A federal millionaires’ tax could hurt small business owners, congressman says

The economy is tough on many businesses, but a proposed federal millionaires’ tax would make things even worse on small firms, according to a New Jersey congressman.

In case you missed it, the Truth-O-Meter this weekend gave a Mostly False rating to Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th), for his claim about the proposed tax. Frelinghuysen claimed that small businesses would suffer if taxes are raised for people earning at least $1 million annually.

But the Truth-O-Meter found Frelinghuysen wrongly applied a statistic from a report by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Tax Analysis when explaining his concerns about the proposed tax.

Frelinghuysen claimed the Treasury Department said “41 percent of all business income reported on individual returns would be hit by the [millionaires’] surtax,” but PolitiFact New Jersey found that Frelinghuysen used a figure representing all business income to make a point about small business owners. Read the full ruling here.
 
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Check out the complete story on Frelinghuysen’s statement at PolitiFactNJ.com and then join the conversations about this ruling and others at NJ.com.