Taxes or credit?

[Guest mikedwood]

I listen to Rush when I get a chance. For sometime now he has been going on about the Obama tax plan scaring small businesses into not expanding.

I do a lot of work for small businesses and have good relations with my customers and we talk sometimes.

It seems to me that the biggest thing holding most of my customers where they are (or making them move back) instead of expanding is lack of available credit.

I have had some experience in lending and I have a pretty good idea of what is a good and bad risk. The people I'm talking about are solid business and high credit scores.

Kind of irritating to me because the banks got bailed out big time (most are "showing" profits now and some of the big businesses, but the little guy gets to fight it out for themself.

The taxes are certainly going to be an issue but today most of the small businesses people I talk to are more worried about getting through today than next year at this point in time.

Just curious. Anyone else have thoughts on this?

[greenego]

Most of the lenders, banks & mortgage brokers, are wanting to lend but can't. The REGULATORS are preventing them with stuff requirements. Biggest deal with self employed is verifiable income. If you work for someone for 20 years you get a W2, verifiable income. if you work for yourself for 20 years, as I have, unverifiable income.

[MacGyver]

As a small business owner, one thing that I have learned for certain over the last couple of years is that NO ONE in our government, whether Democrat or Republican has ANY IDEA AT ALL about how hard it really is to actually "create a job".

I'm not talking about a make work bureaucratic position, not a temporary position like the census workers that keep falsely inflating the employment numbers, but a real, honest 9 to 5 making the wheels of capitalism turn job. They've got no idea.

[Guest RemedyCNC]

If you worked for yourself for 20 years, you still have a verifiable income. Did you not file a tax return??

When my wife and I set her small business up a few years ago, we had to basically match her line of credit with collateral. So, up went the car titles, home equity, and such to back her line. Seemed odd to me at the time that if you want to borrow 50K, you had to have 50K in assets.