Tax Credits for New Hires

I’ve proposed a series of seven policies that I believe will help put our economy back on track, and I’d like to explain one of them in more detail -- a new series of tax credits for businesses hiring new employees.

As I travel around the District meeting with small business owners, I hear frequently that they want to hire more employees, but there is no way for them to accurately forecast how much a new employee will cost them. With the possibility of future tax hikes, policies like card check and cap-and-trade and new regulatory burdens, businesses simply cannot predict what the total cost of a new employee will be.

One way we can reduce the cost of each employee is to give these small businesses tax credits for hiring new employees to help defray the costs associated with the new hires. Specifically, these tax credits should be targeted towards the smallest of these small businesses – the sole proprietors and the mom-and-pop shops that could use a new employee but cannot currently afford one.

Even a small tax credit can make the investment of a new employee financially viable for these small firms. This policy will directly create jobs by making these additional hires possible, but in the long run it will help set the stage for additional job creation down the road.

It’s these sorts of measures that will make economic recovery and job growth possible. Our number one priority should be creating an economic and political environment friendly to business and job growth. Only when small businesses are confident that they do not face threats from higher taxes or regulatory burdens will they begin to hire.