"Small Business" A cruel joke.

When we hear the term "small business" most of us conjure up the image of a mom and pop pop stand. Or a lawn service operated by one guy with a trailer and a few power mowers. Or maybe a dental practice. How about a home cleaning service.

We get a picture of hard working individuals going it alone and making a modest living being their own boss.

And, to be sure, that's the picture of many "small" businesses.

But did you know that a car dealer is a small business? The owner is quite often the richest guy in town. How about that beer distributor? If the car dealer isn't the richest guy, then the beer guy is. Those businesses are worth a great deal of money.

Going up the ladder, you've heard of KKR, right? And Berkshire Hathaway. Yup. Small businesses. Multibillion dollar small businesses.

It seems to me it is time to redefine a small business. Let's keep it the province of the people in the first paragraph, above. The car dealer and the beer guy don't need any sort of protection. In fact, they need to be taxed until their eyes bleed. And let their kids earn the status. Or at least pay back a society that made their inheritance possible.

I can't believe we're about to pass a law that allows these "small" businesses to avoid tax on the first five million dollars of their estates and then to pay no more than 35% on the rest. Meanwhile, small businesses like mine are struggling to stay alive in a economy where no one is buying anything but groceries and gas.

Oh ..... and that mom and pop single station gas station owner? He's dying, too. His "small" business really is small. He makes diddly squat on each gallon sold, no matter how high the price you and I pay. If he doesn't make it in the service bays, he's pretty much done, too. Hard work and greasy knuckles is what keeps him going.

to get an answer to how many small businesses this tax thing will affect and no one, NO ONE has the answer
It is just lies, smoke and mirrors on the republican side and no one calls them on it

Do not forget rush, beck, hannity, palin and all those others that rack in millions that are not small businesses but will ride the coat tails of this garbage spewed out there

of co-conspirators. Their hold is almost unbreakable. America, it might be a good time to wake-up from your escapist slumber.

And i see little evidence that RW policies do anything but harm me and MY CLIENT BASE.

We have three partners and one part time employee. We are really a microbusiness, too. We get nothing from the government and pay taxes at the full rate with few deductions.

depending on circumstances/economic conditions. And yeah, I get NOTHING in the way of breaks.

I DID get a tax credit this year - Making Work Pay, which is, like the Earned Income Credit, for po' folks, lol.

has GOT to go.

Many family-owned businesses get away with purchasing almost everything on the business, thus saving huge on taxes. I don't see how that should be tolerated, and yet no one has talked about stopping such practices.

I have not seen this and I own and run a microbusiness.

Even things like season tickets to sporting events, with a few given to clients while most are used by the owners. The list goes on and on.

NO?

Because if not then you don't know what was written off and what was. IRS rules are very restrictive in terms about what can be expensed vis a vis entertainment. And those rules are tightening every year. Can season tickets be written off? YES. But only to the extent that they can document which percentage of the tickets were actually used for marketing purposes (given to clients) and then only a percentage of that and then only at the rate of their tax rate. So a percentage of a percentage of a percentage is allowed.

So I repeat, have you seen the tax returns so that you are talking from a position of evidence rather than unsupported supposition?

Here's a few good general articles to get up to speed on some biz tax issues.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/money/taxcenter/article171204.html
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p535/ch01.html#en_US_publink1000208606



I suspect that what you are experiencing is BS - many of my fellow small biz owners in the area that I talk to are completely wrong on what they can and cannot deduct and how to document it. So if you asked a biz owner how he could afford the season tickets and he said that "I just have the company pay for it and deduct the entire thing," s/he is either full of it, pulling your leg, or mistaken and setting themself up for a nasty surprise when they get audited and they WILL get audited. It's gonna happen. And when it does the cost can be HUGE if you add in penalties and interest.

Now cars and home offices can be expensed and I do so, but I am VERY careful how I document it's usage, I am very careful about that usage (no cheating) and I don't ever lie about it to anyone. Yes - I have a home office that is EXCLUSIVELY used for business. Yes I use my car for biz and yes I take a deduction and yes, every day I record if it was used for biz or personal use, how many miles were drove and what purpose it was used for and I am detailed and have the reciepts and/or records to prove that usage. It ain't as easy as you think.

So yah - some biz owner is pulling your leg or just plain wrong and uninformed as to what their accountant is actually doing with their taxes.


I hope this helps. Thanks for listening to this boring crap. Tax code = snnnoooooooooooooze.

were exactly that. The ice cream shop, the deli, the dry cleaners, etc.

i'm a self employed person, i have never received a penny of help from the SBA or anyone else in gov't -- all those benefits go to multi millionaires

every one knows that car dealerships like tom benson (saints owner, a billionaire) are the small businesses who benefit from gov't, that type of person is the only type who can afford to buy the gov't

as for the illegal immigrant who lives in his RV and owns the locally owned "discount" gas station around here, i don't see why he should be getting small business help either when i, as an american born here and paying taxes here since age 16, gets nothing -- however, i'm pretty sure all he's getting IS nothing except the opportunity to hide out from time to time from the INS

most gas stations are owned not by some guy with grease in the knuckles but by some rich guy with multiple outlets...

i think we should have a lottery of everyone who has more than $5 million in assets, each week, a guy is picked and executed and his assets returned to the people to rebuild infrastructure, the rest of the rich can continue w. their regularly scheduled tax breaks...tht would be fair, i think

but to create a world where the rich can keep piling riches on their children so that we can NEVER catch up even by working and saving over generations because everything of value is priced toward those who already have multi generations of wealth gathered...that is just evil

i realize it's xmas, the unemployed are hungry, and obama had to work fast to get some $ in front of regular people but at some point the predatory rich need to be dealt with, if they won't pay a fair share of taxes, they need to be jailed, surely some rich kid has had sex w.out a condom, why not put the same energy in chasing the rich as they put into chasing assange? the rich are a greater threat to the peace of this nation

The lottery seems a little extreme at first glance but I think that it is more equitable that Dr. Guillotine.

...in fact, most of the small businesses I deal with (everything from carpet cleaning franchises to small machine shops to electronics repair shops to small retailers) are corporations or LLCs. The one thing 90%+ of them have in common - the owners are flaming Republicans (and this includes businesses I've seen that are clearly screwed by GOP policy). Rush Limbaugh blasting on the radio, or FAUX Noise on the flat screen in the owner's office. OTOH, their $10/hour employees who receive little to nothing in benefits may be a different story.

I see two major issues with the $250K + tax bracket. One is family farms. These do tend to still be operated as sole props, and the money for everything from making the payments on the combine to buying the seed comes from the family checkbook. Why these folks don't incorporate their farms is a mystery to me, but they don't. The other are 2x income suburban couples in areas like LA, NY, SF/OAK, and DC. He makes $100K, she maks $150K, but they live in a 4 BR, 600K house -- these folks argue that they are not wealthy. They will assert that they are just trying to make bills like the rest of us, and that they are hardworking professionals who are being unduely penalized for being moderately successful.

...as for me, I'm waiting for the day when we can all legally sell a kidney...and when the concept of Dickens' workhouses will be reborn as "debt relief facilities."

Sell now while the price is high.

And they are the main source still of primary care physicians for most folks.

If they go, then the insurance companies really will own health care and if that happens expect premiums and denials to go up exponentially because the doctors who used to advocate for the regular folks will be dead in the water and the only doctors you will be able to see will all be at will employees / contractors with big corporations.