I read in a trucker owner/operator magazine called LandLine about trucking companies that have applied for the new Small Business Administration's "America's Recovery Capital" emergency loan program. These trucking company owners were promised quick response (days) and they are still waiting weeks later. This is really sad to hear.

The new ARC loan program began June 15. Under this program, small businesses can get up to $35,000 in emergency cash to pay loans and other bills that are due. Then, the business has up to 5 years to pay back the bank, backed by the SBA. This sounds like a great program to help small businesses that are dealing with a cash flow crisis.

But if the loans are not processed quickly, it may be too late for some businesses, like the trucking company mentioned in the LandLine article. A small business who has a payment due today needs the loan today, not weeks from now. Tomorrow may be too late to save a small company from bankruptcy and shut-down.

Have you tried to get an ARC emergency loan? What has been your experience? Go to my Readers Respond article where you can give your comments. Read more about the ARC loans and let other readers know about your experience.

The New York Times reports that the unemployment rate is an unacceptable 9.5 percent in June. If you are among those who have left your job, voluntarily or not, you may have considered starting a home based business.

Starting a home based business has lots of benefits:

• You can work anytime you want, dressed however you want
  
• You can keep your costs low because you don't have an office to maintain
  
• You can deduct certain home expenses related to use of your home for business
  
• You can get started easily and quickly with little capital required.

To learn more about starting a simple home based business, read my article on Simple Business Start-up. Then check out my new article about home business expenses and income tax deductions.

Be sure to check out Randy Duermyer's Home Business GuideSite here at About.com. Randy gives you lots of information about home businesses, including a weekly list of legitimate home business opportunities.

The IRS Taxpayer Advocate has released a report, which she shared with Congress, detailing some of the taxpayer advocate issues she feels are most important. One issue I wanted to share with you is her concern about the poor quality of returns prepared by preparer services.

The Tax Advocate says:

Tax return preparers complete about 62 percent of all individual income tax returns and therefore play a critical role in facilitating tax compliance. However, “shopping visits” conducted by the Government Accountability Office, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, and others suggest that a high percentage of preparers prepare inaccurate returns, fail to perform sufficient due diligence, and even take positions that they know are not supportable. This conduct usually results in understatements of tax (reducing federal tax revenue and potentially subjecting taxpayers to enforcement actions) and sometimes results in overstatements of tax (causing taxpayers to pay more than they owe).

The Tax Advocate recommends that unenrolled preparers be identified and given a Preparer ID Number, so these preparers can be tracked and those that provide inaccurate returns can be noted. The report doesn't say what kinds of actions could be taken against these preparers.

The Best Tax Preparer/Audit Representative
Although many people can represent you before the IRS, he best person to prepare your taxes and help in case of a tax audit is your CPA, your tax attorney, or an Enrolled Agent. These individuals have the training and certification to understand the tax laws, and they are all required to keep up their credentials with continuing education, so they are knowledgeable about tax law changes. This is another one of those "you get what you pay for" situations. I know who I would want standing with me in front of the IRS. What about you?

The sales tax wars are getting heated up again. "World's Largest Bookseller" Amazon has "fired" its Rhode Island affiliates because RI is working on legislation which would require Amazon to collect sales tax for these affiliate sellers. According to the Providence Business News, Amazon has also cut off its relationships with affiliates in North Carolina, for the same reason. Online jeweler Blue Nile has also cut off its North Carolina affiliaites.

The Impact on U.S. States. U.S. states, which are under budgetary pressures, are looking at ways to increase revenue, and many states are trying to capture what they believe are lost sales tax revenues from online transactions (called "remote sales.") Sales taxes have been traditionally charged on transactions with companies which have a physical location in a state. But if an online seller has no physical location in that state, there has been no way for the state to collect sales taxes. It has been near impossible for individual states to monitor all Internet sales looking for in-state transactions.

Now, states are going after bigger online sellers like Amazon, asserting that if Amazon has an affiliate in, say, Rhode Island, it has a physical presence in that state and must collect sales tax. In one example I found, Minnesota is proposing similar legislation, broadening the definition of "affiliated entity" to include a "solicitor", where the retailer has an agreement with a Minnesota "resident," and where the resident refers potential customers to the retailer. The stakes are huge for the states; the Minnesota proposal estimates $60 million in potential revenue annually (based on New York's revenues from the same legislation).

The Impact on Online Retailers. Sales taxes are a huge issue for Amazon and its Associates, indeed for all online vendors, because buyers are willing to purchase from online vendors and pay shipping fees, but the buyers don't want the additional cost of sales tax. With increased shipping costs, and additional taxes, many online sellers could see their revenues fall significantly as buyers go back to "brick and mortar" stores. Online seller eBay makes this strong statement:

eBay opposes raising taxes on the Internet or its users, as well as any attempt to impose remote sales tax collection burdens on the small businesses who can least afford it. This is certainly not the time to impose a major new tax burden on Internet vendors working to implement successful new business models, nor is it wise macro-economic policy to impose what is effectively a tax increase on American consumers.

The Amazon affiliates, called Amazon Associates, sell products on Amazon, which collects a fee for processing. With Associates in many states, Amazon has been in the forefront of the fight against "remote sales." Amazon's strategy appears to be to try to pressure states into backing off from their plans to attempt to collect sales taxes on Internet sales.

What is the Background? A 1992 Supreme Court decision (affirming an earlier decision) grants sellers the right not to collect sales tax unless they have a physical presence in that state. U.S. states have been fighting for the right to collect sales taxes, and they have banded together under a Streamlined Sales Tax coalition, hoping that if all states collect sales taxes, we will in essence have a national sales tax and every state will be able to collect sales tax on every online transaction.

The Rhode Island legislation has been passed by both houses and is awaiting a decision by the governor, and other states are watching New York. We will see if the states can impose these taxes, which many consider unconstitutional. And we'll see what happens with Amazon's attempts to get states to back off.