10.09.17

Hoeven Hosts Tax Relief Roundtable with Local Small Businesses

Senator Outlines Efforts to Grow Economy, Increase Wages for Workers

MINOT, N.D. – Senator John Hoeven today hosted a roundtable with local small businesses to discuss tax reform and outline his priorities for providing relief for North Dakota individuals, families, farmers, ranchers and small businesses. The senator outlined tax reform principles and gathered input from business leaders, including representatives from the local agriculture, retail, insurance, real estate and manufacturing sectors.

“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and by reducing their tax burden we can create more jobs and opportunity for middle-class and working families while also letting workers keep more of their hard-earned money,” Hoeven said. “That’s why we’re working hard to pass tax relief by the end of the year. Today’s roundtable was all about getting input from our state’s small businesses on how tax relief can benefit our economy, not only through job creation, but higher wages for our workers.” 

North Dakota has nearly 71,000 small businesses that make up 95.8 percent of all employers in the state. For these small businesses, nearly 30,000 of whom are family farmers and ranchers, the marginal tax rate can reach as high as 44.6 percent - nearly twice the average rate of the rest of the industrialized world.

The senator’s priorities on tax reform are to reduce compliance costs for families and businesses by simplifying the code, bringing down rates and broadening the tax base to ensure stable revenues. This will allow continued funding for the nation’s priorities while increasing government revenues over the long run through efficiency and economic growth.

Specifically, Hoeven outlined highlights of the tax reform framework for small businesses including:

  • Creating a new lower tax rate and structure for small businesses
    • The framework limits the maximum tax rate for small and family-owned businesses by 25 percent.
    • Expensing of capital investments
      • The framework allows, for at least five years, businesses to expense, or write off, the cost of new investments. This will benefit small businesses, including the state’s farmers and ranchers. 

-###-