What keeps small-business owners up at night?
Danner: As long as I have been here, it’s been taxes, taxes, taxes. The amount and the complexity. Second is the cost and availability of health care. The next two are the overall cost and burden of government regulations and tort reform. Not in the sense of class actions, but issues like workers’ compensation. That’s four. How about financing? Capital, thankfully, has not very been very hard to get. Were it not for low interest rates, things would be that much harder. Everyone laments the Byzantine tax code. Is the IRS especially hard on small businesses? Even the smallest businesses have a hard time doing their taxes without hiring an accountant. Say you have a dog-grooming business: There’s like a 39-point test to determine whether your cutters are “independent contractors” (meaning that they aren’t subject to payroll taxes). It s a big issue. Here’s another: Business owners make estimated tax payments quarterly, but there’s a significant penalty if you underestimate. It almost forc
