Texas Business Margin Tax

Well, it’s here. It’s June 16, and the new Texas business margins tax is due to the comptroller. Even as the comptroller’s office is still trying to figure out their own system, many of Texas’ small businesses are trying to figure out how to pay the tax.

The increase for my business over the previous franchise tax is more than 1,000 percent. It’s hard not to be bitter at the government for that. It will simply reduce our employment, our charitable giving and increase costs to our clients.

We are willing to pay more than we were. We would gladly pay double the franchise tax, but more than 1,000 percent increase? They said they would use a fair tax on Texas businesses to reduce property tax. Did your tax bill go down? Mine did not.

The Legislature should rescind this ruinous tax. It will kill many small businesses. To be fair, our state representative, Harvey Hilderbran, was one of the few to see the impact on Texas’ most important employers and vote against the Margins Tax bill.

It is common knowledge that most of the employment in our nation is by small businesses. Sen. John Cornyn stated recently that more than 30 percent of the new jobs in the U.S. happened in Texas. That huge contribution to the economy happened before this draconian tax measure made it out of committee.

Gov. Perry should call a special session to rectify this suicidal tax measure.