California Wants to Claw Back Small Business Tax Breaks from Five Years Ago

The progressive god giveth, and the progressive god taketh away.

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Small-business investors in California were promised big breaks five years ago, but now they’re being told to pay up, instead after a court ruling.

After following the law, many of them are getting hit with tax bills as high as $250,000.

“When we make a promise, we have to uphold it,” said Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Redondo Beach.

But that is not what the state government appears to be doing. Small-business owners are getting hefty tax breaks for tax credits they already got five years ago.

“They relied on California law as it was written, that they would get a tax break if they invested in certain kinds of businesses,” Lieu said.

But a court ruled in December that practice by the state was unconstitutional. Now, the Franchise Tax Board wants its money.

Money isn’t the only thing that the progressive god taketh away.

Investors who could be hit by the retroactive taxes did not want to go on camera, fearing they would become an easy target for the Franchise Tax Board.

Their fear is justified in Obama’s fundamentally transformed America. We are all more subjects than citizens. Well, those of us who are here legally are.

Does the Franchise Tax Board think that the business owners just kept the money from the tax breaks, put it in big piles and rolled around naked on it? I’m sure one or two of them did, but those who actually wanted to keep their businesses going re-invested their own money into their businesses or other businesses. Now the state wants it all back. If this stands, some of these businesses will go out of business. Or move to Texas.