Our Research: Taxes, Budget & Economy
Small business owners are the backbone of our economy, yet they feel at a disadvantage when it comes to tax policies, especially those that favor large corporations, and support targeted policies they see as benefitting the vast majority of small firms, not those that only benefit a few.
This report compiles findings from focus groups and roundtable discussions with rural small business owners and other small business stakeholders in four states, as well as the results of a national poll of rural small business owners. The report also features recommendations for policymakers and service providers to increase opportunities for rural entrepreneurs.
Small Business Majority released a scientific opinion poll on small business owners’ attitudes regarding tax reform. While current proposals are being sold as a boon for small businesses in a struggling economy, small business owners are in fact generally optimistic about the economy and rate healthcare, rather than taxes, as their top concern. Further, small business owners want Congress to prioritize making the tax system fair for small businesses over tax cuts.
Lawmakers dodged an economic bullet at the end of 2012 when they came to an 11th hour agreement on the highly publicized “fiscal cliff” issue. Not two months later, policymakers have yet another obstacle in their path that could have dire consequences for small business and the economy: what’s known in D.C.
For the second time since the summer of 2011, Congress is debating whether or not to raise the federal debt ceiling—the legal limit on how much the federal government can borrow. While addressing our debt is an important issue that carries weight for small business and the economy, some politicians have been misusing the debt ceiling as a mechanism for furthering their own partisan agendas.
As small business owners prepare to close the books on 2012, our country is fast approaching the edge of what’s been dubbed the “fiscal cliff.” This critical situation—created by a host of tax cuts set to expire at the end of 2012, coupled with billions of dollars in automatic spending cuts that will be triggered if Congress and the president can’t agree on a way to reduce the deficit by year’s
Small businesses have become a key weapon in politicians’ arsenals when arguing for practically any policy that has an economic impact. Policies associated with the current tax debate are no exception.
Small businesses are one of the most respected constituencies in the country, and certainly one of the most courted by policymakers in Washington. However, small businesses are also a group that legislators and the general public understand little about—the very smallest ones, especially. Those businesses are known as “micro businesses.”
Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and create the vast majority of new jobs, yet as these poll findings make clear, small business owners believe large corporations and wealthy Americans pay less than their fair share of taxes. Poll respondents support specific reforms to address the problem.
Opinion Survey: Small Business Owner Opinions on Access to Credit and Proposals to Boost the Economy
Small business owners are suffering from weak sales and decreased customer demand, and on top of that, a lack of access to credit. It is difficult for small business owners to access the credit that will help them grow, hire and jumpstart the economy.
