I have discovered why PA is still a Commonwealth

[Dr Batsen D Belfry]

I recently opened another business in PA after opening one last year. Now I have to do the taxes for the first one, and I still need to file papers locally for the second.

First, our taxes.

I am using TurboTax for business, and found the federal filing took only about 1/2 hour and only a few pages.

The state tax forms were so convoluted and undocumented it took me nearly forever to do a very basic business return. I am still not sure it is right.

My incorporation was not much better. The federal filing took all of 1/2 hour all online, payments and all. The state took two attempts just for the incorporation and a total of 7 weeks by snail mail even though I did the initial filing and payment online.

Once done, I got the letter from Unemployment Comp, telling me I need to be sure to take out UC from our checks. I called them for clarification since the only two employees are owners of the company. The kind woman explained that if we shut the business down, we can't collect UC, but if we are forced into bankruptcy, we can still collect! How ridiculous is that? If I screw up enough to go into bankruptcy I can still collect some semblance of pay for a year!

Next came the terse letter from Workers Comp. I HAD to take out a policy, unless of course the only emplyees are executives. To prove this, I had to check a box on the form, and fill out two more forms which were not provided. I called, then went to the website. No forms. I emailed, and the gentleman that responded told me to send my postal address so he could MAIL them to me. Four pages later, I had my exemption.

Pittsburgh is almost as bad. I got a nice list of taxes I MAY have to pay, but nothing to really identify which ones I have to pay. In addition, I am clueless as to WHEN I have to pay them.

It seems to me the state and city need to simplify immensely if they want to succeed in today's economy. They must assume that every business has an army of accountants and lawyers at the ready. Small businesses don't. There is absolutely no reason why filing taxes needs to be as complicated as a cell phone bill, kill a forest, and require more pain than a sigmoidoscopy.

DBDB