This is my first political post ever, possibly my last. But there’s something weighing heavy on me as a small business owner as we go into election day.
We’re a growing small business. I’m proud to say that even in these uncertain times that we’re not only profitable, but we’re growing. In the past few weeks, we’ve gone from three employees to five.
Like many retail businesses, most of our profit comes in Q4. And as we approach the end of the year, we’re facing the prospect of having to pay big taxes on the profits.
Now I’m ok with paying taxes. We all take our salaries and pay taxes on that. But as an S Corporation, the business profits flow to through to the owners of the company and we must pay taxes as if that profit is our income.
I don’t want to take all that profit and go buy houses and cars. All I want to do is reinvest it into my company. If we could spend the profit in the next few months and get a 40% discount, I would. We spend where we can, buying stuff now that we’d be buying next year anyway. we’ll buy some computers, pay for hosting a year in advance, etc.
But why can’t we designate and allocate profits to be reinvested in the business? We’d be promising to spend it over the next year on hiring new employees and contractors to help us grow our business, buying services and capital equipment. All great for the economy.
Instead, profits that would help us grow our business get slashed nearly in half.
What’s worse, I don’t even see how I can take this to the polls tomorrow. (Not that it really matters here in Massachusetts.)
I haven’t heard words from either candidate that tells me that next year I won’t be in the same or worse place next Q4. (We’re talking greater than $250k here.)
I’m a pretty apolitical guy. So on election-day eve, I put this out to my much more politically-minded friends and readers:
Which candidate has the best interests of the small business in mind, specifically in regards to helping us reinvest our profits?
