concerns with the direction the economy is headed.
“With everything going on right now, consumer confidence is going down dramatically, and we have a consumer-driven economy,” Gallagher said. “If this continues, we could see a recession, and in that situation, small businesses are the ones that suffer the most because we don’t have the cash flow coming in to wait that out.”
Mike Owen, the Deputy Director of Common Good Iowa, spoke to the impacts of the 2017 tax law on the communities that surround small businesses.
“The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 did three things: expanded our debts and deficits, skewed the benefits to the largest corporations and highest income individuals, and it put our critical support systems, especially in healthcare and nutrition, at risk,” Owen said. “Hundreds of thousands of Iowans rely on things like Medicaid and SNAP. Making huge cuts to those kinds of programs, to stuff the pockets of wealthy corporations, is going to really hurt local economies across the country.”