Will Congress Provide Small Businesses Relief From Tax Compliance Burden?

Possibly.

In a coordinated effort at focusing on the complexity of the tax code for small business owners, both the House and Senate held hearings on Wednesday with similar themes of looking at how tax compliance obligations hinder small business growth. Any steps toward making the tax code simpler for small business owners would certainly be a welcomed relief! Small business owners in particular are disproportionately affected by tax compliance complexity.

In one study conducted by the Small Business Association it was suggested that small businesses pay 67% more to comply with the tax code than large firms do simply because of their small size to absorb the tax compliance costs. For example the study found that on average, companies with less than 50 employees, on average, pay $1,518 per employee in tax compliance cost. Compare this to companies with more than 100 employees and the tax compliance cost comes down to $647 per employee.

While committee members on both side of the aisle were in agreement that the tax code has gotten way too complicated, I guess we will just have to wait and see if anything positive comes out of this for the benefit of the small business owner.