The Small Business Administration office of Advocacy defines a small business as an independent business that has fewer than 500 employees. This comprises 99.7% of all U.S employer companies and provides almost 50% of the private sector employment in the U.S. In 2010 there were 27.9 million small businesses, and government agencies and officials realize the importance of this sector for the U. S. economy when dealing with policies and tax breaks.
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Why Congress can’t afford to ignore small businesses this fall (5 reasons)
Right up there with cheesy slogans and attack ads, praise for small businesses has become a staple of campaign season in Washington.
It’s likely to be the same again this fall, and with good reason. Congressional hopefuls, both incumbents and their challengers, can’t afford to overlook the nation’s smallest employers, not just because the rest of the country has a soft spot for them, and not just because it makes for sound economic policy.
Rather, small business owners themselves represent a key voting bloc — individually not with quite the sway of large corporations, of course, but influential just the same. Here’s why.
1. They vote
Only about three in four eligible Americans are registered to vote, according to most estimates, and barely more than half cast a ballot during the 2012 elections, according to research by the Bipartisan Policy Center.
DCA Commisioner Menin Promises ‘Big Announcements’ on Small Business Fines
City Department of Consumer Affairs Commissioner Julie Menin promised a group of small business owners a series of “big announcements” in the coming weeks around the agency’s inspection and fines process.
Speaking this morning at the annual meeting of the Columbus Avenue Business Improvement District, Ms. Menin pledged to follow through on Mayor Bill de Blasio‘s campaign declaration that he would lessen burdensome regulations on small business owners.
“As a former small business owner, and one who dealt a lot with the DCA, I really know what it’s like to have a DCA inspector come and not know what they’re looking for,” Ms. Menin told the audience of around 50 business owners from the Upper West Side area in the breakfast meeting at Isabella’s restaurant. “We’re already starting to make changes at DCA.”
Even Small Business Owners Can Use These Tax Breaks
Two recent news clips caught my attention. One involved a company trying to avoid the IRS. The other involved the IRS trying to avoid trouble. Taken together, I can see how a small business owner might cynically ask if a small business has a fighting chance as far as taxes.
The first news item was about the latest rage in large company tax planning: “tax inversions.” U.S. companies seek to sidestep U.S. corporate taxes by relocating offshore through foreign mergers. The most recent example is the proposed Medtronic/Covidien merger. Even though Covidien has headquarters in the U.S., officially it is located in Ireland where the top marginal tax bracket is 10% lower than in the U.S. Apparently Medtronic hopes to save taxes by merging with an Ireland-based company.
The second news item relates to an ongoing scandal where the IRS is accused of targeting certain not-for-profit organizations because of their political leanings. The IRS announced this month that it can’t find two years of emails from Lois Lerner (the former head of the troubled not-for-profit tax division) to the Departments of Justice or Treasury. An agency spokesman blames a computer crash.
