Straight Talk on Taxes with Small Business Owners
With Tax Day around the corner, tax policy is front and center this week. So are claims about how changes to the tax code will affect small businesses. The Main Street Alliance released a pair of new fact sheets in its “straight talk” series separating truth from fiction when it comes to small business and taxes. One fact sheet focuses on the Buffett Rule, which would ensure that taxpayers earning over $1 million a year pay a minimum effective tax rate of 30 percent. The other fact sheet focuses on corporate taxes and small business views on corporate tax contributions.
Read the new “Straight Talk on Taxes” fact sheets:
The Buffett Rule and Small Business
Corporate Taxes and Small Business
Poll: Small Business Owners Say Big Businesses, Millionaires Not Paying Fair Share of Taxes
Small business owners see corporate tax loopholes and accounting gimmicks used to shift U.S. profits offshore to avoid taxes as serious problems, according to independent nationwide opinion polling released on February 6. Small business owners say big corporations and the wealthy don’t pay their fair share of taxes. They support increasing taxes on millionaire incomes, allowing high-end tax cuts to expire, and closing the carried interest loophole that gives big tax breaks to hedge fund managers.
These are among the key findings of a scientific nationwide survey of small business owners commissioned by the American Sustainable Business Council, Main Street Alliance and Small Business Majority.
Click here to read the report.
Click here to read the press release about the report.
Taking the Pulse of Florida Small Businesses
Florida small business owners participating in a recent survey want large corporations to pay more taxes, believe the foreclosure situation is having a negative impact on their customer base, and support the creation of a new competitive marketplace for purchasing health insurance. These are among the key findings of the report Taking the Pulse of Florida Small Businesses, a report based on a face-to-face survey of small business owners released in Orlando on February 29 by the Community Business Association, Organize Now, and the Main Street Alliance. Click here to read the full report.
Watch Out for Small Business Identity Theft!
Rick Poore, a leader with MSA from Lincoln, Nebraska, had an op-ed published in The Hill for the 10 year anniversary of the Bush tax cuts on June 7. Rick’s piece provides a forceful critique of the claim that the high-end Bush cuts help small business, and warns small business owners to watch out for small business identity theft – the use of false small business arguments to advance the narrow interests of big corporations and the wealthy.
Read Rick’s op-ed in The Hill.
For the 10 year anniversary, MSA released a fact sheet highlighting what small businesses need most: local investment to create jobs, not tax cuts for the wealthy.
Click here to download the fact sheet.
The State of the Small Business Nation – 2011
The country observed National Small Business Week in May (see the Presidential Proclamation). The Main Street Alliance marked the occasion by releasing its “State of the Small Business Nation – 2011.” This white paper includes a “Small Business Top Ten List” of concrete policy opportunities to level the playing field for small businesses and help them create jobs.
While pundits and politicians like to label policies “pro-business” or “anti-business,” as if there were one unified business interest, the reality is that policies that make winners out of some businesses make losers out of others. As Bruce Josten, the chief lobbyist of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, put it, “You’re never going to have one hundred percent unanimity. Never. There is inherent tension… I laugh every day when someone calls and asks what does the business community think.” (1)
While Mr. Josten pointed to tensions between oil and gas companies, wholesalers and retailers, investment banks and retail banks – all big corporate players – his point applies even more so to the dynamics between big business and small business. While pundits and politicians like to lump all business interests together, the truth is that policies that benefit large corporate players very often tilt the playing field against small businesses.
In a cover letter to President Obama, senior administration officials, and congressional leaders on May 18, Main Street Alliance business leaders wrote:
Our members come from states across the country and a wide range of sectors, but we are united by a common set of values – small business values. We believe in what we do, we stand by our products and services, and we want people in government and corporate leadership who do the same. We stand for fair play and a level playing field. We stand for having each other’s backs. We believe America’s future prosperity depends on everyone contributing their fair share.
These small business values are what guide our business decisions and our commitment to advancing policies that fulfill the promise of an economy that works for all of us – small businesses, our employees, and the communities that sustain us.
Download the Main Street Alliance’s “State of the Small Business Nation – 2011”
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(1) James Verini, “Show Him the Money,” Washington Monthly, July/August 2010, http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2010/1007.verini.html
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