Microbusiness News Briefs Podcast » financing

Study: Small Biz Tax Gap Inaccurate, Unfair

Dawn Rivers — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 20:50:25 +0000

Sometimes, when I write up the week’s microbusiness news, I get a little hot under the collar.

That happened this week. It usually shows up in my Policy Matters column but I was able to stay calm this week. That might be because I had so much to get irritated about.

There was the research report on small business and the tax gap, showing that we’ve been taking a bum rap for years now on that particular issue. Care to place a bet as to whether or not we’ll receive any kind of apology or acknowledgement of the injustices we’ve suffered at the hands of zealous IRS enforcers and lawmakers?

Then there was the other research, about women-owned businesses. By itself, that wasn’t bad but when it came to the president of American Express OPEN spouting nonsense about women running lifestyle businesses being a myth … well, yeah.

And then there was the Small Business Credit Card bill, which addresses some major problems for microbusinesses. And that would have been much nicer if the people behind the legislative proposal had actually intended to do us such a good turn because they finally understand our situation.

I guess I’m a little testy this week. And no, it is not PMS!

For more information:

Advocacy Chief Counsel Nominee Remains in Limbo

Dawn Rivers — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:38:54 +0000

Sometimes, Washington still has the power to surprise me.

Take this debacle with the nomination of Dr. Winslow Sargeant. Personally, given that it is not required by statute for the Chief Counsel of the SBA Office of Advocacy to be a lawyer, Senator Olympia Snowe’s intransigence about it strikes me as being a bit unreasonable … even irrational.

-ahem-

Do you really have to be a lawyer in order to go to bat for small businesses that are regularly browbeaten by federal regulations? I wouldn’t have thought so, not when there are attorneys on staff at Advocacy and when the real experts on the subject are small business owners on those Advocacy panels I keep hearing about.

On the Senate floor, Senator Mary Landrieu mentioned that when the economy is in the sort of shambles it’s in right now, this is not the time to withhold any sort of resource for small businesses — including their very own advocate within the federal government.

She’s right. And, just between us, I sure hope they get this resolved soon!

So, in other news … anybody taking bets on whether the federal budget will get cobbled together, passed by both the House and the Senate, and all 12 bills signed into law before the close of the fiscal year on September 30th?

Nah, I didn’t think so.

For more information:

Credit Card Debt Increases Chance of Firm Failure

Dawn Rivers — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 23:59:09 +0000

I don’t normally do themes with my newsletters, primarily because it’s pretty rare for the news to cooperate like that.

This week, however, the theme seems to be microbusinesses and money.

We have a new legislative proposals that threatens to take the money right out of our pockets.

We have two new studies about the topic, one that reviews the characteristics of different types of borrowers to analyze access to capital and another that provides our lead story for the week.

Yes, fans, credit card debt might not be such a good thing for small businesses.

This matters a lot to microbusinesses because, for the past few years, bankers and policy makers and economists have all behaved and talked as if the microbusiness access to capital problem had been solved by credit cards.

Nobody said that, of course, but they acted like they thought it. That is why a lot of folks on Capitol Hill stopped fretting so much about the need to tweak the Microloan program and perhaps looking at other creative financing possibilities for microbusinesses.

Why bother? The credit cards got the job done.

Now we get to say, Not so fast, Fuzzy Lumpkin! (Sorry for the Power Puff Girls reference, folks. I have kids, what can I say?)

For more information:

Taxpayer Responsibility, Accountability, and Consistency Act of 2009 (H.R. 3408) (Text of legislation)
National Association for the Self-Employed
SBA Office of Advocacy
Research Report: The Use of Credit Card Debt by New Firms (PDF)

Senate Panel Vets Advocacy Chief and SBA IG Nominees

Dawn Rivers — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:50:05 +0000

There are few pleasures in my life to compare with having a conversation with a professional thinker. My interview with Dr. Nichols was definitely the high point of my week.

What is difficult to convey with the News Briefs is the passion with which Dr. Nichols spoke about the need to reform the health care system, because it is not only inefficient and a drag on the economy, it is also inhumane.

We’re Americans. We’re supposed to care about that sort of thing.

In spite of the disruptive crazies who are making life difficult for normal citizens simply looking to engage in a dialogue about the various reform proposals emerging from the House and the Senate, it’s good that Congress is taking a break. They need to check in with the rest of us along about now.

They need to rest their neurons a bit, too, and give themselves an opportunity to recharge.

I can’t think of any other job (with the possible exception of single-parenting) in which you’d be more susceptible to burn-out.

So, when Congress goes on vacation, it is a good thing for the Republic. Even if it is a bad thing for niche reporters looking for stories to cover.

For more information:

Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
SBA Office of Advocacy
SBA Office of the Inspector General
New America Foundation: Dr. Len Nichols-bio

Predicted ‘Wave’ of Microbiz Foreclosures Not Showing Yet

Dawn Rivers — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:31:37 +0000

I’m feeling very brave and daring, and I’m fully expecting to receive a vehement message from Dr. Bornstein in the comments here or over at The Journal Blog. Dr. Bornstein is a very smart man who has an important message to deliver.

Unfortunately, he fails to demonstrate convincingly why anybody should care more about foreclosures among small business owners than among everybody else for two very salient reasons:

(1) There is no real need to assume that homeless small business owners will necessarily close their businesses, unless they operate home-based businesses (and if they do, the odds are that they have no employees anyway); and

(2) It is not what I would call politically savvy to behave as if one set of homeless citizens matters more than another set of homeless citizens — even if, from a practical point of view, they do.

Fortunately, anything that Congress or the Obama Administration does to address the foreclosure crisis in general will be available to small business owners in particular. So, assuming that stuff will work to keep people in their homes, Dr. Bornstein might perhaps be able to relax a little and take some time off for fly fishing or something.

For more information:

Previous MNB coverage: Second Wave of Foreclosures Threatens Micros
Press Release: New Study Shows 2.1 Million California Small Business Jobs Will Be Lost
Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
SBA Office of Advocacy

Obama Finally Sends Small Biz A Sign

Dawn Rivers — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:08:09 +0000

Note to self: once you record the podcast, it is necessary to upload it to the relevant server space.

Last week, everybody seemed to have lost their minds, didn’t they? Most of the PR pros of my acquaintance would have called the AIG bonus debacle a case of tone-deaf company creating a Wiley Coyote public relations moment for themselves.

It was revealing, though, for some reasons I expect to be speculating about later this week over at The Journal Blog and maybe elsewhere. Having had my thoughts provoked, I also expect I’ll enjoy myself.

Last week’s microbusiness news is an exercise in the virtues of patience. Ever so slowly, Washington is taking up the microbusiness people’s business, although they continue to be hampered by the lack of leadership over at the SBA.

And what’s up with that, anyway?

It’s difficult to say whether its a good thing or not that these to important microbusiness bills — the standard home office deduction and the permission for Schedule C filers to deduct health insurance premiums before calculating FICA taxes — have been introduced so early.

It’s nice to know that they’re thinking about us, isn’t it?

On the other hand, past experience shows that legislation introduced this early (especially small business legislation) has a tendency to get buried and forgotten in the pending tray.

As to that, we shall see.

For more information

President’s Remarks to Small Business Owners (video)
Home Office Deduction Simplification Act of 2009 (THOMAS)
Equity for Our Nation’s Self Employed Act of 2009 (THOMAS)
National Association for the Self-Employed