Tis the holiday season, and all through the land, small businesses are stirring about what Washington has planned.
They’ve lobbied their leaders as the tax cliff looms near, in hopes that their rates will go down next year.
But taxes aren’t the only source of their dread, as visions of health care costs dance in their heads.
They want eased regulations, and immigration changes, too — i ndeed, there is much they hope Congress will do.
This week, we asked entrepreneurs and small business owners what policy makers in Washington could do to help their companies have a merry holiday season and a happy new year, beyond simply averting the year-end fiscal cliff. Here is their holiday wish list.
Betsy Burton, King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, Utah:
“As a small business owner, I often depend on the same loan products as the average consumer — credit cards, small loans, etc. There is far too little transparency where financial transactions are concerned; I’d like to see Congress strongly support policies that create more transparency, clarity and disclosure regarding any and all such transactions. Reforming the system to protect small business owners like me, as well as the average consumers who are my customers, from predatory financial practices is incredibly important.”
Eric Blinderman, Mas in New York, New York:
“I hope Congress will make some real headway on tax reform—and capital gains taxes, in particular. Why is it that someone who makes their living trading stocks gets to pay the capital gains rate on all the income they make, which is 15 percent? If I invest my money in my restaurants, creating many jobs along the way, I have to pay full freight on that income. There should be more parity with respect to tax rates so that tax incentives apply equally to anyone who creates a job, regardless of whether they are a stock trader or a restaurant owner.”
Nancy Roesner, Copley Feed & Supply Company, Inc. in Copley, Ohio:
“Once again, things have been quite tight for us at my company. I have been unable to give my employees raises and had to give a small Christmas bonus again this year. Since we are being hit with higher taxes and heavier restrictions on products we can sell, we are losing customers. A small business can only pass on increases to a point before the customers just say that you are too high. I would hope that you would concentrate on reforming taxes on small businesses, as well as, pulling the reins back on EPA and their decisions on some of the products that they have taken off the market for us.”
ReShonda Young, Alpha Express Inc. in Waterloo, Iowa:
“We believe we can compete with anyone – even the biggest multi-national delivery companies – as long as we’ve got a level playing field. But the proliferation of tax avoidance by big multinational companies in recent years is a troubling trend that creates two sets of problems for us. First, this tax avoidance is robbing the country of the resources we need to maintain the physical infrastructure that our business relies on. Second, when multi-national companies use accounting tricks to shift profits off-shore and avoid paying taxes, it puts domestic businesses like mine that are paying our fair share at a direct competitive disadvantage.
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