A tax hike would crush my small business and community

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Will this be the year when running a small business becomes almost impossible?

This is the question I keep asking myself. President Donald Trump and Congress can provide the answer. Before the end of the year, small businesses like mine will face one of the biggest tax hikes in American history — unless our leaders stop it. They need to act as soon as possible, for the sake of our employees and our communities.

This coming tax hike is actually the result of the 2017 tax-cut law. It’s usually known for giving big corporations permanent relief. It also gave small businesses a huge reduction in our tax burden — a 20% deduction on business income. But unlike corporations, our relief is temporary. Come Dec. 31, it will disappear entirely.

I don’t know why the tax cuts were designed this way. Why did Wall Street get something that Main Street didn’t? Especially since small businesses are the real engine of the American economy?

Whatever the answer, President Trump has said he wants to make the tax cuts permanent, and small businesses need Congress to make that happen and keep our tax cut firmly in place. If this relief expires — and even if lawmakers wait until the last minute to act — the small business economy is going to have to cut back.

My work gives me a unique window into the incredible benefits of this tax cut. I’m a CPA, so in addition to running my own small business, I help dozens of small businesses in my community prepare their taxes every year.

For my part, the tax cut has freed me to give my employees some nice raises. I usually hire five part-time workers for tax season, and all of them are doing better thanks to this relief. I’ve been giving them raises every year since 2018. Without the tax cut, I wouldn’t have the money to stay competitive with bigger firms in bigger towns.

Every small business I know is spending their tax savings in several ways. On Kerkhoven’s Main Street, small businesses are boosting wages and benefits, like health care coverage and retirement matching. The farms in our community are buying new equipment and defraying high gas and seed costs with their savings.

But what would happen if Congress lets the tax cut expire? We’re talking wage cuts, not wage hikes. We’re talking scaling back, not ramping up. Restaurants, car dealers, farms — virtually every small business I know and work with would have to make some extremely tough choices.

I worry some may have to close altogether, especially after all the inflation and regulations of the past few years. It’s only been getting harder to run a small business. Can we really stand an enormous tax hike on top of everything else?

My employees and community are counting on Congress to make this tax cut permanent. It’s not too late to do what should have happened in 2017. And it’s not too early to act this year. The tax cut may not expire until Dec. 31, but every moment D.C. waits, small businesses start pulling back.

The time to act is right now. Stop this tax hike. Save small business. Then let’s celebrate a new era of optimism and opportunity — not on Wall Street, but on Main Street, which matters so much more.

Pam Mansfield is the owner of Pam Mansfield CPA in Kerkhoven. She’s a member of the National Federation of Independent Business.