We believe that individually- and family-owned businesses are the backbone of the American economy—employing the majority of US workers, and comprising 95% of all US businesses. By organizing as S corporations and other pass-through businesses, they help keep family businesses in the family, and make America more innovative and competitive. The American economy would simply not be the same without these vital employers that make the economy more resilient and better able to bounce back from COVID-related closures and other obstacles.
Given the continuing challenges, now would be the worst possible time to consider raising taxes on individual and family-owned business still struggling to recover. Raising taxes on Main Street employers would be the opposite of stimulus, costing jobs and harming growth.
To keep these employers and their workforces dynamic and growing, the federal tax code must continue to provide parity between corporations and pass-through businesses while maintaining a single layer of tax. The 20-percent “pass-through deduction” helped provide rough parity, but can be improved. To address these challenges, the Main Street Employers Coalition is working to:
- Provide certainty by making the deduction permanent, so individually and family owned businesses can plan and make long-term decisions.
- Restore the ability of Main Street employers to fully deduct their state and local income taxes, just like C corporations
- Maintain estate tax rules that help keep family businesses in the family.