Finance Questions
• Eight percent of small employers have been a victim of identity theft in the last three
years. More than one in eight (14%) have encountered the problem directly when including
those who think that they have been subject to a serious, but unsuccessful, identity
theft attempt.
• Forty (40) percent of small employers have checked their firms’ credit report in the last
three years to determine the report’s accuracy. Twenty-four (24) percent who checked
theirs complained to a credit bureau or credit reporting company about it.
• Often, particularly in new and very small businesses, the owner’s personal credit report
is effectively the business’s credit report. Sixty-four (64) percent of small employers
checked their personal credit report within the last three years. One-quarter who checked
complained about its accuracy. Thirty-four (34) percent checked both personal and business
reports and 29 percent checked neither.
• Credit scoring is common in small-business lending. Forty-two (42) percent of small
employers claim to be very familiar with credit scoring and another 37 percent claim to
be somewhat familiar. However, just 57 percent of those at least somewhat familiar with
credit scoring think that their preferred financial institution uses credit scoring to make
small-business loans.
• Twenty-four (24) percent of small-business owners were required to calculate the Alternative
Minimum Tax (AMT) for their last personal federal income tax return and another
22 percent did not know if they had to or not. The large number that do not know is
likely a function of paying tax professionals to prepare their returns. Of those who calculated
the AMT, 53 percent paid it.
• The money small-business owners take out of their business in the form of salary, profit,
dividends, etc., constitutes 95 percent or more of their annual income in 72 percent of
cases. The amount they take out constitutes 75 percent or more of their household
income in 78 percent of cases.
• While a slight majority (51%) of small businesses has a sole owner who obtains income
from the business, another 34 percent have two owners who do. Nine percent have three
or more owners who draw income from it. Four percent of small businesses provide no
income of any type to any owner. One-third (32%) of small-business owners have other
adult members of the household who also draw income from the business.
• The median amount an owner of a small employing business draws from his/her firm in
a year is about $72,500. At the extremes, 6 percent earn less than $12,500 and 5 percent
earn $250,000 or more.
• Forty-six (46) percent of small-business owners obtain 95 percent or more of their entire
household income from a business. The median income of a household headed by a
small-business owner is about $100,000.
• Eleven (11) percent of small employers provide their employees some type of financial
education beyond a basic understanding of employee benefits. Another 9 percent expect
to do so in the future.
