Oregon Senate debates massive small business tax during pandemic

By Oregon Small Business Association,

On Monday June 14th, The Oregon Senate Finance and Revenue Committee debated and voted to pass SB 139 which raises tax rates on family owned small businesses.   It raises the tax rate for pass through entities like LLCs and partnerships.  This tax only hist these type of family owned businesses while C-corporations and publicly traded corporations will not be taxed under SB 139.

SB 139 is expected to raise businesses taxes close to 20% higher for many Oregon family owned small businesses.

This tax will hit restaurants and gyms especially hard.  Already, many struggling restaurant due to Covid-19 restrictions are still at various capacity limits where they have to turn customers away.   Many of these same restaurants will now be asked to pay higher taxes on declining revenue.  There have been over 1,000 restaurant closed already.

This tax will also hit many family owned lodging businesses.  The pandemic has been extremely hard on the hospitality industry.  One Central Oregon hotel owner said “The lock-down absolutely crushed our restaurant and hospitality business. We’re on the borderline of bankruptcy.”

Sb 139 has an employee requirement where many small businesses will see their tax rates increase by nearly 20% simply because they did not meet an arbitrary level of employees to avoid the tax that SB 139 would require.   For some, this means trying to hire employees to avoid a tax hike while revenue is down.

The Oregon Small Business Association is providing updates on the bill’s votes and amendments on their website here.

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