Calming Confusion & Other Taxes

We hope to calm the natural confusion most small business owners have about taxes.

We’ll try to avoid overwhelming you with TMI -- Too Much Information served up in chunks too big to grasp. TMI is a daunting problem in communications from the IRS because they are obligated to mention every rare issue that might ever come up for any tiny population -- and information overload is the result.

By contrast, here in Idea Cafe’s Small Business Tax Center, we can keep the focus on the most universal strategic issues -- those that make the biggest different for most all small business owners. We’ll try not to get off target onto esoteric and specialized concerns, but we will list some of them with direction to further help for those of you they do pertain to.

Yes, there are other types of taxes you’ll have to deal with that aren’t covered here:

Business taxes vary state to state, county to county and city to city, but in your location and situation, they may include possible taxes such as:

• State sales taxes (which you just collect and pass through)
• Business franchise taxes (fees to conduct business)
• Employee withholding taxes (another pass-through, but these are usually coupled with additional employer taxes and withholdings such as the employer Social Security contribution, unemployment and workers’ compensation)
• County business personal property taxes
• Certain city business taxes and fees

And there may be even more for your locality or type of business, but assuming you don’t miss payments and invite huge penalties, those taxes have less affect on your net after-tax income than your own federal and state income taxes.

Where to get information about your other taxes
Since these diverse taxes originate from different agencies of different levels of government, first see if you can get information about all of them from one source.

Try your local Small Business Development Center (SBDC). A service of the Small Business Administration (SBA), SBDCs are located throughout states, usually on community college campuses. It’s likely that your SBDC will have a list of tax issues and contacts for your locality. You can find your closest SBDC by looking in the front of your phone book in the “government” pages, most likely listed within community colleges under public schools. Or you can click to SBDCs in your state or territory from this map.

If your SBDC has not already compiled the sundry layers of tax info for you, then contact the Departments of Revenue at your state, your county and your city. You can find contact info for these agencies at this excellently compiled resource.

DISCLAIMER: We have provided this information to give you a general introduction to tax issues. It is distributed with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Neither Idea Cafe Inc. nore any of its sponsors or advertisers make any representations or warrantees regarding this publication or its accuracy. In no event shall Idea Cafe Inc. or any of its sponsors, advertisers or affiliates be liable for damages, including incidental or consequential damages, in connection with or arising out of the performance or use of this publication. By utilizing this information, you are agreeing to our full terms of use.

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