Official Policy
April 10, 2007

The Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce believes that a replacement business tax to Michigan’s Single Business Tax needs to be guided by the following principles:

• Simple
• Broad-based
• Not be an economic disincentive to business

The Chamber supports replacing the single business tax revenue through a new business tax. We do not support raising taxes to bring in more revenue than what is currently brought in by the Single Business Tax.

The Chamber strongly recommends the Legislature adopt a simple form of business income tax or gross receipts tax. Like the existing Single Business Tax, the current proposals will result in a complicated business tax that is difficult to use. Therefore, the Chamber is opposed to all of the current SBT replacement proposals. It is critical to the economic growth of our state that Michigan’s tax structure be easy to use and compare favorably to tax structures implemented in other states.

In addition, the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce does not support a two (2) percent excise tax on services as proposed. The current proposal, combined with a business tax, would bring in more revenue than we support. A tax on services would be complicated and costly to administer. The Chamber does not support a tax on business to business commerce.