The Government’s Role in Small Business.

Question: What tax incentives would you like to see for small businesses?

Kenny Moscot: Some payroll tax relief, small businesses are responsible for employing, I think, a majority of the workforce, and that would be good if there were some incentives for loyalty and some capacity that way. I can’t think of the word but to reward employers who are dedicated to their work force in some tax-related way. It’s hard, you know. I really care about the people that work for us. We have very little turnover, and it’s a labor intensive, you know, I’m not doing keyword arbitrage on the internet where I don’t need anyone to work for me. I’m in the retail business. So we need, like, a lot of people. We need, you know, all hands on deck at all the times. So those are very important things to us.

Question: Should the government be more involved with helping small businesses grow?

Kenny Moscot: I think it’s very important because, you know, every big company was small at one point, and I think you need to have forums and places where people can cultivate their ideas without being, you know, overburdened by the tax consequences of trying to execute.  So I think there should be liberties given to small business, you know, some sort of window, you know, maybe relative to the size of the company, where you have some incentive to operate or you get some sort of rebate.  You know, we see it in the real estate market quite often, especially in New York City.  You know, developers are given abatements to build buildings so eventually they can raise the tax base, and it would be nice if we had that in small business as well.

Recorded on: 03/25/2008