NH is now dominated by tax-obsessed Democrats who have been looking for sneaky ways to raise taxes on the citizens of the state. The latest move expands the dividends tax to income from LLCs and partnerships, in effect, a personal income tax. Specifically, LLCs with non-transferrrable shares will be required this newly expanded tax.

The biggest problem with this change is that is was made without any public hearing on the matter, or public input whatsoever. Public input, of course, would have scuppered the plans, as clearly shown by some of the comments made to the article…

D. Delorey of Francestown writes:

This will have election consequences. Raising taxes retroactively on small businesses in a recession will be the fuel for next election’s engine of change. My new bumper sticker is: “CHANGE IT BACK”.

Jill of Bedford writes:

Our dental practice which employs 30 people is now being hit with a new $45,000 tax. They are calling the income that my husband and I earn (and pay income tax on) a ‘profit’. We already pay a Business enterprise tax. If we lose our appeal we will lay off 2 employees out of 12. This is really happening all over the state. The 2 employees will end up on government assistance.
Welcome to taxachusett

Kris MacNeil of Concord writes:

NEVER should lawmakers pass a tax (or regulation or law for that matter) without a public hearing to enable the folks in the trenches to testify about the ramifications, and unforeseen consequences of said tax/regulation/law. Law makers and the state agencies who are supposed to be working WITH their citizens and licensees are not experts in the day-to-day operations of their lives and careers. The really sad thing is, that as our small businesses fail, there is no one tracking what happens to employers, who DON’T hit your unemployment rosters and re-training efforts. That is a whole class of folks that are not hitting your “lists” of folks hurt by the economy and poor decisions reached by uncaring/uninformed law makers and state agencies. Without public hearings, those folks are completely lost in the shuffle and never part of awareness or future evidence for issues that may arise in the future.

Hopefully, John Lynch will finally lose some of his public appeal and his astronomic approval ratings.