Business for Shared Prosperity

By Jason Linkins
LiveBlog, Huffington Post, May 6, 2012

Excerpt: [On Fox News Sunday, Marco] Rubio also complains that jobs aren't being created because of "uncertainty with the tax code," which doesn't happen to be what small business owners tell reporters:

Some shareholders hope Buffett gets off his soapbox
By Steve Jordon
Omaha World Herald, May 3, 2012

Warren Buffett's idea of fair taxes is part of a long tradition of business leaders' views leaking into politics, but becoming an issue in a contentious presidential campaign is not without its risks.

By Alain Sherter
CBS News MoneyWatch, April 17, 2012

Op-Ed By Lew Prince
The Hill, April 16, 2012

As a music store owner, the Buffett I’m usually concerned with is Jimmy Buffett of Margaritaville. But a bunch of lobbying groups who claim to represent small business are making me mad. They’re trying to scare people into believing that job-creating small businesses like mine won’t hire people unless the “Buffett Rule” is defeated.

For our latest minimum wage news, please visit www.businessforafairminimumwage.org 

Alaska Business Monthly
April 2012

Majority of Small Business Owners Say Millionaires Should Pay More in Taxes

By Jose Pagliery
CNN Money, April 16, 2012

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- When it comes to small businesses and the Buffett Rule, it really is about the 99%. That is, it's likely that only 1% of small business owners would be directly affected by the latest proposal to raise taxes on the rich, according to data from the U.S. Treasury Department. ...

By Catherine Clifford
Entrepreneur, April 16, 2012 

The Senate is voting today on the Buffett Rule, a tax bill assailed by critics as, among other things, bad for entrepreneurs and jobs. But a closer look reveals that the measure, if passed, and that's a big if, would have little impact on the majority of small-business owners. ...

By Andrew Joseph
National Journal, April 13, 2012 

With the Senate set to vote on the Buffett rule next week, a select group of businesses and wealthy Americans is encouraging legislators to approve the tax hike on the wealthy to promote fairness.

By Janean Chun
Huffington Post, April 12, 2012

When big corporations use offshore tax havens, small businesses pay the price.... If they were to cover the cost of corporate abuse of tax havens in 2011, the average U.S. small business would pay $2,116, according to a report released Tuesday by consumer group U.S. PIRG. The estimate is based on Census numbers for businesses with fewer than 100 employees. ...

By Mike Lillis
The Hill, April 12, 2012

... House GOP leaders have scheduled a vote next week on legislation to slash federal taxes for smaller companies — a bill the Republicans say will spur the economy and create jobs. 

Interview by Kai Ryssdal
Marketplace, American Public Media, April 11, 2012

Excerpt from Interview with Lew Prince, owner of Vintage Vinyl in St. Louis.

Prince: We employ 24 people. We're in the very low single-digit millions in [gross] income.

Ryssdal: If the Buffett Rule passes and people who make a million dollars or more wind up paying 30 percent at least on their taxes, is that going to bite you? Are you making a million a year?

UPI, April 10, 2012

Excerpt: Three alliances representing small U.S. businesses urged passage of tax code that would embrace the "Buffett Rule," the groups said in statement Tuesday.

The American Sustainable Business Council, the Business for Shared Prosperity and the Main Street Alliance put their collective weight behind the controversial tax proposal named for one of the country's richest men, investor Warren Buffett, who revealed last year that he pays less in federal income tax than his secretary.

By Jason Gewirtz, Sr. Producer
CNBC, April 10, 2012

By Scott Klinger
Op-Ed, Baltimore Sun, April 9, 2012

The real genius of Apple: Tax avoidance
America's biggest company is hiding billions in profits offshore

Apple has gone on a very public tax strike. Months after reporting the second-highest quarterly profits in U.S. history, America's favorite company is refusing to bring home more than $60 billion of offshore funds in protest of the taxes it would have to pay.

By Joseph Rotella
Washington Post On Small Business, March 30, 2012

Excerpt: We hear a lot of noise about taxes and job creators and not enough common sense. ...

I don’t just think about what I pay in taxes, but what my taxes buy. Taxes pay for roads, bridges, schools, public transportation, first responders, safe drinking water and many more things that help my business directly and indirectly. Tax cuts that lead to cuts in important infrastructure and public services hurt my business, my employees and the communities we live in. ...

By Alain Sherter
CBS News MoneyWatch, March 29, 2012

The Supreme Court on Wednesday wrapped up three days of arguments over President Obama's landmark health care law, and Vintage Vinyl co-owner Lew Prince is scared -- that the legal challenge will work. If the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is overturned, "I'll be back in the crappy system I was in two years ago," says Prince, co-owner of the small St. Louis music store. "We'd go back to fighting for every inch of coverage every year."

By Scott Klinger
Inside Business: The Hampton Roads Business Journal, March 16, 2012 

Corporations pay a lower effective tax rate than Warren Buffett and Mitt Romney, but you wouldn't know it from all the complaints that our corporate tax rate puts our country at a competitive disadvantage.

Last year, U.S. corporations paid just 12.1 percent of their earnings in federal corporate income taxes. Buffett's tax rate is 17.4 percent; Romney's reported 2010 tax rate was 13.9 percent.

SBO Editor
Small Business Opportunities, March 12, 2012

Small business owners see corporate tax loopholes and accounting gimmicks used to shift U.S. profits offshore to avoid taxes as serious problems, according to an independent nationwide opinion poll released today. Small business owners think big corporations and the wealthy don’t pay their fair share of taxes, the poll shows. They support increasing taxes on millionaire incomes, letting high-end tax cuts expire, and closing the carried interest loophole that gives big tax breaks to hedge fund managers.

Small Business Profile
St. Louis Business Journal, March 2, 2012