In case you haven’t heard contractors have a new political spokesperson.
“Joe the Plumber” was tossing a football in the front yard with his son while presidential candidate Barack Obama was canvassing the area where he lives. Obama approached Joe and solicited his questions. Joe is a plumber in Ohio who desires to purchase the company he has worked for for many years.
The rest is history with Joe making appearances on all the prominent talk shows and becoming a focal point of the third debate. If you’d like to see some of his interviews they are easily accessible by doing a “Joe the Plumber” search on the Internet.
First I’d like to start by saying that I think this guy “Joe the Plumber” is pretty bright and intuitive. Some pundits say that he has articulated some of the issues better than any of the candidates.
Joe asked Obama a fair question about how his policies would affect him if he purchased the plumbing business he was working for. Since that debut Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher has been launched in the national political spotlight for both the Democratic and Republican campaigns.
But let’s not forget the real issue! Taxes!
Yes, I believe that taxes for small businesses are too high. However, I would never advise a contractor to stop growing their business to avoid paying more taxes.
Go out and grow your business by hiring the right people, getting the right customers, acquiring the proper tools and equipment to complete the work efficiently and profitably; and retain a good certified public accountant to help you with your tax planning.
With proper advice from a sharp accountant you should be able to retain at least sixty cents for every one dollar you earn. So go out and get more sales to make more money! By the way a side benefit is that you will stay in business longer.
The government needs to be accountable to all taxpayers for how they spend our money.
I’m not sure that “Joe the Plumber” represents the majority of contractors since he doesn’t even own a business today. But if and when Joe does by that plumbing business I’d rather that he decides who gets raises based on their contribution to the company and the merits and he puts into place rather than the government spreading his company profits equally to individuals taxes payers because they fall into a certain tax bracket.
Best of luck with your business,
Guy
