[5]Oregon Chapter,
National Federation of Independent Business [6],
SALEM, Ore., Aug. 4, 2009 – In results from a survey released today, Oregon small business owners are nearly unanimous in their opposition to the huge tax hike passed by the Legislature this year and support a referendum on them by an even slightly bigger percentage.
“Our members are angry and want action,” said Jenna Kaluza, Oregon state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, the state’s largest small business association with more than 6,000 members. “There’s not a whole lot of guess work from the number we got back. It’s time to move.”
NFIB conducted a fax and e-mail poll of its members in late July asking them if they supported the new tax increases and if NFIB should join a coalition seeking to have the Legislature’s action reversed in a January ballot referendum. The responses were resounding, with 94 percent opposed to the new taxes and 98 percent supporting their reversal in a referendum.
“We are a member-driven association,” said Kaluza, “so we needed to get our members’ opinions and approval before we could join the Stop Job Killing Taxes coalition.”
House Bill 2649 created a new tax bracket for households and small businesses who file as S-corporations or LLCs with an income of between $250,000 and $500,000. This new bracket will be raised from the current 9 percent to 10.8 percent. For households and small businesses with incomes of over $500,000, the new marginal tax rate will be 11 percent.
House Bill 3405 increased the C-corporation minimum from $10 to a sliding scale of $150 to up to $100,000, depending on the corporation’s gross sales in Oregon. A second marginal corporate tax rate of 7.9 percent was created and applies to taxable income greater than $250,000 for 2009-10.