Recently Mark Liston, Glass Doctor president, and a blogger for glassBYTEs, made his annual trip to Washington D.C., where he was joined by more than 400 people who were also representing small businesses. The main purpose of the trip is for franchisers to come together at the Hill to discuss what is currently happening in the industry in the capital. According to Liston, within the past 16 years he’s made this trip about 15 times because it’s fascinating.
“We always focus on just a couple issues that all apply to franchising, but typically each one of them applies to all small business. That’s why I’m always pleased to go to D.C. for this event. I feel I’m also representing every auto glass business in America,” Liston said.
Taxes and potential tax cuts were also mentioned in Washington. Liston previously mentioned tax cuts 2.0 is his blog for glassBYTEs. He mentioned how various family business owners benefitted from last year’s tax cut, and were able to create more jobs at their shops while growing their businesses.
“The Tax Cut late last year was wonderful for so many, but several small businesses are pass-through entities, so they pay income tax at the individual level – not the corporate rate. Therefore, by making the individual tax cuts permanent, family business owners can have the certainty they need to plan for the future,” Liston said.
Another notable point for the Pass-through deduction is the classification it would give to small businesses. Some in the industry think the deduction would improperly classify small businesses and refer to them as professional service entities. If they were to be classified as professional service entities they would not be eligible for the pass through deduction.
Some in the industry are also working to get the provision that inhibit businesses from making property improvements that can be written off in the tax cut fixed. “…because of an error in the tax bill, certain expenses are no longer eligible for this preferential expenses scheduling. Lawmakers clearly intended to give these expenses eligible for bonus deprecation and they should remedy this drafting error,” according to Liston.
Labor unions were another thing Liston focused on during his visit. He, like many believe they are putting effort in its continued growth. “It is much easier if they can grow through large brands, say a McDonalds, where their employees join a union. I look at it from every auto glass retailer in America’s perspective. It’s hard enough to hire technicians and will be even harder to hire them if they are all union and each retailer deals with this,” Liston said.
With these main topics and several more that impact small auto glass businesses, Liston believes more in the industry should start getting involved if they aren’t already. It starts with understanding and getting to know what your local legislators stand for. “Our State and local Congressmen are voted on by each one of us. They need to understand small business. Our votes aren’t enough. We need to know who they are and they need to know who we are. It can start at the local level, too,” Liston said.
