Government Help for Small-Business Owners (No Joke)

By PAUL B. BROWN

For years, a good way to guarantee a laugh was to walk into a room of small business owners and announce, “I’m from the government and I am here to help you.”

Entrepreneurs were more used to dealing with red tape, endless delays in getting an answer to a question and federal employees who were frequently less than helpful.

But there are some government agencies worth your time. Consider, for example, these four:

The Small Business Administration Answer Desk provides a toll-free number (1-800-U-ASK-SBA), and an easy to remember e-mail address (answerdesk@sba.gov) to handle questions not only about S.B.A. programs, but small business problems in general.

“Free one-on-one counseling is also available locally to help entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs in the areas of financing, management technology, government procurement and other business-related areas,” the site promises.Entrepreneurship.gov The Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration and the Kauffman Foundation, whose mission is to “foster a society of economically independent individuals,” have teamed up to offer online resources that are intended, as the Web site says, “to help build economies that foster entrepreneurship worldwide.”

While the site is still evolving, what is already helpful is its resource section that links to more than a dozen organizations — everything from United States Agency for International Development to the Center for International Private Enterprise — that can be of help to entrepreneurs.

MyMoney.gov is (hopefully) more for your employees than you. The site says it is aimed at providing “financial education resources for all Americans,” and links to places like the Security and Exchange Commission and other government agencies to provide the basics of savings and investing, budgeting, taxes, financial and retirement planning and the like.

IRS.gov Even the most hands-on small business person delegates anything to do with taxes.

Still, it is worth glancing at the I.R.S. Web site periodically, for at least these two reasons:

¶ It provides a solid primer on just about every possible tax issue that your firm might face.

¶ If you go to the section “basic tools for tax professionals” you will find a comprehensive checklist for the person who handles your taxes. (It lists changes in the tax laws, electronic payment options and the like.) You can use it to doublecheck your professional’s work.

TAXING MATTERS For tax questions you would rather not bother your accountant with — things like how much can you deduct if you use your personal car for business, or whether you have to deduct a new computer system over five years — check out Small Business Taxes FAQ on Nolo.com, a legal information Web site.

The headline of the section lives up to its name. It provides answers in non-legalese.

By the way, you can deduct 48.5 cents a mile if you used your car for business in 2007. That figure will climb to 50.5 cents this year.

As for the deductibility of the computer system, the site says you will probably be able to deduct the cost of the whole thing in one year. (It is an exception to the rule that the cost of capital equipment must be deducted over a number of years.)

PAY UP “The I.R.S. estimates that it gets shorted $290 billion by taxpayers each year,” Carol Tice writes in Entrepreneur. “Guess who the agency most wants to pay up? Small businesses and the self-employed.” . “The I.R.S. attributes nearly 40 percent of its ‘tax gap’ to underreported taxes owed by these groups.”

The agency has asked for more money to strengthen its oversight of both small businesses and the self-employed.

LAST CALL To find out how much you know (or don’t) about the Federal Reserve, take any one (or all) of the nine quizzes on its Web site.

Prepare to be dismayed. Here is one of the easier questions:

As fiscal agent for the United States Treasury, which of the following does the Fed not do:

a) Sell, transfer and redeem government securities.

b) Make interest payments on government securities.

c) Buy government securities directly from the Treasury.

d) Assist the Treasury in other ways with its securities.

The answer is “C.” (But you knew that.)