What is a "Small Business"?

[Marc]

All the talk about "small businesses", yet S corporations qualify as "small businesses" under the tax code. Here are some "small" businesses:

Enterprise Products Partners, L.P., a pipeline company with 2009 revenues of $25 billion.
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a Wall Street firm with $445 million in revenue in 2009.
Price Waterhouse Coopers, an accounting firm with $26 billion in revenue in 2009.
Koch Industries, a conglomerate of partnerships with 70,000 employees.
The Hillman Company, an investment founded by billionaire philanthropist/industrialist Henry Hillman.
Venn Strategies, Inc., whose chief operating officer is Brian
Reardon, a former special assistant to former President George W. Bush.
Ferrellgas, a propane and propane accessories business, with $2 billion in revenues in 2009 and 1 million customers.
CoorsTek, a ceramics manufacturer founded by Adolph Coors, with 2009 revenue of $549 million.
Dead River Co., with $500 million in revenue and 1,200 employees.
McIlhenney Co., the Tabasco maker, with $250 million in revenue in 2007.

Big businesses turn small for tax purposes

The Census Bureau and the Small Business Administration technically define small businesses as private firms having fewer than 500 employees, but of course that's screwed by things like the S Corp inclusion allowing billion dollar companies to be categorized as "small" businesses and receive tax and other benefits of real small businesses.

[jazzyjones]

Small businesses are normally privately owned corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships. What constitutes "small" in terms of government support and tax policy varies by country and by industry,

[kgott]

While on the subject of business, and I realise this might be getting a little too far off topic but we are talking about business here and it does relate to us.

I watched a Michael More movie on (Australian) TV last night. I only watched this by accident and I did not hear or all of it due to a bit of a family crisis going on at the same time but here are a few things from this movie that I could barely believe.

The movie is called Capitalism: A Love Story. It’s a Michael More movie and I can appreciate that many may not have much regard for it and it may well be some years old. I checked out the claims in the movie's reference data page.

There is more in the movie than what I have referenced here but these were the bits that have stuck in my mind.

· Private Juvenile Detention - One County in Pennsylvania hired a private company to deal with juveniles, owned by two entrepreneurs, one of whom was a lawyer who used his influence to shut down the county's public juvenile facility, and helped the private company get the $58 million contract to provide services to the County..

· One juvenile was placed in detention for making a MySpace page mocking her school Principal. Kids were sentenced to a set period by the judges who got kickbacks for providing the kids to the facility, but the detention period was often extended by the facilities management and so they made more money.

· Low Paid Pilots - Regional airline pilots are often paid salaries less than those paid to fast food restaurant managers. I gathered that the pilot of the plane that landed the plane in the Hudson river lost his pension over that incident.

· Dead Peasants insurance - When a middle level management employee for a bank died the bank received nearly $5 million in life insurance payouts while his family got nothing because the bank took the policy out on the employee and made itself the beneficiary. With this type of insurance the employer has a vested interest in the death of the employee.

· A former loan officer for a financial organization, offered discounted loans with good rates and low, or no, fees to VIPs, including lawmakers.

· The FBI warned of an approaching "epidemic" of mortgage fraud in 2004 saying that 80% of the mortgage fraud was induced by the banks, not the individuals seeking loans.

· After 9/11, more than 500 FBI white collar crime specialists were transferred over to terrorism.

I wonder how many of us on the Cove would fall into the category of 'peasants' by their management and be suitable candidates for peasant insurance.

What implications does peasant insurance have in terms of OH&S issues which many of us on the Cove deal with.

There is a section in this movie where Michael More talks to ministers of the cloth who are not in favor of capitalism at all and he talks to some wall street people who are not in favor of democracy.

For those interested the movie is located here:

http://www.sbs.com.au/films/movie/43...:-A-Love-Story

[akash986]

Status for companies of a certain size which fall below certain requirements (that differs from nation to country) with regards to yearly income, number of workers, total value of resources, etc. See also method and small business (SME)