Taxing RI businesses
bill rappleye & the rappers
can’t take it!
Following the effort by State Senator Stephen alves to raise the corporate tax on businesses in Rhode Island, we asked how you felt about the inititative…in our survey..the majority of you said n o way…but surprisingly, about a third said yes, raise taxes on business. Here are all the e-mails we got on the matter.
Just what we need, another elected official trying to raising taxes.
We need to reduce spending. Please wake up Rhode Island. You’re looking at the wrong side of the ledger.
Joe, Johnston
The “devil is in the details” it’s not just businesses it’s also developers of all kinds too, who on occasion work hand in hand with some businesses. They all get a variety of different combinations of tax breaks/incentives & not just from the state but also from the municipalities they settle in & had their eyes on. They pocket money from both sides with both hands at the same time & we’re stuck paying for that with the ever increasing taxes & fees we pay in the short & long-term. The “devil is in the details.”
Hound Dog, Bristol
You know as well as I do that if taxes were raised on business in RI it would be the SMALL business people who would be driven out of business while the BIG business people would pay little or nothing due to the GIVE A WAYS that the fools on the hill seem to think is the only way to get them to stay here and rip us off.
What a joke.
Judith, Coventry
Raise the Corporate tax? They just raised it, matter of fact they just doubled it. The $500 is a ‘franchise fee’. It is important to remember that the majority of Corporations are small businesses called ‘S’ corps. The Federal SBA has Rhode Island ranked last, yup, number 50, making it the most expensive place in the country to operate a business. Rhode Island should do what the IRS does- tax a business based on their profit at the end of the year. Raise the Corporate tax? Sure why not- put some more businesses and people out of work. Then maybe there will be TWO sections of real estate foreclosures in the ProJo.
Jim, Cranston
Your question of “should business’ pay more taxes” is misleading!
There are many small business of 1 -6 people that that any additional tax would either drive them out of RI or make it difficult for their operation. The business climate is extremely challenging & needs more incentives than taxes.
Margarita
yes yes yes they should...i’m a homeowner and i cant take it anymore...they are taxing us to death
Harry B
Nope.....We need to attract new business, not drive existing business away.
Joe T East Providence
Corporate welfare programs
legally extort money from
those working to get capital;
and entitles them to write off
Big Risk speculative investments
gone bad.
connections and corruption
crooks and frauds you know the bunch.
Enron, Worldcom, and the murky world
of hedge funds and derivatives
dizzying growth, absence of regulation
with no trickle down.
stagnant wages and the setting in motion of inflation to devalue the debt, they don’t work for you!
They conspire behind closed doors.
They work toward the NAU.
“and tonight I am pleased to announce that, in April, we will host this year’s North American Summit of Canada, Mexico and the United States in the great city of New Orleans.”
State of the Union address by our president working for us.
Zuke
I think the non-profits and illegals should pay more taxes
Carol B
RI needs some real leadership, which it doesn’t have.
We keep electing incompetent governors #1.
Any new ideas that come up are shot down #2.
FYI
Rhode Island Corporate tax rate is 9 percent.
This is 9 times higher than some states.
Since 1989 corporate taxes have decreased 40 percent.
Corporations have many tax loopholes that working people
don’t have, and many corporations pay no tax at all.
As long as companies provide jobs so that the working people
will pay taxes, the government is ok with that, and the
companies will get a free ride.
That’s the way it is, in all states,
not just Rhode Island.
Rich people don’t pay much tax either, because they don’t work for wages
that are taxed at 40 percent, they make money from capital gains
that are taxed at only 15 percent. And they avoid that too.
matrix
taxing businesses sounds good, it’s good for political rhetoric. but most people know if a business is taxed they will either pass on the tax to the consumer, or leave the state. lose lose proposition. bottom line taxes kill economic growth, the real problem is government bureaucracy. the poor will stay poor, and the rich will stay rich, the middle class until they learn to be poor or become rich will continue to be taxed into submission.
Rw
If this concerns the small businesses, then I would say no, since they pay more out on taxes to keep their property, liens, insurances, employees taxes, workman’s comp., etc., than the bigger businesses around here. Plus, if the small businesses have to pay more taxes, that would spill upon their clients/customers, and that would not be a good thing for them and their customers who would not use that business anymore because of that. The larger businesses, who make over $1M in profits or more, can afford the higher tax rates, and still save their customers money in some other way - more likely in other tax credits that they can take, where the small businesses can’t do the same. I say the bigger the business and profit maker, the higher the taxes they should have to pay.
C-Ann-C, Coventry
NO, NO, a thousand times NO!! The business climate in this state is bad enough as it is. The solution to the budget crisis is to cut spending. If you give the government more money, they’ll spend more. How many times do we have to go through this before the voters realize this?
Scott, Warwick
1. Businesses hire people to produce their goods and services, those people pay taxes
2. Businesses are more apt to come to RI or stay here if their tax burdens are lower.
3. Perhaps the democrats should look at lower spending rather than raising taxes as a solution.
4. Business especially small business keeps the economy going, perhaps democrats should go back to school and study basic economics.
Ralph C
Do you think businesses in RI should pay more taxes?
No. We should lower and expand the sales tax, eliminate the property and income tax and give business a reason to want to stay in Rhode Island. Then again that would take an act of God in the General Assembly and that might upset the behind the scenes, sinister back room deals they have become so good at.
Sergio, Narragansett
When will the politicians learn? We are already (as the smallest state) ranked #7 in the country for taxes. People and businesses are leaving the state, laying off workers, or changing the way they do business. If we must live within a budget ( or suffer the consequences ) is it too much to expect our ELECTED officials to do the same?
As a result of family and friends taking part in kitchen table politics, we have formed a group that we call V.O.I.D. for Vote Out Incumbents Decisively and as our little group grows we believe there is only way to solve the problems with the politicians (almost all of them ) get rid of them and start over. THEY HAVE FORGOTTEN THAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO WORK FOR AND IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE PEOPLE. We are tired of and furious with the way they do business.
Carol, NK