Inglewood Business Magazine August 2018

Inglewood Business Magazine | US Bank
Taxes, Regulations
Top Concerns for
S. Calif. Small Business Owners
Business owners in Southern California are more optimistic
about the economic future than they have been in prior years,
according to the 9th Annual U.S. Bank Small Business Survey
Taxes, competition and regulations/red
tape moved up into the top concerns
categories, even after the 2017 tax reform
legislation was passed in December.
“As a state, California has both high state
tax rates and rising housing costs, both of
which are a concern for business owners,”
said Andi Garten, lead regional manager
for Southern California Business Banking
at U.S. Bank. “The changes to deductions
of mortgage and home equity debt, as
well as other changes to exemptions
could result in employees moving out of
Southern California to regions with more
affordable housing and a more favorable
tax structure. These are significant points
of worry for our business owners.”
Southern California ranked taxes as the
top concern and listed regulations and
competition as tied for second concern.
At the national level, competition took
top concern, with taxes and economic
uncertainty coming in for a tie as the
second concern on the list. In both the
national and local region, health care
costs ranked as one of the lowest concerns.
Southern California business owners
aren’t in agreement with the rest of the
country on how the tax reform may
impact their companies. In Southern
California, 25 percent of small business
owners said they thought national tax
reform would have negative impact
(19 percent at the national level), and
another 25 percent said they thought it
would have no impact (20 percent at the
national level).
While regulations are giving entrepreneurs
some worry, local survey results showed
they are optimistic about the economic
future, and those results echo what
business owners across the nation are
feeling. Surveys conducted in previous
years had economic uncertainty as a top
concern, but this year at the national level,
it fell behind competition and tied with
taxes.
“It’s great to see that small business
owners are less worried about economic
uncertainty,” Garten said. “This shows that
small businesses are in a good place to
possibly expand and grow.”
The 9th annual U.S. Bank Small Business
Survey monitors the attitudes, perceptions
and outlook of small business owners
across the bank’s 25 state national
footprint. The survey was conducted by
LRW via an online sample with more than
2,500 small business owners reporting
less than $10 million in annual revenue.
You can view the 2018 US Bank Small
Business Survey on page 10. IBM
8 Inglewood Business Magazine Aug - Sept 2018