You need to buy new equipment every year? You are kind of tough on your tools maybe you should learn how to use them correctly. A tractor should last a decade with proper maintenance many lasting a lifetime. Retrain your staff to change the oil at least once every generation or before the turn of the next century. Your post is comical, if you have a business, your tax accountant can steer you in the right direction. You need a better education on tax strategies and cost mitigation.
No, I don't need to buy a new tractor every year. I do maintain my equipment regularly, there's someone here on TBN whose sig line is "take the time to maintain your equipment or it will make the time for you". He's right.
The problem arises when I need to buy another attachment, many of which are made overseas (even Canada is considered "overseas"), or replacement parts, or if I need a bigger or additional tractor - which I well may in the next few years. The cost just took an arbitrary jump, and the additional cost doesn't buy me one more horsepower, any more reliability or capability, there is no value added.
I've owned multiple successful businesses over the last 50 years, and I am very familiar (sometimes more familiar than I want to be) with taxes, amortization, import/export, international finance, real estate development, law, construction, and have taught college level courses in some of these subjects. I am also not the Lone Ranger, I *always* use outside consultants and experts before I make any significant financial decision.
My objection is not to targeted tariffs. These can serve a purpose to protect US businesses against predatory prices and unfair competition from overseas vendors (or nations). My objection is to *blanket* tariffs on *everything* that comes from overseas. These only raise the costs to us, to you and to me me, without giving us any specific benefit. They also result in retaliatory tariffs from other countries, so not only do imported things cost more here, we will be selling fewer things overseas, and that will (further) damage our domestic economy.
Now if you want "comical", look at the suggestion that higher tariffs quote "MAY" unquote lower our income taxes. Aside from the "may" instead of a "will", and the total lack of a number or percentage that they "may" go down, taxes never, ever go down. Taxes are like crack cocaine for governments - there is never enough - they could get all there is in the world, and that still wouldn't be sufficient.
Here's another example of comical and wasteful tariff based cost increases. In 1969, I worked for the east coast importer of BMW automobiles (Max Hoffman, before BMWNA was formed at took it away from him). I ran the warranty department.
BMW was still finding their way in America, and they were amazed that anyone here actually wanted air conditioning in their cars. The solution was simple; install an aftermarket A/C unit at the factory.
These aftermarket A/C units were crafted by elves in the section of the Black Forest known as "Dallas, Texas" and were labeled "KuhlMeister" which I guess was the German translation of "CoolMaster".
The parts were shipped to Germany (where they incurred import duty), installed into the cars, which were shipped here (and incurred import duties again), so anyone who wanted A/C in their BMW 1600/2 paid duty on it twice - and it wasn't one single degree (F or C) cooler.
Products often cross borders for further processing or value added, often multiple borders, and then come back to the country of origin for sale. International trade is FAR too complex for arbitrary pronouncements.
Act in haste, repent at leisure.
With Best Regards,
Mike/Florida
