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Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary, who opposed some provisions of Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill,' opposes them just the same, a week later, when it has finally passed.
One element that stood out to him was related to the financial health of small businesses. Kevin highlighted the issue with the controversial expansion of the IRS audit authority over the ERC, or Employee Retention Credit.
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Kevin, who says he supports other provisions of the bill, is against this extended audit window and labels it as an unnecessary burden on small businesses.
"I look through the lens of small business, which is 62% of job creation. That’s businesses with 5 to 500 employees. There’s a thing going on about the ERC, the employee retention credit."
O'Leary said during a recent appearance on Fox Business,
"The tonality is that it was a fraudulent program. The facts are, it's not true. Only 2.9%, admitted by the IRS themselves, were ever fraudulent. That’s less than most government programs."
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For the unversed, the ERC was created under the CARES Act back in 2020 when America was dealing with the COVID-19 hazards economically. It was aimed to help businesses retain employees during the turmoil.
This help was used by millions of small businesses to keep offering jobs for their employees. But now, as the Big, Beautiful Bill has passed, the URS will have up to nine years to audit the ERC claims.
The Shark Tank investor thinks that this is wrong, as the bill will now create friction for businesses it was always intended to support. He said,
"This language says that anybody who took it, which are millions of small businesses, are going to be open for audit for nine years, which is ludicrous because they won’t be able to raise any money."
Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary defends small businesses over the IRS scrutiny of the ERC
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Kevin O'Leary, the Shark Tank investor, pointed out that the IRS already has the authority to pursue fraud for as long as it wants. He says that if any company is committing fraud, then the institution has the power to audit them forever, and that is why the provision given in the bill is quite unnecessary.
Even though the bill has passed now, Kevin claims that he will not stop raising his voice for the small businesses, as he has always been an advocate for them.
"The fact is, if you committed fraud in any scenario, there is no statute of limitations. The IRS already has the power to audit you forever. So they don't need this provision. I'm going to the Senate, and I'm showing this to senators, and they're outraged too. They can't believe we would empower the IRS to stymie small businesses this way. It's an outrage," he expressed.
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Attention has now turned towards how this bill is going to work, and its provisions will affect the legitimate business owners from unnecessary pressure from the regulation.
Shark Tank season 16 episodes are available to stream online via Hulu.
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