For small businesses, the biggest change in the new year will be the arrival of a presumably more business-friendly administration in Washington. But there are other shifts owners should keep on their radar.
Among them: changes to state-level overtime and minimum wage rules, the delayed federal FinCEN registration, taxes on payments from third-party providers like Venmo and PayPal, and anything that might affect inflation, including tariffs.
The Small Business Administration is also ushering in a new leader: Trump loyalist Kelly Loeffler, assuming she’s confirmed by the Senate.
“I think there (is) a general sense that there is going to be obviously a pro-business administration on the regulatory side,” says Karen Kerrigan, President and CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, an advocacy group. “But there could be some nuances specifically on, say, workplace or labor rules. But that’s still to be determined.”