SurePayroll Main Street Insights Survey: Small Business Owners Say TARP is Failing and Insist Tax Cuts are the Right Answer
Survey shows that nearly three out of four small business owners do not believe the relief program is doing its job and are looking for a different solution from the government
Glenview, IL (PRWEB) February 16, 2009
A survey conducted this month by online payroll service SurePayroll (http://www. surepayroll. com/) found that most small business owners feel the government should be taking a different approach to boost the economy during tough times. According to the results, nearly three out of four small business owners disagree with the way the U. S. government has allocated funds in its Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), and believe tax cuts would be the ideal solution.
TARP -- approved in 2008 to allocate $700 billion to the United States Department of Treasury to help strengthen the financial sector and mitigate damage from the subprime mortgage crisis -- was deemed effective by only 3 percent of respondents, while 72 percent were clear on their disapproval and 25 percent did not have a strong opinion.
"Small business owners are screaming for a different solution," says SurePayroll President Michael Alter. "They know firsthand the challenges their businesses are facing, and have seen no relief from Washington."
While the small business owners who disapproved blamed a variety of groups and individuals for the mishandling of TARP disbursements, the majority said Congress was primarily at fault. Other respondents singled out U. S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and lobbyists as causing the biggest problems with the program.
-- Most small business owners believe tax cuts are the answer --
When it comes to stimulating the small business economy, the survey found that nearly half of the respondents feel the government should focus on tax cuts.
"Taxes have always been a huge issue for small businesses, and the current economy has amplified it," says Alter. "Because small business owners are so in tune with the finances of their businesses, they tend to look for fast, surefire ways to cut expenses, so tax cuts are naturally an attractive option."
Aside from tax cuts, other popular suggestions for stimulating the small business economy included a massive stimulus program (11 percent), a solution to ease the small business healthcare burden (10 percent) and forcing banks to lend money (9 percent). Specific comments included:
"Let businesses write off capital expenditures right away instead of over a period of years."
"Get out of Iraq ASAP and reallocate wasteful and corrupt military spending to small businesses, healthcare, education and the environment."
"Give all adults and maybe small businesses a $3,000 prepaid check card that must be spent within 45 days."
About SurePayroll:
Voted Editor's Choice (http://www. surepayroll. com/spsite/press/releases/2007/release071107.asp) for best payroll service by PC Magazine, a Top 100 Product by Accounting Today and winner of the Stevies Award for eCommerce Customer Service Team of the Year, SurePayroll is America's largest full-service online payroll (http://www. surepayroll. com/) service and honoree of the of the Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Businesses award two years in a row.
SurePayroll is passionate about small businesses and their payroll (http://www. surepayroll. com/product/payroll/). The company is dedicated to providing an extremely friendly and simple payroll experience -- at a price small business owners can afford.
In addition to its payroll and ClickFREETM tax file and pay service -- which allows a user to complete the entire payroll process in minutes -- SurePayroll offers a suite of online services designed specifically for small business, including HR and compliance resources (http://www. surepayroll. com/product/compliance/), 401(k) (http://www. surepayroll. com/product/401k/) retirement solutions, health insurance and workers' compensation products.
SurePayroll also offers a private-label and co-branded payroll service to accountants (http://www. surepayroll. com/surechoice/) and banking partners to offer payroll processing to their small business clients.
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