Not until recently was I so aware of the impact that legislative actions had on business. I have become more aware because of the type of work I do. The Chamber sees advocacy for businesses as an important part of what it does. The Chamber even has an endorsement committee task force that interviews candidates running for office. But the reality is that most people, including business owners, are not aware of the impact that legislative actions can have on their business, and therefore on their employees and the way they run their day to day operations.
Take for example Card Check legislation. Under Card Check legislation, should it have passed, it would have made it easier for unions to organize. Another aspect of it was that if the union and the business were not able to agree on a contract, a government arbitrator could set whatever he felt the contract should be, no matter how it would negatively impact the business. Although it has not passed, it is not completely dead yet.
State and Federal taxes also have a direct impact on the bottom line of businesses. Tax increases could have a negative impact on the business, and tax incentives to help create more jobs could have a positive impact on the business.
There are many other things, such as Cap and Trade, foreign currency policies, trade agreements, initiatives on strengthening the workforce, and many other, at both the state and federal that will have a direct impact on your business.
The Greater Reading Chamber has a section on our website, GreaterReadingVoice.com, that deals with legislative issues that affect business. You can also find more information there about health care reform and the potential impact it may have on businesses. Does anyone at your business deal with government policy or advocacy?
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Yes, State and Federal taxes have a HUUUge impact on businesses. The biggest in fact. Taxes are the number one expense for most businesses, which is why many of the larger corporations have lobbyists on the payroll. On a smaller scale however, politics, as you point out may play an even larger role on the impact of businesses. Many actions taken on the legislative side, affect what happens on the corporate side. They run parallel even.
ReplyDeleteI am the pointman for the consolidated federal tax return for my international company. I can say without question that everything gets very complicated across the world with taxes and certainly helps us make the decision on where to drive profitability and where to push our losses where we can. Slight comment on the above, payroll is usually the #1 expense for most companies, but taxes are certainly up there. We pay our tax advisors a hefty sum to limit our tax exposure across the world.
ReplyDeleteWe are seemingly always affected by some new government regulation. For example, in China a bunch of mines were deemed unsafe as part of a worker's rights movement and we were unable to obtain the raw material we needed for a product anymore.