The United States Presidential election is more than a year away, but politicians are in full campaign mode. They’re all striving to endear themselves to the voters by talking at length about their plans for taxes, jobs and the economy…but no one’s talking about self-employment. Studies show that the self-employed make up a huge chunk of the workforce, so why isn’t Washington giving them any attention?
Big Business Casts a Big Shadow
Kristie Arslan, president of the National Association for the Self-Employed, recently spoke to the Miami Herald to share her thoughts on the current political landscape. She says the conversation is “dominated by topics that are really a focus of larger businesses.”
And it’s true. The GOP candidates and President Obama alike have had a lot to say about job incentives, taxes and how the economy can be fixed -- but self-employment and small businesses are barely getting lip service. Even the new jobs plan proposed by the president offers little in the way of breaks for truly small businesses. Statistically, almost half of all small businesses are home-based, but not even half of their needs are being addressed in current tax codes.
The breaks that apply to bigger businesses just don’t help the self-employed. When employers hire workers and pay for their health care, they can deduct these costs completely on their taxes. When self-employed professionals fully fund their own health care policies, they can deduct only part of what they spend.
Health Care
Health care has enjoyed a bright national spotlight for the entire time Obama has been in office, but even before his election it was a top concern for the self-employed. For the past two decades, it’s been at the top of the list of problems among small business owners and independent contractors -- and, for good reason. Individual health policies are often, oddly, the most expensive to purchase. Insignificant tax breaks and expensive policies combine to make self-employment unsustainable for some professionals who are forced to provide their own health coverage.
And the health care reform bill, more derisively known as Obamacare, isn’t a whole lot of help. In 2014, some new tax credits will provide relief for the self-employed…provided those tax credits, and the bill itself, still exist at that point. Also in 2014, a government-sponsored website is scheduled to launch that will make it easier for professionals to browse for an individual health care plan. However this, too, could become a casualty of the heated political climate in the U.S.
Even the very small changes that are scheduled to help the self-employed could disappear overnight, and none of the politicians are stepping up to implement new ideas that will help. Self-employed professionals make up a large portion of the U.S. population, but they rarely dominate the political discussions.
Why are they being ignored? Because they're just too quiet. The burden is on independent professionals to make enough noise to get their needs met. Isn't that what big business has done? Join self-employment organizations, write to politicians, get involved in open forums and debates -- and remind Washington that the independent workers have needs, too.
KC Morgan - KC Morgan has been the featured writer in Self-Employment since 2006, using personal experience to create guides to being self-employed.
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