Small business group uses Web site to fight IRS proposals for filling $300B tax gap
The Business Review (Albany) - by Kent Hoover Washington Bureau Chief
Like Howard Beale in "Network," small businesses are mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore.
The target of their wrath is the Internal Revenue Service, which contends underreported income by sole proprietors and small businesses is a major contributor to the nearly $300 billion gap between what should be paid in taxes every year and what is actually collected.
The IRS has increased its audits of small businesses and proposed several steps to require more third-party reporting of payments made to businesses.
Congress, in search of revenue to offset new spending and tax breaks, has obliged on a couple of these proposals.
As part of the recent housing bill, for example, Congress included a provision that requires credit card and debit card companies to give the IRS annual reports on the electronic payments they make to merchants.
The National Small Business Association, as well as other small business groups, opposed this provision, contending these payments aren't a good indicator of business income.
They fear the IRS will use these reports to target small businesses for audits.
The NSBA lost that battle, but it's continuing to battle the IRS through a special Web site, PreventIRSAbuse.org.
The site includes information on tax gap proposals that target small businesses and provide an easy way for small businesses to speak out against them.
"The small business community must be allowed to thrive--not [be] further harassed by an already overreaching IRS--if there is any hope of a real economic turnaround," said NSBA President Todd McCracken. "NSBA does not condone tax cheats or the IRS's profiling of all small businesses as such."
Congress has boosted IRS's enforcement budget for next year.
Audits of small corporations jumped 41 percent from 2005 to 2007, according to NSBA, while audits of large corporations fell to their lowest level in two decades last year.
"We will not sit idly by and watch our community be unfairly targeted," said NSBA Chair Marilyn Landis, president of Basic Business Concepts Inc. in Pittsburgh.
The IRS, meanwhile, is encouraging businesses and associations to suggest business tax issues that should be resolved by the IRS through new and improved guidance.
The deadline for submissions is Aug. 31.
For more information, see www.
PreventIRSAbuse.org and www.irs.gov.
Related Industry News |
Latest News |
Most Viewed Stories |
Most Emailed Stories |
