[mrnoodle]

I don't know what other factors might have been present, I only go by what he complained about. As I said, he was utterly uneducated about finance, and I'm sure the line between the money he earned/spent personally and the money he earned/spent on the business was quite blurry. He also worked full time in manufacturing as a support tech.

That does bring up another issue about the tax code, though. It really should be something that's translatable by the average schmo. After all, the average schmo is footing the bill. If the money my friend lost was actually lost somewhere other than through taxes, and he was just an inept businessman, then that's the breaks. But for someone who doesn't have an MBA, and just wants to make a family-run business work, it's quite easy to get bumfuzzled.

So, if he lost $X thousand and saw that a simultaneous increase in his tax rate, there might not be a DIRECT cause/effect relationship, but isn't the outcome the same? I ask in all humbleness, not arguing here.