![]()
The Small Business Case for Extending Tax Cuts (Huffington Post)
Congress has important work to finish before the 111th Congress comes to a close. Much of its agenda includes priorities that are critical to the nation's smallest businesses. While the recent passage of the Small Business Jobs Act was a major accomplishment, small businesses also need relief from onerous paperwork burdens created by the IRS Form 1099 expansion provision hidden deep within the health care reform legislation, as well as resolution of a suite of tax issues, including the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), the estate tax and the Bush-era tax cuts.
Much of the political posturing over the Bush-era tax cuts focuses on how much money one earns - either below the $250,000 threshold or above it. The tax cut debate gets bogged down about whether the individuals who benefit from the tax cuts are middle-class or ultra-wealthy. What's missing from this discussion is the fact that 23 million of these individual taxpayers are something else, too: they are business owners. While Congressional leaders -- and the White House -- debate the merits of who deserves these tax cuts, self-employed business owners are depending on this extension for their businesses' very survival.
Seventy-eight percent of small businesses are self-employed and they collectively contribute close to a trillion dollars to our economy every year. Contrary to government policy that often regards them as home-based "hobby" businesses, the self-employed have real jobs in fields like finance, real estate, manufacturing and health care. They aren't simply sitting at home in their pajamas and bunny slippers. They support their families and their communities. And they create job opportunities and spur economic growth when they are thriving.
Read the entire article here.