I posed these questions to Congress on April 11. As the founder of Coal River Coffee Co. in West Virginia, I’d been asked to testify about the small-business deduction, which will disappear at the end of next year. My message to lawmakers was clear: Main Street mainstays like mine desperately need Congress to make this tax cut permanent.
The small-business deduction made it possible. It lets us deduct 20% of our business income, which helps us compete with big businesses. Thanks to these savings, we’ve grown over the past six years. Today, we have not one but three permanent locations as well as a mobile shop. We’ve also been able to raise our workers’ wages while investing in new equipment to stay competitive.
With the deduction, we can compete with big chains like Starbucks and Tim Hortons. They pay a corporate tax rate of just 21%. But without the deduction, small businesses like ours will pay about 45% in taxes — more than double what our big competitors pay.