The 21 million sole proprietorship returns filed in 2005 represent a wide variety of economic activity. This paper examines three major tax policy issues related to sole proprietorships—taxpayer compliance, taxpayer burden, and incentives for growth. It uses tax return data to take a closer...

Due to data constraints and the lack of explicit definitions, prior analyses of the impact of the tax code on small business owners were flawed. In this paper, we employ a new data source that allows a much more nuanced definition of small business owner. We present tabulations that quantify...