Don't Mess With Taxes

Today is the start of the annual Small Business Week.

And yes, you can combine it with Cinco de Mayo and raise a margarita to your favorite entrepreneur.

These 30 million or so smaller companies are hailed as America's backbone. Approximately 10 million are women-owned, 29 percent are minority-owned and nearly 10 percent are veteran-owned. 

Running a small business has never been easy. In fact, their size tends to put more pressure on such operations.

Profit margins are thin.

The ability to offer benefits to workers is stretched.

And small companies tend to be more at the mercy of the overall economy ... and lawmakers.

Economic ambivalence: The economy has been clipping along at a pretty positive pace.

Still, nearly half of small business owners (SBOs) surveyed as part of Capital One's latest biannual inquiry into what's on their minds said they are concerned that a recession could impact the overall success of their company in the next year.

"Small business owners remain cautiously optimistic," said Jenn Flynn, head of small business bank at Capital One. "While we saw a slight dip in optimism compared to Fall 2018, small business owners are still making strategic investments in their businesses, while paying close attention to the uncertainty in the stock market and evaluating the potential impact of a recession."

Taxes and small businesses: Then there's the issue of what lawmakers, generally those inWashington, D.C., will do to make SBOs' lives easier or more difficult.

In this regard — especially in connection with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) changes — Capital One's Spring 2019 Small Business Growth Index found that:

• Slightly more than half (51 percent) of SBOs say the tax plan has been positive for small business.
• Male business owners are more likely to say the plan has been positive for small business (57 percent), compared to 41 percent of female business owners who say it has been helpful.
• Twenty-one percent of SBOs expect to pay more in taxes this year, up from 19 percent who expected to pay more in Fall 2018 and 11 percent one year ago.
• Fifty-three percent of business owners think they will pay about the same.

Since we'll be celebrating small businesses over the next seven days, I'm going to start Small Business Week 2019 on a positive note.

That means I've chosen a positive figure from the CapOne survey for this week's By the Numbers honor, specifically the 51 percent of small business folk who are pleased with the TCJA changes.

Business tax basics: You can find more information on the TCJA business changes and business tax matters in general here at the ol' blog.

The IRS has a special online page highlighting its business products, as well as one with more on key business tax topics.

There's also the IRS' look at how the TCJA affects businesses and @IRSsmallbiz on Twitter for quick tax hits.

Lingering business tax questions: Has your small business benefited from the new tax law? Or are you among the 21 percent who saw a tax increase?

Or is it still too soon to tell?

Did the section 199A 20 percent deduction help? Or are you still trying to figure it out?

What else would you like Congress to do tax-wise to help your business succeed?

You also might find these items of interest:

• Five small business tax tips for Cinco de Mayo
• Tax tips for the self-employed small business owner
• 5 Cinco de Mayo tasty tax tips to complement your guacamole y cerveza

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