It has always been tough for small business owners to get basic straightforward information they need to avoid tax problems. But this year I notice the problem is magnified many times by a flood of misinformation and gobblygook published on blogs and promoted in social media, This is especially true for issues surrounding the Affordable Care Act. I hate to say it but if a firm is promoting their product or service then the information published is inherently conflicted and should be suspect to bias in presentation. The moral is “don’t believe everything you read on the internet” – that includes tax advice on flashy corporate web sites.
I’ve lost count of the number of bad tax advice articles I’ve seen this year on this online topic alone. Many of the errors are noted in earlier posts in this blog. Some were honest errors. I have no problem with a writer who makes a mistake especially in this topic that is new and uncertain. God knows I’ve make my share of mistakes in the hundreds of tax advice columns I’ve published. But the majority of bad tax advice this year comes from those who knowingly distort the truth to sell their product and services.
Today I saw an article that falls into a third category, a logical failure to connect the article title with the tax laws cited. It was an article about apples and and the tax laws pertaining to oranges with confusing and inappropriate attempts to link the two.
If you own a small business that is helping employees through today’s health care challenges, it would be tax foolish to not review your arrangement for tax reporting requirements and possible additional taxes.
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