The Economy-How bad it is on the business side....

[catnhatnh]

....I run a small hot dog stand in New Hampshire.We have an 8% "rooms and meals" tax...when I sell a hot dog,it is taxable as a "prepared food" but any bagged chips or canned soda is exempt...I have to file my taxes monthly all twelve months unless I operate for less than 5 months which would be a seasonal permit and I could file just for those months...I blew it....closed on December 10th and filed for November (which was due December 15th) and December around the 12th...Forgot to file January.Now, understand that last year my high month was just under 2K in taxable sales and under $160 to the revenue department...A state revenue agent came to my house today-nice guy,who actually drove by my place and knew it was inactive....So we chatted and while he watched I filed January and got my confirmation numbers...But this he told me-the state notified him within 72 hours that I didn't file and that the state was chasing EVERY dime because so many restaurants were already failing...he said he was happy to see my place closed because he was finding so many open non-filers and that most would be gone in 6 months...Things are bad and trending worse.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. Hang on...

this is only the beginning...

[DemocratInSoCal]

2. Just Wait Until People Have A Chance To SPEND Their "Rebate" Checks

That'll save all those restaurants.

For about a month.

[Warpy]

5. People up north are going to be treating themselves

to warm houses for the first time this season. People down south, especially in Texas, can blow the whole thing on one month of AC.

I imagine most people are going to pay bills with this "stimulus."

What they're not going to do is take the kids to Disney World.

[Lorien]

3. I still have clients, but my eBay sales have tanked

since the products I produce for my clients are items that depend on people HAVING disposable income, I'm already cutting back.

Hang in there-I just wish those State Revenue agents would go after the big corporations who pay no taxes at all instead of squeezing every dime from those who are struggling!

[defendandprotect]

4. Those corps not paying any taxes at all are buddies of the GOP . . .

not going to happen --

Many of these people are paying less than 8% if anything at all !!!


And, of course, the situation with gasoline is going to hurt people running their small businesses
before it hurts any larger company.