Taxes, Insurance And The Small Business Owner

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For any business that wants to attract talented employees, marketers agree they need to consider the perks associated with attracting and keeping employees that every business wants.  Health insurance and retirement accounts are the basic benefits that many of these businesses offer. Others include gyms on site and free lunches to their employees without blinking.  But many of these giants offer benefits that many small business owners cannot afford.  And although many employees are lured to the extra benefits they can get, others are happy to work for the small business owner, and be an intricate part of making the small business succeed.

For more about this and other topics, follow the links below.


Should Your Small Business Offer Health Insurance?

For a small business, helping employees sign up for Obamacare often is the best idea for them.

Health insurance is expensive—and getting more so all the time. Does it make more sense for a small company to provide coverage (with employees paying some of the premiums) or let them get a policy on their own through the Affordable Care Act?

Not long ago, it could be difficult and often very expensive for individuals to buy their ownhealth insurance, while the tax code gives an advantage to group insurance provided through the workplace. To keep employees happy and maintain a stable workforce, companies that could afford to offered group insurance.

Now Obamacare, as the law is known, has changed the calculus. Individuals these days can buy insurance with regulated benefits and premiums, and most are eligible for big subsidies. And while companies with the equivalent of at least 50 full-time employees must offer health insurance to those full-time workers or pay penalties, the ACA has no such requirement for smaller businesses.

The upshot is that in many cases, particularly when employees are relatively low-paid, both the company and its employees might be better off if workers buy their own insurance.


Small businesses looking forward to sales tax holiday

A “lackluster” summer for sales have small businesses looking forward to the upcoming sales tax holiday across the state, said Rosemary Elebash, Alabama director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses.

The holiday from sales tax on a host of items including clothing, computers, footwear and much, much more could provide a much-needed lift to many small stores and businesses, said Elebash.

“It’s been a lackluster summer for a lot of small businesses,” Elebash said. “The sales-tax holiday should help people get fired up and in the mood to spend,” added Elebash in a prepared statement from NFIB touting the holiday and its importance to small businesses.

The sales tax holiday begins Friday, Aug. 5 and runs through Sunday, Aug. 7.

The sales tax holiday comes after the latest FIB Small Business Optimism Index, released July 12, shows that small-business confidence improved by only a fraction of one percent in June.

 


Small Business Owners Put Everything They Have Into Their Businesses– Nearly Nine in 10 Say It’s All Worth It

SAN FRANCISCO, July 26, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — More than eight in 10 small business owners (82%) say they put everything they have into their business, according to the second annual Bank of the West Small Business Growth Survey, released todayand an overwhelming majority (86%) say that all they’ve sacrificed for their business has been worth it.

The survey, conducted online by Harris Poll among a national sample of 505 small business owners and an additional 207 California small business owners, delves into the journey of the small business owner, identifying the unique challenges they face and benefits of the job that drive them to persevere through hardships. The survey also spotlights California, and sheds light on unique advantages and challenges felt by women small business owners.

Additionally, this year’s index number (55) and results from the survey show that small businesses have experienced growth and are optimistic in the future of their businesses amid an uncertain economic and political climate. Further, 70 percent of companies surveyed were in growth mode – up from 64 percent last year. The index tracks four key indicators over the previous 12 months: profitability, revenue, investments, and reductions. On the scale of 0-100, a composite score of higher than 50 indicates growth and less than 50 signals decline.