Efforts to “tax the rich” will hit growing businesses very hard, according to this story published in the Triangle Business Journal.

Overall, about 600,000 individuals with small-business income could be hit with the surcharge.

This represents a small percentage of the small-business community, but these business owners are the ones that tend to put their money back into their businesses and create jobs, surcharge critics contend.

“The businesses most likely to get hit are those businesses that are a little bit larger,” said NFIB Tax Counsel Bill Rys. “This is going to hit the business on the way up.”

Based on a survey of small-business owners conducted in December 2007, NFIB estimates that one-third of companies that employ 20 to 250 could be hit with the surcharge. Businesses of this size create about 33 million jobs a year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

So, we’re getting ready to raise the cost of doing business on the very people we rely on to create jobs and buy more goods and services needed to make their products and deliver their services.

In other words, this policy will hurt the economy, rather than help it.