Small Businesses to Lawmakers: Revamp Tax Code

Small business owners got the opportunity to speak their minds before the Small Business Subcommittee on Economic Growth last week, and the uncertainty surrounding tax policy topped their list of complaints.

In a hearing entitled, "Pro-Growth Tax Policy: Why Small Businesses Need Individual Tax Reform," Chairman Joe Walsh, (R-IL) asked business owners what they would want to tell the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, aka the Super Committee, if given the opportunity. Small business owners voiced concern over the nation’s tax code, and said that uncertainties and inconsistency with tax rates, are standing in the way of job creation.

The Super Committee is made up of 12 lawmakers and is charged with finding ways reducing the nation's deficit.

Weigh In: What would tell lawmakers is your top concern as a lawmaker? 

"It's not knowing what's going to happen when you're doing one thing one year and one thing the next year," said Gary Marowske, president of Flame Furnace in Warren, Mich, who spoke in front of the committee.  "Frankly I'm for a national sales tax, in my personal opinion. It's fair and it's even, and it allows the capital to stay within the companies."

Stephen Capp, president and CEO of Laserage Technology Corporation in Waukegan, Ill., echoed Marowske's  tax policy complaints.  "There are a lot of things we're not doing, because we are not sure what the tax codes are going to be," he said. "Just lower taxes, and put some certainty in it so we know what we have to do and know where we have to go.

William Smith, president and CEO of Termax Corporation in Lake Zurich, Ill., said firming up the country’s tax policy can help bring the U.S. back to its top spot as a place for business growth and creation.

"We can compete with anyone in the world if we know where things are going to be," he said. "But because of the state of flux that our tax code has been in for years, it creates very big disincentives for companies like ours."