I don’t have much in common with my friend Rob.
Rob (I’m changing his name here so he won’t yell at me) owns a 60-employee roofing company near me in Oreland, Pa. I run a 10-person information technology consulting firm. Rob has tattoos snaking up both of his arms. I have a mosquito bite on my left shin. Rob spends his days outside, in all weather, climbing up buildings and trading dirty jokes with his guys. I operate inside a climate-controlled, windowless room, drinking green tea and chatting with tech support in India.
Although we’re different in many ways, Rob and I do share something significant: Our small companies are almost completely unaffected by the small business jobs bill pending in Congress. Both of us face politicians and bureaucrats who claim to know what our problems are and then pass weak, election-year legislation to fix them. We appreciate their good intentions. But they’re not solving our problems.
The bill, passed by the House in June and being debated by the Senate this week, would lift taxes on capital gains for investors who buy a small company’s stock between now and the end of the year. Rob may have a few people lining up to buy that Harley he recently refurbished, but there’s no waiting list of investors looking to sink money into his little roofing company.
Measures That Don’t Help
And the bill would allow businesses to “carry back” tax credits to offset taxes paid on prior years’ earnings. Considering the state of the economy, let alone the construction and computer industries over the past few years, Rob and I haven’t been seeing a whole lot of earnings either. Sure, we’ve made profits, but not so much that either of us would really benefit from this. So to us, that’s meaningless too.
Rob and I are…