Post by twkrimm on Jan 17, 2017 5:00:37 GMT -6
I recently sent a letter to congress, suggesting changes to Small Business Tax policy.
I would like the members of this forum to read and critique this letter.
Do you agree?
How can I rewrite the document to help get my point across?
As a middle aged engineer, I pointed out that age discrimination is "alive and well", especially in large to medium sized corporations, towards the end of the letter.
Personally, I would like to be a productive, self employed member of society and not be forced to retire early without the proper retirement resources (i.e. live above the poverty level).
==================
The US Small Business Administration (SBA) classifies numerous companies with over a thousand employees and/or revenues of many millions of dollars, as small businesses
(https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/files/Size_Standards_Table.pdf).
How on earth can government regulations and tax policy not be crushing for the truly small business? It is time for the US government to stop it’s empty rhetoric regarding Small Businesses. Computers, automation, the Internet etc. are changing the rules of business, i.e. the business world is shrinking allowing more work to be done with less people and some of that work can now be done with cheap overseas labor, so government policy needs to and eventually will be forced to change. We need simple “trickle up” policy changes, policy changes to empower the locally based, truly small business (i.e. little guy) to fill in the gap with new locally based jobs. Truly small business do not have the time or the financial resources for government paper work or complex tax record keeping. A proposed policy change, hopefully revenue neutral, would be to have a standard business expense deduction of around 20% to 25% of gross business revenue with a maximum of around $12,000 for sole proprietors and around $16,000 for companies with one or more employees. Businesses in general and tech businesses in particular need books, manuals, computers, specialized hardware and software tools, in addition to paying rent, accountants, utility bills, travel expenses, payroll taxes, quarterly taxes, business liability insurance, medical insurance, etc. (hopefully you are seeing the big issue here). Adding to this burden, the tech industry is continuously changing, which requires many, many hours of quick skill changes and upgrades. One new hardware/software tool or computer language can be equivalent to a 1000+ page book of information to digest. Also, a tiny business needs to spend 110% of the time running, growing the business, and creating the employment opportunities of tomorrow. This leaves very little time, resources and basic desire to deal with the complex tax paper work and government record keeping.
Here are just a few examples of the recent tech job decline in 2015/2016 (Large companies get more press coverage) :
HP Announces 25,000–30,000 More Layoffs As Company Split Looms
Xerox cut 4,800 jobs in the first quarter as its moved ahead with its plan to carve out its outsourced business processing operations as a separate company by the end of the year.
In April, IBM reported its sixteenth straight quarter of declining revenue as its core software licensing and hardware business shrinks, which has resulted in numerous reported and unreported layoffs.
Intel announced plans to cut its workforce by 12000 people, 11 percent of its current headcount.
Microsoft to cut about 2,850 more jobs
Obviously, the present policy of “trickle down” government incentives for big companies and the “SBA” so-called small companies is not increasing tech employment opportunities. So maybe it is time to try some “trickle up” policy changes. This is especially important for the middle aged (50+ year old) tech worker, since the tech industry is full of age discrimination. A middle aged tech worker is considered a dinosaur instead of a wise experienced worker (contrast this to the political, medical or legal professions). Here are some examples from my personal experience: while applying for tech jobs, I was getting no interest from job prospects until I removed my first 10 years of job experience, and removed the dates from my college graduation information. Also numerous companies asked for voluntary discrimination compliance information at the end of their on-line job applications; with questions about race, sex etc., but they do not ask about age. Why is that? How do they know they are not discriminating against older workers. So Lets give the middle aged worker a chance to create their own jobs of the future, by reducing the weight of the government. Remember, the truly little companies are located in the US and can not outsource jobs overseas like the big and “so called small” companies have done, are doing and will do regardless of the many job creation incentives these companies receive from the government.
Thanks for listening to me vent
I would like the members of this forum to read and critique this letter.
Do you agree?
How can I rewrite the document to help get my point across?
As a middle aged engineer, I pointed out that age discrimination is "alive and well", especially in large to medium sized corporations, towards the end of the letter.
Personally, I would like to be a productive, self employed member of society and not be forced to retire early without the proper retirement resources (i.e. live above the poverty level).
==================
The US Small Business Administration (SBA) classifies numerous companies with over a thousand employees and/or revenues of many millions of dollars, as small businesses
(https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/files/Size_Standards_Table.pdf).
How on earth can government regulations and tax policy not be crushing for the truly small business? It is time for the US government to stop it’s empty rhetoric regarding Small Businesses. Computers, automation, the Internet etc. are changing the rules of business, i.e. the business world is shrinking allowing more work to be done with less people and some of that work can now be done with cheap overseas labor, so government policy needs to and eventually will be forced to change. We need simple “trickle up” policy changes, policy changes to empower the locally based, truly small business (i.e. little guy) to fill in the gap with new locally based jobs. Truly small business do not have the time or the financial resources for government paper work or complex tax record keeping. A proposed policy change, hopefully revenue neutral, would be to have a standard business expense deduction of around 20% to 25% of gross business revenue with a maximum of around $12,000 for sole proprietors and around $16,000 for companies with one or more employees. Businesses in general and tech businesses in particular need books, manuals, computers, specialized hardware and software tools, in addition to paying rent, accountants, utility bills, travel expenses, payroll taxes, quarterly taxes, business liability insurance, medical insurance, etc. (hopefully you are seeing the big issue here). Adding to this burden, the tech industry is continuously changing, which requires many, many hours of quick skill changes and upgrades. One new hardware/software tool or computer language can be equivalent to a 1000+ page book of information to digest. Also, a tiny business needs to spend 110% of the time running, growing the business, and creating the employment opportunities of tomorrow. This leaves very little time, resources and basic desire to deal with the complex tax paper work and government record keeping.
Here are just a few examples of the recent tech job decline in 2015/2016 (Large companies get more press coverage) :
HP Announces 25,000–30,000 More Layoffs As Company Split Looms
Xerox cut 4,800 jobs in the first quarter as its moved ahead with its plan to carve out its outsourced business processing operations as a separate company by the end of the year.
In April, IBM reported its sixteenth straight quarter of declining revenue as its core software licensing and hardware business shrinks, which has resulted in numerous reported and unreported layoffs.
Intel announced plans to cut its workforce by 12000 people, 11 percent of its current headcount.
Microsoft to cut about 2,850 more jobs
Obviously, the present policy of “trickle down” government incentives for big companies and the “SBA” so-called small companies is not increasing tech employment opportunities. So maybe it is time to try some “trickle up” policy changes. This is especially important for the middle aged (50+ year old) tech worker, since the tech industry is full of age discrimination. A middle aged tech worker is considered a dinosaur instead of a wise experienced worker (contrast this to the political, medical or legal professions). Here are some examples from my personal experience: while applying for tech jobs, I was getting no interest from job prospects until I removed my first 10 years of job experience, and removed the dates from my college graduation information. Also numerous companies asked for voluntary discrimination compliance information at the end of their on-line job applications; with questions about race, sex etc., but they do not ask about age. Why is that? How do they know they are not discriminating against older workers. So Lets give the middle aged worker a chance to create their own jobs of the future, by reducing the weight of the government. Remember, the truly little companies are located in the US and can not outsource jobs overseas like the big and “so called small” companies have done, are doing and will do regardless of the many job creation incentives these companies receive from the government.
Thanks for listening to me vent