Government Places Unnecessary Barriers and Checkpoints in the Way of Small Businesses

Taxes and Government Overreach are Strangling American Small Businesses

May 17, 2011

The Daily Caller - ...Although federal over-regulation has been a growing hurdle for small businesses, the message from our Small Business Committee hearings has been that tax issues are the single most significant set of regulatory burdens for most small firms, and a recent NFIB Research Foundation study found that four of the top ten small business problems were tax related.

Small firms pay 67% more to comply with the tax code than larger firms. Not only does tax complexity weigh especially heavily on small employers, who don’t have the time or resources to hire professional administrators, but over 70% of small businesses file their taxes as “pass-through” entities. In other words, small business owners file their firms’ taxes under their own personal returns.

Surprisingly, the current administration wants to increase taxes on individuals earning over $250,000 a year, which would include small business who file their taxes as “pass-through” entities. Any increase in the level of already crippling taxes would make it that much harder for small business owners to make payroll, let alone hire any new employees.

The administration’s anti-business policies are creating a hostile and uncertain environment for our nation’s best job creators. That is why my fellow Small Business Committee members and I have dedicated this week to sitting down with small companies in our districts and listening to what they have to say about the state of their business. Yesterday, I held a listening session in Schaumburg, Illinois, and I will hold three more listening sessions throughout this week in my district in northern Illinois. It’s time small business owners are not only heard but also given an environment in which they can succeed.

The plight of small businesses in Illinois’ 8th District, coupled with entrepreneurs’ deafening cry for relief, begs a very clear conclusion. The government needs to shift its focus from placing unnecessary barriers and checkpoints in the way of small businesses to allowing small businesses to pave the way to innovation, economic growth and job creation.

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) is the Chairman of the House Small Business Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax & Capital Access.

$500 Ticket Issued for Illegal Lemonade Stand

June 18, 2011

The Daily Caller - A $500 ticket for not having a vendor’s permit issued to…six kids running a lemonade stand? Yup.

The kids in Montgomery County, Maryland, who set up shop outside the Congressional Country Club where the U.S. Open is being held, had hoped to make a few bucks from thirsty passersby. But the fun quickly came to an end when a cameraman from a local news station caught a county inspector issuing the kids a ticket on tape.

By the end of the golf tournament’s opening day, after an outcry on the Internet, the county had canceled the ticket and moved the lemonade stand down a side street.

Jennifer Hughes of Montgomery’s Department of Permitting Services, told the Washington Post,

“It wasn’t that we were the big hand of county government trying to come down and squash anything…We were attempting to do what a government is charged with doing, which is protecting communities and protecting the safety of people.”

The kids were, naturally, confused. Thirteen-year-old Isabella, who was tasked with watching over the younger kids selling the drinks, said,

“I just think the whole thing was kind of insane that they made such a big deal about a small problem. In the first place, I don’t know how a 10-year-old could get a permit.”

Hughes said that the vendor laws are in place to stop illegal sales that often take place on the streets outside sporting venues, and that those laws don’t distinguish between adults and kids operating a lemonade stand.

But the kids and their supporters aren’t backing down. Family friend Carrie Marriott told the Washington Post the kids have learned an important lesson:

“When something’s right, you stand up for your beliefs. That’s what America’s about. It’s about free enterprise. It’s about taking an idea, making it happen and making it successful.”

The kids have taken what America is about to heart. They’ve decided the profits from their lemonade stand will go to charity.