With Missouri home to more than half a million small businesses, U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) is calling for pro-growth tax cuts and regulatory reform that will help American families while strengthening the economy.
“There are two ways to increase take-home pay: better jobs and lower taxes. We need tax cuts that produce both. American families need more money in their wallets and better jobs to create more taxpayers,” Blunt wrote in an op-ed appearing Sunday in the Kansas City Star.
The last comprehensive tax reform was passed more than three decades ago and the length of the tax code has almost doubled since 1985.
“That’s why I’m glad President Donald Trump came to our state last week to make the case for tax cuts and pro-growth policies that will strengthen our economy, boost wages and help families get ahead,” Blunt wrote. “As the president put it, families need a tax code that is ‘simple, fair, and easy to understand.’ That’s far from what we have today.”
The IRS has more than 199 individual income tax forms, Blunt continued, and more than 100 tax credits, deductions, exclusions and additional provisions that impact how much families pay in taxes. That leads to taxpayers spending $6 billion per year on tax preparation services.
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 97.5 percent of all businesses in Missouri are small businesses employing 1.1 million people. The National Federation of Independent Business has found that three quarters of small businesses are subjected to the individual tax rate because they are structured as pass-through entities that can face tax rates as high as 44.6 percent.
“That means that nearly half of their income is spent on their tax bill, instead of reinvesting in their businesses and creating more jobs with higher wages in our communities,” Blunt wrote.
Furthermore, larger U.S. businesses are also struggling under the U.S. tax code, he added. “America’s corporate tax rate, at 39 percent, is the highest among major economies in the industrialized world. Between 2003 and 2015, the average worldwide corporate tax rate declined from 30 percent to 22.5 percent, while the U.S. rate stayed the same,” Blunt noted.
In addition to tax relief, cutting red tape is another way to help businesses grow. Blunt praised the Trump administration and the Senate for doing away with more than a dozen regulations handed down by the Obama administration.
That move, he said, will save $3.7 billion in regulatory costs and eliminate millions of hours of paperwork.