“Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary took aim at the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” backed by President Trump on Tuesday, warning that a section related to small business tax audits will “cause chaos in valuations.”
“We’ve got a situation in this new beautiful bill,” O’Leary, often a supporter of Trump’s economic policies, told Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo. “It almost seems unfair and un-American to do that to small business.”
He was referring to changes in the Employee Retention Credit (ERC), which was designed to help businesses retain employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bill, as it is being debated among House Republicans, would pave the way for increased audits by the IRS tied to the tax credit, which are intended to root out fraud in the pricey program.
“I read all these bills through the eyes of small business,” O’Leary said. “(It) says the IRS will get extended powers to audit small businesses for up to nine years if it took the ERC. Now, that is going to cause chaos in valuations if you have that hanging over your head.”
O’Leary argued that many haven’t read the bill, so he was planning to personally lobby lawmakers on the issue.
“I’m heading down tonight to the Hill, to get a gong and walk down the halls banging it saying, ‘What are you guys doing here?'” O’Leary told Bartiromo. “Somebody should fix this in the big, beautiful bill, because it’s not beautiful for small business.”
He said the proposal would give “more power to the IRS to cause conflict with small business.”
“Who wants to do that? What Republican wants to do that?” the investor added.
Supporters of increased oversight of the pandemic-era ERC program have argued that it will stamp out rampant fraud that has made it more costly than anticipated and free up money for other proposals tied to Trump’s sweeping policy agenda.
According to a review from the Bipartisan Policy Center, an expansion of the ERC in 2021 set off an aggressive marketing campaign from firms angling to assist businesses with claiming the credit.
“The total cost of the credit was initially projected to be $50 billion — now, projections exceed $550 billion,” the Center’s analysts wrote in a report last year.
