Make Your Voice Heard on Capitol Hill
House Committee on Small Business Hears from Family-Owned Businesses on Effects of Current Tax Policies; Renfro Foods’ Executive Provides Testimony
Becky Renfro-Borbolla’s Opening Statement Details High Cost of Estate Taxes on Family Businesses
The House Committee on Small Business held a hearing on Capitol Hill on the pros and cons of new tax policies and in the process heard directly from family-owned business leaders, including Renfro Foods’ Becky Renfro-Borbolla, a member of Family Enterprise USA.
The televised small business committee hearing was titled “Lower Taxes, Stronger Main Street: The Benefits of the Working Family Tax Cuts.”
Congressman Roger Williams (R-TX), Chairman of the House Committee on Small Business, gaveled in the meeting which featured four witnesses, including Renfro-Borbolla, Senior Vice President, Renfro Foods, Ft. Worth, Texas.
The other witnesses were Garrett Watson, Director of Policy Analysis, Tax Foundation Traci Tapani, Co-President and Owner, Wyoming Machine, Inc., and Michael Negron, Senior Fellow for Economic Opportunity, Center for American Progress.
The committee hearing was organized to gauge the effects of new tax policies and tax cuts on family-owned businesses.
Family-owned businesses contribute $7.7 trillion annually to the U.S. gross domestic product, accounting for 83.3 million jobs, or 59 percent of the country’s private workforce, according to research.
Each witness made opening statements, with Renfro-Borbolla detailing how her third-generation salsa and sauce business has “always had family central” to its operations and how it’s “deeply rooted in our community.”
Renfro Foods recently lost a key family member and in her testimony she emphasized the damage high Estate Taxes, or the Death Tax, and its costly burdens can damage family-owned businesses like Renfro Foods.
“With the uncertainty of shifting tax policies and with the high cost of estate planning family businesses are always worried about having to sell the business to pay the taxes upon a death,” Renfro-Borbolla said during the hearing. “We shouldn’t have to pay taxes on top of taxes when there is a death, we’d love to see the Death Tax go away.”
In her opening statement, she said that family-owned businesses like Renfro Foods pay higher wages and offer better benefits than similar traditional corporations and “we have many generational employees,” that is, employees who are not family members but have worked for the company over many of their own generations.
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The need for fact-based reporting of issues important to family owned businesses and protecting a lifetime of savings has never been greater. Now more than ever, successful families and family owned businesses are under fire. That's why Family Enterprise USA is passionately working to increase the awareness of issues important to family owned businesses built on hard work, while continuing to strengthen our presence on Capitol Hill. The issues we fight for or against with Congress in Washington DC include high income tax rates, possible elimination of valuation discounts, increase in capital gains tax, enactment of a wealth tax, and the continued burden of the gift tax, estate tax and generation skipping tax.
Family Enterprise USA promotes generationally owned family business creation, growth, viability, and sustainability by advocating for family businesses and their lifetime of savings with Congress in Washington DC. Since 2007, Family Enterprise USA has represented and celebrated all sizes, professions and industries of family-owned enterprises and multi-generational employers. It is a bi-partisan 501.c3 organization. Family foundations can donate.
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