By now, Texas businesses were supposed to have already filed returns and written checks for the newish business margins tax. They got a one-month reprieve from Comptroller Susan Combs, who decided the level of confusion was high enough to give everyone another month to calculate and pay up.

That probably delays some of the noise the new tax will generate, but not all of it.

The Texas branch of the National Federation of Independent Business is trying to build a business coalition to change the new tax. Their complaint is that the tax is too high, that it puts a hardship on companies with losses or tiny net incomes, that it's not offset by drops in property taxes, and that smaller businesses should get more of a break than they're getting.

To judge from comments from NFIB and from business people who spoke at a protest lunch on the day the tax was supposed to come due, lots of people weren't paying attention when lawmakers approved the tax two years ago.

They complained of being surprised by the tax. Some said their accountants are confused. Some said they thought their property tax relief was supposed to match their tax increase. And others said peculiarities of their operations make the new tax unfair.

Quick refresher (cribbed from our own archives of two years ago): The new tax kills the corporate franchise tax and replaces it with a levy on adjusted gross revenues of corporations and partnerships in the state. Businesses can choose what they deduct — either their cost of goods sold, or (most of) their employee compensation. Most would pay the state one percent of what's left after that calculation; retailers and wholesalers would pay 1/2 of one percent.

NFIB didn't lobby the tax when lawmakers passed it in special session two years ago; they say opposition among their members didn't reach the necessary 70 percent at the time, so they stayed out. Now that the members are seeing the tax bills (and NFIB sees the opportunity for a membership drive), the opposition is louder.

The group was joined by four lesser-know outfits (the Independent Electrical Contractors of Texas, the Air Conditioning Contractors of America Texas Chapter, the Associated Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors of Texas, and the Texas Courier and Logistics Association) at an Austin lunch that drew about 150 people.

They'll push for several changes to the new tax, saying it shouldn't apply when companies are losing money or have only small profits; that the exemption for small businesses should be raised to $1 million in gross receipts from $300,000 now; that businesses with annual gross receipts under $20 million should pay only half the one percent tax rate; that all businesses should be allowed to include contract employees when adding up their deductions for payrolls; that the rate shouldn't be allowed to change unless the change gets approval from two-thirds of the House and of the Senate; and that businesses shouldn't have to pay more than twice what they paid under the old corporate franchise tax.

NFIB is trying to recruit other business groups and officials say they've got some prospects lined up. And members of the four groups that have joined in spoke at the lunch and, after it, with reporters.

"We've all made mistakes," said Gordon Stewart, an electrical contractor from Houston. "I have faith in our legislators... but I also believe they didn't know what they were getting into when they passed this."

He was the first of several speakers who said the tax was onerous. One electrical contractor said his taxes had risen to $50,000 from $3,900, but also said his company had $21 million in sales and $5 million in profits. An air conditioning contractor, Rebecca Maddux of Houston, said her business taxes quadrupled. She said later that it would have helped to know the rules last year, when she could have budgeted and planned for the tax (the comptroller didn't have final rules in place until early this year, and didn't have the form for filing the taxes completed until April 1). Maddux also said her business didn't get any property tax relief, since her father owns the land it's on and got that break.

Combs has started collecting the tax, but it's not due until June 15 and she has said it will be a couple of months — maybe August or September — before she's confident enough to say how much money the new levy has put in state accounts. House Speaker Tom Craddick recently said the state will have $15 billion more than it's currently spending when lawmakers write the next budget. Whether that's right or not, that number has found its way to voters. And Gov. Rick Perry is already talking about tax refunds if that number is correct, while others are saying the state should use any unfettered funds to improve or expand state services.

A lot will hinge on the two numbers coming within the next seven months from the comptroller: How much state revenue the new tax has produced, and how much money she expects the state to collect from other taxes over the next two years.

Those figures will frame the fight over tax cuts and revisions and on state spending in the 2009 legislative session.