Kevin Dellicker for U.S. Congress

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

It’s tax season again, and Americans across the country are gathering receipts, filling out forms, and staying up late to meet the upcoming April 15 deadline. Here are a few facts about our income tax system from the non-partisan Tax Foundation (here).

• The average income tax rate is 14.9 percent
• The top 50 percent of taxpayers paid 97.7 percent of all income taxes
• The top 1 percent of taxpayers paid 45.8 percent of all income taxes

Middle class taxpayers and small business owners carry the weight of the U.S. income tax system upon their shoulders. But it’s not just the high rates that are overbearing. The system is far too complex.

During the Covid lockdown, my three teenage sons, Will, Jake and Eli, were worried about earning enough money to pay their bills, so they started a landscaping business. They worked hard all summer clearing brush, picking weeds, and laying mulch to earn $4,600 in profits on $7,600 in sales. All was good. Then it came time to file their taxes.

Even though I had been in business for years, I didn’t know how to prepare tax forms for a three-person limited liability company. My sons and I spent a couple of days reading through complex IRS documents until we just gave up and called an accountant. After a few days, he delivered 132 pages of tax forms and filings and a $1,000 invoice. My teenage sons spent 21 percent of their profits on tax compliance for a summer landscaping business.

That’s the problem with our tax system. It makes things far too difficult for ordinary people to start a company and serve their customers. It incentivizes people to operate off the books using illegal labor and unsafe practices. And it makes law-abiding citizens vulnerable to aggressive enforcement of tax provisions that they don’t even understand.

Small businesses are hit exceptionally hard. They don’t have teams of accountants on staff to fill out complicated forms. The same people clearing the brush are filing the taxes.

And, unlike big corporations that pay a maximum federal rate of 21 percent, small business owners pay a maximum rate of 37 percent, or more. That makes it extremely difficult for entrepreneurs to accumulate capital to reinvest in their businesses and create good jobs. It also creates a big disadvantage for small manufacturers who want to sell their products overseas.

I’ve been a small business owner for 19 years, and I’ve personally experienced the strains of excessive taxes and complex rules weighing on my company’s growth. My taxes are 181 pages this year. It’s outrageous.

In Congress, I’ll work to reduce income tax burdens on the middle class and small business owners. That will create and sustain good jobs right here in Pennsylvania, something I’ve already been doing for almost two decades.

Keep America Free.