Small Businesses Push Back Against IRS

Aug 6, 2008


Contact:
Molly Brogan
202-552-2904
press@nsba.biz

Washington, D.C. – The National Small Business Association (NSBA) today launched a Web site, www.PreventIRSAbuse.org, in its campaign to educate small-business owners on the myriad harmful proposals being promoted by the IRS and Congress to raise revenue, and urge the small-business community to speak out against such proposals. In this economic slump, the last thing Congress or the IRS should do is target small business.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what the IRS is already doing. In their efforts to raise additional revenue, to both close the so-called tax gap and provide revenue offsets for any major piece of legislation, small business has become the piggy-bank Congress and the IRS are shaking for every last cent. According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, the IRS increased by 41 percent audits on small corporations between 2005 and 2007. The IRS is preying on those least able to defend their businesses and giving large corporations a pass—audits of the nation's largest corporations plunged in 2007 to its lowest level in the last 20 years.

“Responsible for creating 93.5 percent of all net new jobs since 1989, the small-business community must be allowed to thrive—not further harassed by an already overreaching IRS—if there is any hope of a real economic turnaround,” stated NSBA President Todd McCracken. “NSBA does not condone tax cheats OR the IRS’s profiling of all small businesses as such.”

Congress has approved a significant budget increase for the IRS for fiscal year 2009—$430.3 million more than the 2008 budget, an overwhelming majority of which will expand IRS’s enforcement operations. Even worse, Congress approved legislation that would track all electronic payments made to businesses through new reporting from credit and debit card companies. That same proposal will require 28 percent withholding of a company’s total sales if the taxpayer identification can not be verified.

To address the ongoing exploitation of small business, NSBA has created an on-line community to provide support, answers, and resources. The site, www.PreventIRSAbuse.org, provides a quick and easy way for the small-business community to get involved and have their voice heard in the NSBA campaign to stop the overreaching arms of the IRS.

“We want to drive home the point that small business comprises 33 percent of the voting population in the U.S.,” stated Marilyn Landis, NSBA Chair “We will not sit idly by and watch our community be unfairly targeted.”

Since 1937, NSBA has advocated on behalf of America’s entrepreneurs. Reaching more than 150,000 small businesses, NSBA is proud to be the first national small-business advocacy organization in the United States. To find out more about the importance of the small-business community, please visit NSBA’s Small Business: 70 Million Strong…And Voting campaign at www.nsba.biz/vote.