In 2015, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) commissioned Anderson Economic Group to produce a memorandum describing and quantifying the state and local tax burden and underlying trends for small businesses in Michigan. In 2019, as a new governor and legislature came into power, NFIB commissioned Anderson Economic Group to update this memorandum using more recent data.
We used results from our annual business tax burden study to show how the tax burden for businesses has changed over the years, and how different taxes are behind that change. In particular, we showed that revenues from the individual income tax on pass-thru business income had risen dramatically even while corporate income tax revenues had fallen. The former category falls disproportionately on small businesses, which often do not pay the corporate income tax.
We provided the client a memorandum, which was included as part of NFIB’s testimony to a legislative committee in February 2019. We also provided feedback on a press release and the presentation that accompanied NFIB’s testimony.