I've got ten years as a cost analyst in the construction industry and I'm an enrolled agent with the Internal Revenue Service. That being said, everything I'm about to write is purely hypothetical (sort of like Joe's business), but it gives you an idea of how wrong-headed people can be -- especially if they watch a lot of Faux News
Let's say that Joe runs a two-man shop and that he and his employee are working pretty much fulltime. Joe had a good year, with revenues of just over $500,000. Joe's screwed, right? He makes over Obama's magical $250,000 mark and he's going to have to pay taxes, right?
Wrong.
For starters, let's assume that along with payroll taxes and a few benefits like paid vacation, Joe's employee costs $75 per hour (he bills at a higher rate, of course). So that's a bit over $150,000 that Joe can write off his income.
So now we're down to $350,000.
Based on my experience in the construction industry, and assuming that Joe is doing residential and light commercial plumbing, you can count on about 20% of his total revenue being parts and consumable supplies. This is also stuff that can be written off. Twenty percent of $500,000 is $100,000.
So now we're down to $250,000.
Joe keeps a truck and a number of small tools that have to be replaced every year (you seen my wrench?). He also advertised in the local paper and pays for some schlub to do his taxes. All told, that comes to about $40,000 per year (mostly the truck and tools).
So now we're down to $210,000.
Based on the Obama Tax Calculator, and assuming that Joe is married with two kids and a mortgage, Joe would be getting an $800 tax break under the Obama plan and only $336 back under the McCain plan. And since Joe is a small business owner, he'd be getting an extra tax break if he provides insurance for his employee that he wouldn't be getting from McCain.
If you're a small business owner, you really need to be dumber than a sack of wrenches to be voting for McCain.