High Tech Small Business Cites Disaster under Border Adjustment Tax

From a reader of this blog:

I am a small business owner who has been selling a line of very high precision industrial instruments into the food, pharmaceutical, adhesive, cosmetic, medical device and gel industries for the last twenty-four years.  My father started this business five years before that. The border adjustment tax proposal will be absolutely devastating for my company.  We import approximately 90% our goods from the UK.  These products are absolutely state of the art and are not capable of being sourced domestically. My clients require an instrument with this precision in order to accurately and safely manufacture their goods.  The BAT will disallow me from deducting the real costs of my products and will essentially mean that I will be taxed on close to my gross revenue and not on my net profits.  That means my federal tax bill will not just increase a few percentage points, but instead will be 350% of my regular tax bill!

Our product line is very high-end and it provides me almost no capability to pass through the massive tax increases as inflationary price adjustments.  I have a dozen US employees who have dedicated their hearts and souls into this business and whose livelihoods are at immediate risk if this tax policy is adopted. 

Every single company that imports a substantial amount of their products or their components is also facing massive tax increases that also puts their businesses at risk.  I urge all small business owners to roughly calculate what their own tax bills would look like if they were not allowed to deduct product costs.  The math will scare everyone – and hopefully will they will speak up.

Kind Regards,

Marc

Marc Johnson

President, Texture Technologies Corp

6 Patton Drive, Hamilton, MA 01982