From The Wall Street Journal The good news for small-business owners is that elected officials didn't inject nearly as much complexity into the nation's tax laws in 1999 as they did in many previous years. Still, they did nothing to make things easier. And so it is that small-business owners continue to wrestle with an onerous set of tax laws that are as confusing as they are plentiful. It's an expensive habit to keep up with.
Some observers see hope in the battle over taxing Internet commerce.
The pressures will increase for a more simplified, more straightforward tax system. But to pull it off, a business owner has to convince the Internal Revenue Service that the workers qualify as independent contractors. That can be costly. And then there are the penalties, and the interest. D.C. How a worker should be classified is a judgment call, but the IRS provides a list of questions to guide a business owner.