Friday, September 09, 2011

Hiring Only who Would Have Been Hired Anyway

Underscoring my argument that these tax breaks for small business hiring is a bad idea, the NY Times posts an article with quotes from actual business owners (disclosure: I have a small business and I'm also speaking from experience):

“You still need to have the business need to hire,” said Jeffery Braverman, owner of Nutsonline, an e-commerce company in Cranford, N.J., that sells nuts and dried fruit. While a $4,000 credit could offset the cost of the company’s lowest-cost health insurance plan, he said, it would not spur him to hire someone. “Business demand is what drives hiring,” he said.


Chesapeake Energy, one of the biggest explorers of oil and gas in shale fields across the country, for example, said it has 800 positions open, and has already received tax credits for hiring the long-term unemployed. But Michael Kehs, vice president for strategic affairs and public relations, said in an e-mail that the credit “does not drive our hiring.”


Roger Tung, the chief executive of Concert Pharmaceuticals, said the company, a privately held biotechnology firm with 45 employees, would save $150,000 a year from the proposed corporate payroll tax deductions.

But that is still not enough to cover the cost of hiring even one additional employee at the Lexington, Mass., company, Mr. Tung said, once benefits and other expenses besides salary are included. He can only hire, he said, when the economy improves and private investors become confident again.


All of these things I mentioned before. I'll repeat if your hiring and profits are determined by taxes, you won't be in business too long because your business plan sucks.