Saturday, May 01, 2010

Harley: Is It REALLY "Taxes"?

There's more than a little ululation over the combined-reporting tax, attempting to paint Harley's current troubles as a result of that new burden.

Harley's management disagrees with that line of thinking, and as a matter of fact, the management's come-to-Jesus talk specifically mentions manufacturing-cost challenges.

The Company was specific:

The primary concerns are tied to labor costs and operational flexibility, he said. --Biz Journal, 4/29/10

It's more than a stretch to conclude that the combined-reporting tax is part of "labor cost" or "operational flexibility."

And those who are pushing that line will make rational discussion of tax issues a lot more difficult in the future.

2 comments:

Beer, Bicycles and the VRWC said...

True, but keep in mind it all goes to the bottom line. The taxes they can't control. Labor costs, they can.

Dad29 said...

Looks like union-bargaining time. I think they're after rules changes and possibly wage/bennie changes.

I'm NOT in favor of the tax, per se, although I haven't figured out a good alternative yet.

Outside of STOP SPENDING...but ya know, that won't happen until next year.