House Republicans Call on Democrats to Support Repeal of Prospective Business Tax Hikes

House Republican Leader Dick Hinch issued the following statement relative to Governor Sununu’s call for Democrat legislative leadership to repeal business tax rate hikes should the state’s revenues fall below a trigger point currently prescribed in law.

Democrats in the legislature insisted on establishing a trigger mechanism into the state budget so that if state revenues fell, business taxes would rise. But in the midst of an economic catastrophe, that’s the last thing our businesses need,“ Hinch said. “House Republicans will unequivocally support and move to fast track legislation that would repeal this dangerous tax trigger mechanism to help us support our small business community, rather than tax them into failure. If the goal is to get our economy back on track, and get people back to work, we need these prospective tax increases off the table as soon as possible, and start working on tax relief.”

“Republicans believed that only in the event of an unlikely economic catastrophe would revenue ever reach that trigger point. Unfortunately, the impossible has happened, and we now urgently need to delete the Democrat’s trigger that could break the backs of many businesses who will be struggling to get back to normal operation, and get people back to work.”

Background: HB4, the budget trailer bill, contained language that would raise the Business Enterprise Tax by 12.5% and the Business Profits Tax by 2.5% should state revenues fall 6% or more short of the revenue plan through the end of the fiscal year (June 30th, 2020). The tax increase would take effect on January 1, 2021.

The current rate for the BET is 0.6% and would increase to 0.675%.

The current rate for the BPT is 7.7% and would increase to 7.9%.

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