The Stimulus Plan and the Small Business Owner

Watching mortgage interest rates fall, I decided that I would try and refinance from my 5.5%

So, I started checking around, only to discover that people who have been self-employed for less than 2 years will not qualify for a new mortgage.

What's more, as a small business owner, you want to write off as many business expenses as posssible in order to reduce your taxload, right?

Well, that comes back to bite you because if you have less income on your return, then clearly you are a larger risk for default.

So, do you want a higher income (and pay more taxes) to possibly reduce your mortgage payment?

Or do you want a lower income and a higher mortgage payment?

Dear Congress-the answer is you want both.

Of course, if I am making my payments at 5.5%, doesn't it seem likely that I would be able to do so at 4.5%?

What's more, as the engine that will grow the economy better than a stimulus plan ever will, wouldn't you want to free up capital for business owners to invest and hire people?

I've vented before about how inane and time-consuming our tax system is, so no need to rehash that now.