Putting the "gross" in Gross Receipts

April 29, 2007

Issue: Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has proposed a Gross Receipts Tax on any Illinois business venture that has gross receipts in excess of $2 million annually. If this tax goes into effect no business would consider moving to Illinois and existing business owners would have to strongly consider moving from Illinois or closing their doors altogether.

1st degree: Chicago Mayor Richard Daley was riding to the office one unseasonably warm March morning (man-made global warming strikes again.) and noticed he was sweating. He asked the driver why the Hell it so warm in the car and was told the A/C wasn’t working. After berating the driver all the way to the office, Daley was really over-heated.

2nd degree: Stomping into his office, he noticed his personal lap dog Rod Blagojevich admiring his hair-helmet in the mayor’s mirror. “Sit!” Daley commanded to the submissive governor.

3rd degree: Once seated, Rod was treated to a tirade regarding the lack of funds being funneled to Chicago as the mayor explained, “I can’t even get a car with a functioning air conditioner!”

4th degree: A cowering Governor Blagojevich stammers about the state budget not being sufficient to fulfill the mayor’s needs.

5th degree: Mayor Daley gently informed the governor that he was put in the governor’s office for one reason, to serve the whims of The Chicago Machine, so he better find a way to get the money to its rightful place.

6th degree: In the wake of his mayoral spanking, Governor Blagojevich decided to prove he was a good liberal while finding a way to finance M other Chicago’s desires. He decided to tax the gross receipts of any business that takes in more than $2 million annually.

Of course he says big business does not pay its share under the current tax structure and apparently he sees $2 million a year as an indicator of big business. A thinking person, something Blagojevich could never be mistaken for, would see a few problems with the new plan:

Gross receipts are everything the business takes in, not the profits. (We assume a business has payroll, other taxes, insurance, advertising, rent, mortgages, utilities, etc. to pay from those gross receipts.)
Many people rely on these businesses for their means of supporting their families. The employees of the businesses that are forced to leave the state or close their doors will no longer have the means.

I would think anyone outside of Chicago and Madison County can see what a bad idea the GRT is.