Business coalition lobbies for no surtax

The coalition wrote a similar letter in October, after the Senate proposed a surtax to pay for President Obama’s jobs package. Both letters make the case that, with the Bush tax cuts set to expire at the end of 2012, a surtax would send tax rates for the highest earners soaring.

{mosads}The Senate announced this week that it would pay for its slimmed-down payroll tax cut extension with a 1.9 percent surtax on millionaires.

The business coalition, using Treasury Department data, said that 80 percent of taxpayers that would face the surtax would be small business owners.
 
Republicans have also cited reports that one-third of small business income would be hit by the surtax.
 
But supporters have used their own statistics to lobby for the surtax, with Alan Krueger, the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, citing a study that said that 99 percent of people with small business income would not be affected by a surtax.