All owner-operated businesses in United States

2026-09-26

Borrowing to buy or expand a small-town business? From 1 October the SBA fee can be zero

If your salon, cafe, clinic or gym sits in a rural area and you are about to borrow through an SBA 7(a) loan, the upfront guaranty fee on that loan drops to zero for any loan approved on or after 1 October 2026, as long as the loan is $700,000 or less. On a $400,000 loan that is $9,000 you no longer pay. On $700,000 it is $15,750. If you are in a town or city, nothing has changed for you, and the page below says so plainly. The part everyone should read is the line at $700,000, because one dollar over it puts the whole fee back.

2026-09-24

Your 2025 tariffs are being paid back with interest. How your goods came in decides if you see any of it

Yes, the emergency tariffs you paid in 2025 are coming back, with interest, and US Customs has been sending the money out since April. The catch is that it only goes to the importer of record on each shipment, and on most shipments there is a clock running. So the useful question is not "am I owed a refund" but "where is mine sitting". If a courier brought your goods in, the answer may be a portal you have not logged into. If you used a customs broker, it is a list of dates you need this week. If you bought from a US distributor, the refund is not yours at all, and the money you can still get back is in your supplier invoices.

2026-09-19

The Fed just raised rates for the first time since 2023. Your SBA loan repriced the next morning

If you are asking what SBA loan rates are right now: the prime rate has been 7.00% since Thursday 17 September 2026, so the most a lender can charge on a variable 7(a) loan is 10.00% above $350,000, 11.50% from $250,001 to $350,000, 13.00% from $50,001 to $250,000 and 13.50% at $50,000 or less. Every one of those is a quarter point higher than it was on Wednesday, because the Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in more than three years. On its own the quarter point is small money, and I will show you exactly how small. The reason to keep reading is what the Fed said about the next one, and what that does to the price a buyer can pay for your business.

2026-09-13

The new car loan deduction is settled the day you sign, and a work vehicle is exactly what fails it

If you are buying a vehicle on finance this year, one decision made before you sign is worth a few hundred dollars a year to you, and almost nobody is told about it in the showroom. The new car loan interest deduction only works if you expected the vehicle to be mostly for personal use. The more the vehicle earns you money, the less likely it is to qualify. The IRS finalised that rule on 8 September, and it locks in on the day the loan is signed.

2026-09-09

Before you sign the 2027 health renewal, look at the number the IRS moved in July

Insurers have asked state regulators for a median 14% increase on small group health plans in 2027. If you cover your staff, that is the number heading for your renewal letter this autumn. The more useful number is 10.22%, which the IRS published on 27 July and almost nobody has explained to a small employer, because it quietly changes what your cheapest alternative costs and who it hurts.

2026-09-04

Your salaried manager needs $72,384 on 1 January or they go back on the clock

Two numbers move in California on 1 January 2027. The minimum wage goes from $16.90 to $17.40, which costs you about $1,120 a year for every full-time hourly person once payroll tax is counted. The second number gets much less attention and is where the money usually is: the minimum salary for a manager you treat as exempt from overtime goes to $72,384. Pay a salaried manager less than that on 1 January and they are not exempt any more. They are back on the clock, with daily overtime and meal break penalties attached, whatever their job title says.

2026-08-27

Under 15 staff and you pay nothing into Maryland's leave fund. The twelve weeks of cover still applies to you

There are two numbers in Maryland's new paid leave law. The one in every headline is 0.9%. The one that decides what it costs you is 15. Below fifteen employees, your business pays none of the contribution, because the statute only makes employers of fifteen or more pay in. You still register, still deduct from your staff, still file every quarter. And the obligation that will actually cost a small owner money, holding a job open for twelve weeks and keeping the health coverage running, has no size threshold anywhere in it.

2026-08-20

Florida's floor hits $15 on 30 September. The dollar is not your problem, the ladder above it is

On 30 September 2026 the Florida minimum wage goes from $14.00 to $15.00 an hour, and the cash wage for tipped staff goes from $10.98 to $11.98. That is the last of the six annual dollar steps Florida voters approved in 2020. If you have five full-time people on the floor, the step itself costs you about $11,200 a year including your payroll taxes. But almost nobody is hurt by the dollar. They are hurt by what it does to everyone you pay between $15 and $18, which is a much bigger number and the one nobody has budgeted for.

2026-08-15

Health cover has a cliff in it again, and one strong December can push you over

If you buy your own cover, the premium rise is the small half of this story. The big half is a line at 400% of the poverty line that you either stay under or do not, with nothing in between, and a good final quarter can put you over it without you noticing until April. Here is where the line sits, what it is worth in dollars, and which levers move it without costing you at sale.

2026-08-08

The Visa and Mastercard settlement sends you no money. It sorts your customers into three price tiers instead

If you took a Visa or Mastercard payment in the US at any point since December 2020, you are in this settlement. You did not sign up for it, you are not allowed to leave it, and it will not send you a dollar. What it will do is put a hard ceiling on the cheapest cards in your customers' wallets, leave the expensive ones exactly where they are, and give you the right to treat the two differently. The one date on it that belongs to you is 14 September 2026.

2026-07-21

The 20% deduction you were about to lose is now permanent. Here is what it actually saves you

If you run your business as a sole proprietor, partnership, LLC or S-corp, you have been getting a quiet 20% discount on your business profit before tax since 2018. It was booked to disappear at the end of 2025. It did not. The 2025 tax law made it permanent, so you keep it in 2026 and beyond. Here is the plain-English version: what the deduction is, what it actually saves you on real numbers, whether you get the full 20%, and the one thing it does not do that owners keep getting wrong.

2026-07-16

You can write off 100% of new equipment again, permanently. The trap is what it does the day you sell

Good tax news for once: buy a new espresso machine, a rack of gym kit, salon stations or a treatment laser, and you can now knock 100% of the cost off this year's taxable profit, instead of dribbling it out over five or seven years. That is real cash left in the business at tax time. Here is exactly how it works in 2026, what it is worth on a real purchase, and the one thing that turns it from a smart move into an expensive mistake if you might sell.