Small Business California Activities

From: Scott Hauge
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007 6:39 AM
To: Small Business California
Subject: Small Business California Activities

Small Business California has been very busy recently and I wanted to take a moment to give you some updates.

First the National Association of Remodeling Contractors [California Chapter] will be joining as an affiliate member. We welcome them and look forward to a long relationship in promoting small business interest in Sacramento.

Second we have hired a lobbyist Lori Kammerrer of Kammerer & Company. This will help us with our Sacramento presence. I have known Lori for over 10 years and she will be of great help in not only moving our legislative agenda, but putting on seminars and providing us information on what is happening in Sacramento.

Third you may not know that we are affiliated with the National Small Business Association. I am the Vice Chair of Advocacy. Last week I attended a meeting in Scottsdale where a conference was held to set the agenda for the Association. One issue that is really going to be important for small business is the so called "Tax Gap" where the IRS will be going after small businesses to try and collect over $300 billion in unpaid taxes. While NSBA agrees that small businesses should pay what they owe they are very concerned that small businesses around the country will be the subject of audits. In their issues statement on this they say, "Honest small business taxpayers are especially at risk of being subjected to to needless and unwarranted regulatory burdens in an attempt to capture a few bad apples that do not fulfill their tax obligations. Small firms could be targeted and penalized by the IRS for small and unintentional transgressions".

NSBA is setting up a website www.preventirsabuse.org
Please also visit www.NSBA.biz for more information about the organization

Last, we will be closing our survey February 20th. We have over 400 respondents so far and I would really like to see the total go to over 500. If you haven't done so already please go to www.smallbusinesscalifornia.org and complete the survey. Also forward this informatoin on to others.

We will release the results of the survey next week and have had a number of media people and legislators looking to hear from people like you about the issues that effect small business.