So after some simple math your saying that the Taxman is going to get approx 15 billion[8% of ($375,000 * 500,000 employers)]out of small out of this ‘payroll fine’ which is maybe 1.5% of the current CBO estimate of the cost of this beast.
That would be an intresting number to know, the overall profected percentage that small biss is going to pay towards healthcare. I’d also say that this 8%, like all taxes, is going to either decrease employment or increase comsumer prices (which again decreases employment), we pay no matter what.
I have the biggest problem with this

Even if a small business does offer insurance, they are still required to pay a payroll tax if an employee chooses to opt out and enter the government plan.

As it is a doubled edge sword. What incentives are in the beast to encourage poeple to opt for the government plan? If the owner offers insurance and only half of his employee opt for it, the owners ability to gain a good price on said insurance decreases i.e the cost goes up, making it less attractive for the owner to offer it in the first place. Put another way if the insurance premium is not less than 8% of the small biss payroll it’s not worth offering it.

Being a small business owner that does not have any employees and sub-contracts regularly with other hard working small businesses in my area, I see only one real answer to this taxation and health care issue: Independent Contractors.

Having been in the real estate industry since I was 21, you rarely had “employees.” The real estate offices were all “independent contractors.” This was both for legal purposes and for purposes of keeping employment costs and benefits low. This is what we will see happen to small business. Contract employees and independent contractors will become the norm, to cut back on government mandated health care costs. You will see small businesses require and independent contractor’s agreement be signed and then the independent contractor will be 1099 to reduce the small businesses income tax level. As a sole proprietor, I am fully aware that the cost of business insurance alone is enough to make you choke. I can only imagine what the cost of employment benefits must be.

In addition, you will see more outsourcing sent to India and China. Since starting my new graphic design business three years ago, I have had at minimum 15 calls from foreign companies (India) for custom web programming and flash design assistance and continue to I receive calls like this regularly. Since I believe in quality control and keeping jobs in the USA, I send my sub-contract work to local designers I have built a strong relationship with or I learn how to do the custom programming myself. But, for other small businesses in manufacturing, that have slim profit margins already, that see the “pennies on the dollar” difference to ship work over seas; we will see “mom & pop” shops shipping jobs over seas at a rate that big businesses are (these are small businesses that would have never considered outsourcing their manufacturing to hurting overseas companies, but will finally take the plunge looking for an “out” from the current government’s business destroying tactics).

One thing about small business - they will never fail at figuring out a way to make a dollar. It is the American way, one the Democrats have forgotten….unless it is getting tax dollars.

Thanks for nothing (literally), Fifty-three percent!

I think this is the sort of post that will be more effective in the long run than the one about fines you wrote the other day.

An additional bit as reported in the Washington Times:

The top federal income tax rate would hit 45% in 2011, a level not seen since Reagan came into office.

The point that it is Dem-Socialists who want to turn back the clock on history might be a good point to make with other Americans.