During the February 23
edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed
that taxes would increase on 'most small businesses' if the Bush tax cuts on
Americans making more than $250,000 expire in 2011. According to Limbaugh,
President Obama will announce on February 24 that 'the Bush tax cuts are going
to be allowed to perspire [sic] in 2011, and that will move the current top
marginal rate from 35 up to 39.6, effectively 40 percent ... on incomes over
$250,000 a year. This is a massive
-- in the midst of a recession -- tax
increase on small business.'
Limbaugh later asserted that '[m]ost small businesses file on their personal
income tax return. Most of them are
Subchapter S corporations, and they file
on their personal return. ... [T]heir new rate, will be, in a couple years, 2011
or so, will be 40 percent smack-dab in the middle of a recession.' In fact, as
Media Matters for America documented, according to the Tax Policy
Center's
table of 2007 tax returns that reported
small business income, 481,000 of those returns -- about 2 percent -- are in the
top two income
tax brackets, which include all filers
with taxable incomes of more than $250,000.
Limbaugh's
comments echoed
those
of Sen. Mitch
McConnell, (R-KY)
who recently
revived the debunked
claim, which Sen. John
McCain's (R-AZ) 2008 presidential campaign repeatedly
made.
From the February 23
edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush
Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH:
Obama announced -- by the way, this big deal coming up on -- tomorrow night,
he's going to announce his tax increases. And the -- folks, the wrong way to
talk about this is Obama is going to raise taxes on the wealthy. That is the
wrong way to talk about this, because what's going to happen is that the Bush
tax cuts are going to be allowed to perspire in 2011, and that will move the
current top marginal rate from 35 up to 39.6, effectively 40 percent -- and this
is on incomes over $250,000 a year.
This is a
massive -- in the midst of a recession -- tax increase on small business. It is
not a tax on the wealthy. I mean, it is, but it's that -- it's going to hit far
many more small-business people than it's going to hit the wealthy.
[...]
LIMBAUGH:
So, anyway, the small-business people who hire the newly happy unemployed are
going to be soaked with a 40 percent tax rate. Most small businesses file on
their personal income tax return. Most of them are Subchapter S corporations,
and they file on their personal return, which makes -- which makes their --
their effective rate's going to be 40 -- not their effective, but their new
rate, will be, in a couple years, 2011 or so, will be 40 percent smack-dab in
the middle of a recession.
This is
-- this is disastrous, but don't call it a tax increase on the rich. It's not
that. Small businesses of 250 grand or larger are not rich people. They're going
to pay the brunt.
"
(Via Media Matters for America.)
