There are many tax advantages that came into effect for this year for small business owners, and cutting more taxes is one the things Rep. Steve Chabot wants to accomplish now that he is Chairman of the House Small Business Committee. Cutting taxes and regulations are a top priority for the Representative, and the small business community cannot fail to benefit from this agenda. Follow the links below for more news about small business.
Small business lending in Ohio shifts toward institutional investors
The biggest obstacle to opening a small business in Ohio is still financing, and Juanita Darden-Jones can tell you all about it.
Darden-Jones plans to open a coffee and wine shop in downtown Dayton called Third Perk this summer, which will mark two years since she first contacted CityWide Development Corp. about getting help raising the money for the equipment and renovations to open the shop.
“Small businesses are almost impossible to finance,” Darden-Jones said. “Banks are not very kind to us.”
The equipment for the coffee shop cost at least $30,000, and Darden-Jones expects to invest about $30,000 in renovations to the store. But that doesn’t include any coffee, food or wine inventory costs.
Small business lending in Ohio is becoming dominated by institutional investors as approval rates at big banks remain rather slim, and small bank approval rates are decreasing.
Big banks improved their small business lending approval rate to 18.5 percent by December 2014, up from 15.9 percent in January, but still lag behind the national rate of 21.1 percent, according to the Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index.
Small business agenda: Target taxes, regulations
NEW YORK (AP) — Cutting regulations and taxes are on Rep. Steve Chabot’s must-do list for small businesses.
The Ohio Republican, who became chairman of the House Small Business Committee when Congress took office earlier this month, plans to continue the committee’s focus on how the government burdens small companies.
“If there’s one thing government can do for small business it’s to get the heck off their backs,” Chabot says. “We do over-regulate them. We do overtax them.”
PRIORITIES
Chabot plans to hold hearings to advocate for small businesses, as did his predecessor Sam Graves, R-Mo. Chabot says the committee will focus on the health care law and regulations issued by the IRS and Environmental Protection Agency.
Chabot also plans to push for tax relief for small businesses. He noted that when the Republican-led House passed tax bills in the past, the legislation stalled in the then-Democratic led Senate. He’s looking for more progress in a Congress now controlled by the GOP.
“We think we have a much better chance at advancing a whole range of tax reform issues,” Chabot says.
What an Ohio fire truck company tells us about globalization and free trade
Think free trade deals will help small businesses? It’s a lot more complicated than that.
For 125 years, some small portion of America’s fire trucks have come from Columbus, Ohio. That’s where the family-owned Sutphen Corp. produces shining red masses of steel and aluminum, loaded with ladders and tanks, the kind of vehicle that towns buy as a promise to keep citizens safe.
But when the recession hit in 2008, Sutphen knew that the United States wouldn’t be enough.
“We saw that we were totally dependent on the U.S. economy, especially municipal funding,” says Ken Creese, the company’s director of sales and marketing. Sutphen’s orders had dropped by some 40 percent, and they were starting to lay people off. They needed new markets, stat.
To find them, the company looked to a country better known for selling stuff to America rather than buying it: China. They hired a vice president for international relations, began responding to solicitations by local governments, and quickly started filling orders. Now, about 11 percent of the 250 trucks Sutphen makes per year sell overseas — not only in China, but Venezuela, Colombia and Peru. Just last week, the company signed a $3.8 million deal with a Chinese fire department.
