3/4 of US Business have no employees??

[Laura PourMeADrink]

http://web.sba.gov/faqs/faqindex.cfm?areaID=24

In 2009,there were 27.5 million businesses in the United States, according to Office of Advocacy estimates.The lastest available Census data show that there were 6.0 million firms with employees in 2007 and 21.4 million without employees in 2008. Small firms with fewer than 500 employees represent 99.9 percent of the total ( employers and nonemployers), as the most recent data show there were about 18,311 large businesses in 2007.

Source:Office of Advocacy estimates based on data from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Census Bureau, and trends from the U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labour Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics.

[hobbit709]

1. A single person business could be that.

I run a computer repair business out of my garage. I have no employees. I am self-employed.
A friend of mine incorporated herself for tax reasons but she has no employees.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

2. right....guess I was just shocked to see what a huge percentage

it was.

I am thinking that Obama needs to make a patriotic appeal to US companies to hire. Just like
the CEO of GE said, when announcing their plans to hire - it was a travesty that more companies
didn't.

Didn't realize that there were only 18k large companies

[WhiteTara]

6. It is shocking. I wish I could hire an employee

but I'm thinking of getting a job myself to fill in the shortfall of our business!

[JDPriestly]

14. Many people who are self-employed are actuallly

fairly recently unemployed and trying to make do, get odd jobs or, if they are lucky, start a serious business.

They don't have the money to hire anyone.

[ret5hd]

3. or a person that has a few rental properties...

incorporated to protect that persons personal property. No employees, just a bank account, an address to mail the check to, and an emergency number to call when the water heater goes out.

[progressoid]

30. Self-employed.

One employee. That would be me.

[abelenkpe]

4. My hubby ran a window cleaning business

It was a one person business. Put himself through college n grad school doing that.

[TheDebbieDee]

5. A consultancy or other providers of services or expertise..........

Any entity can apply for a taxpayer identification number.

[Tesha]

9. Sole proprietorships and some partnerships don't even need a T.I.N., generally speaking. (NT)

[MineralMan]

7. I have been in business since 1974. In all that time I have

had only one employee, who didn't work out and was let go after two weeks. The rest of the time it has been just me. There are millions of sole-proprietorship businesses in this country where the owner is the only person involved. It's the way many people earn their living.

[HockeyMom]

8. I used to clean Seniors apartments

All by word of mouth. I never thought of it as a "business". I suppose, when I started to get more clients than I could handle myself, I could have hired other people and made it into a business, but I didn't want to do that. It was just making extra money for me at the time when my kids were young and in school.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

10. Am I the only one who thinks this percentage is high? nt

[rockne]

15. 99.9% Yes

Shockingly high. Supports all the arguments made regarding small businesses being hurt by proposed and enacted (e.g., healthcare) legislation. We need to create a (political) climate that allows small businesses to grow the economy.

Big business, look at Hershey Foods and their use of the J-1 visa program. 350,000 J-1 visas issued in 2010. http://www.immigrationdirect.com/immigration-news/us-visas/j-1-visa-students-protest-hershey-working-conditions/index.html

[Historic NY]

11. Think of all those tax advantages business's get.

[FarCenter]

12. A lot of unemployed IT people become "consultants" while they look for a permanent job

There are probably 100s of thousands of those.

Also semi-retire business people who have some sort of business on the side.

When the conservative propagandists say that "all the jobs are created by small business", this is trivially true because unemployed people often attempt to make ends meet by setting up something that gets them classified as a self-employed business.

[JDPriestly]

13. That does not surprise me.

Sole practitioners in law. Accountants. Psychologists. Independent contractors in various fields including cleaning houses, babysitting and sales. People who work as independent contractors and hire immigrants off the street then don't report the labor. A one-person secretarial service. Authors, writers, artists (including some commercial artists), lots of computer tech people.

Doesn't take long to prepare a long, long list.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

16. A sole proprietorship is the most common and simplest form of business.

I had one for years and years before hiring employees. Almost all of the contractors I work with are now, and have always been, sole proprietors.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

19. do sole proprietors pay personal income tax rates or business rates?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

22. answer to my own question: SPs pay personal rates

Sole proprietors pay taxes on business income on their personal taxreturns.

As a sole proprietor you must report all business income or losses on your personal income tax return; the business itself is not taxed separately. (The IRS calls this "pass-through" taxation, because business profits pass through the business to be taxed on your personal tax return.)

[robinlynne]

28. personal, but we have to be a business to do business. to get the licenses we

need on every level, city, state, etc.

[MilesColtrane]

17. I wonder how many of those are rich people who have declared themselves corporations.

There are significant tax and liability advantages in doing so.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

20. I wonder too. But it looks like corporate rates are higher

than personal rates....but you can deduct a lot of expense

[Recursion]

26. You usually take a tax hit if you do that

You're basically paying for your limited liability.

This number isn't that surprising to me; there are a LOT of sole proprietorships out there; most of them are barely treading water.

[dixiegrrrrl]

18. Mr. Dixie's one man business is defunct, but still shows as active on many records.

He created it back in 2003, it has no income, no tax receipts, so no filing, but shows up on a business search and we still get plenty of business related junk mail.
I don't know where the article got their information, but am willing to bet that a lot of that number may be defunct business still on file somewhere.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. I'm a one-person business, too

I'll occasionally hire someone for small tasks, but I do all the translation myself.

[Throd]

25. I'm a one-person business, three.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

23. Business Tax Returns by type in 2007

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/business_enterprise/sole_proprietorships_partnerships_corporations.html




Census Bureau

Proprietors/Partnerships/Corporations (1,000)
2007 23,122 3,098 5,869

[Dokkie]

24. lol

And 90% of those people work for quixtar or Anmway. This is what they they you to do the min after you sign up. Sad but true

[robinlynne]

27. Most of us are single person businesses. I am. all freelancers are.

[Zanzoobar]

29. Aside from the above, there are also "shelf corporations"

People have been mining business names for a lot longer than the internet has been around. It works in a similar fashion to web site mining.

The owner of the name files tax returns every year and builds credit, and the business is always for sale.

If you buy one that's 25 years old, Voila! You've been in business for 25 years with the pedigree to prove it.

[ThomWV]

31. I know a number of people who have "businesses" only for tax purposes

And the reason they start the businesses is to charge their personal expenses to it in a thousand devious ways so that they zero out income. Many many of them do it and in fact I was called a fool by a close friend for not starting a business for just that purpose myself.