Tax Policies

Smallest Companies Say Tax Policies Unhealthy (NAPSA)—A new study among the nation’s smallest businesses points to ways to improve our econ- Do you believe that micro-businesseslike yours are freated on par with larger year and that owners strongly dis- whenif comes fo tax breaks and other financial growth incentives? omy. For one thing, it shows that optimism about the economy has slipped significantly over the past corporations by the federal government approve of tax laws they believe | ASN Street” businesses. The study—conducted by the National Association for the SelfEmployed (NASE)—cites deep dissatisfaction with the federal “self-employment tax” on health insurance and calls for further Yes moving penalties for the nation’s Not Sure favor large corporations over “Main economic reforms aimed at re16 million smallest enterprises. According to the “Self-Employed and the Economy” survey, the number of micro-business owners who say they feel opti- mistic about conditions for their business has fallen from nearly half (49 percent) in 2002 to less than a third (31.1 percent) in late May 2003. Uncertainty about the future of their enterprise has nearly doubled among micro owners in the sameperiod. Driving these attitudes is deep disapproval toward tax policies that most agree favor large corporations at the expense of small enterprises. EKighty-one percent of survey respondents believe that the self-employed and micro-businesses are not treated on par with larger corporations by the government when it comes to tax and other financial growth incentives. Nearly 90 percent (89.2 percent) agree that current tax laws un- fairly penalize the self-employed and that reforms are needed to help businesses like theirs succeed and grow. At the core of ownerdissatisfaction are laws that require sole pro- prietors to pay a 15.3 percent “self 309% No | I4L5% Source: 2003 NASE Survey n=502 employment tax” on all health insurance premiums. Larger cor- porations are able to deduct health-care costs as a business expense. Taxation of health insurance figures heavily in rising concerns about health-care costs among small businesses. Access to af- fordable health care was cited in the study as the most important issue faced by owners, ahead of the general state of the economy, world unrest and customer de- mand. On average, self-employed workers pay 20 percent more for health-care than do individuals at larger corporations, with taxes comprising a significant portion of these additional costs. Of the nation’s 41 million uninsured, more than 60 percent are from families headed by a small business owner. The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE)—a 501c (6) non-profit organization— is the nation’s leading resource for the self-employed and microbusinesses.