Court Hits California Small Businesses With Massive Retroactive Tax

just... wow...

Court Hits California Small Businesses With Massive Retroactive Tax

California hasn't collapsed like a giant Spanish-speaking Detroit yet largely because there are still small businesses that haven't been driven into bankruptcy or out of the state, providing employment and generating revenue. But the state's liberal rulers are working on that:

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.

California law promised them tax breaks if they invested in certain types of business. But now a court has proclaimed that the breaks were unconstitutional. Hence the intensified looting spree to collect back taxes no one expected to owe.

[I]t's killing small businesses, says Ken DeVore, with the National Federation of Independent Businesses.

"It sends a message that you can't trust government. If you comply in good faith with the rules, they can go back and penalize you."

We might hear directly from the victimized businessmen, except,

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.

Ask any Tea Party organization how much fun it is to appear on the radar of the tax collectors.

To state the obvious, it is not possible to run a business in a state run by greedy, capricious, left-wing thugs. Refer to most any Latin American banana republic to get a glimpse of California's future.