Kevin O’Leary’s Broadside: The Tax Bill and the “War on Small Business”

In a week dominated by talk of macroeconomic policy and strategic alliances abroad, Kevin O’Leary, chairman of O’Leary Ventures and a relentless advocate for entrepreneurship, issued a sharp and impassioned warning: the latest tax bill, he says, is nothing less than “a war on small business.” Speaking on Fox Business and CNBC, O’Leary, known for his ventures and his candor, cast a harsh light on a provision buried within the new tax proposal—one that he contends could shake the very foundation of America’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The controversy centers on proposed changes to the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) program, which was rolled out in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic as a financial lifeline for small businesses. While the ERC is long closed to new applications, the bill reportedly extends the statute of limitations, giving the IRS up to nine years to audit small businesses that claimed these credits during the pandemic. “This can’t be right. Why would they do this?” O’Leary demanded, incredulous at what he calls an “unprecedented” increase in IRS authority.

“This is outrageous that they would tax small businesses like this,” O’Leary said, adding, “and unprecedented to give powers to the IRS like this because it won’t stop there. This is anti-American. It’s against small business. I’ve never seen anything like it. You want to talk about a big beautiful bill, this is a big ugly piece of that bill. It’s got to get fixed” (Fox Business, via YouTube).

O’Leary’s critique is not just a one-note diatribe. He contextualizes his frustration with the practical realities facing small business owners nationwide. “ERC saved millions of businesses, and some people claimed it was fraudulent. Sure, there’s fraud in every government program, but 95% of these businesses deserved that money and are still in business because of that money. And now somebody says, ‘Give the IRS power to go rip into them.’ That’s not okay.”

For O’Leary, the stakes couldn’t be higher. “Small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy,” he has emphasized time and again. The new oversight, he argues, will sow uncertainty, force entrepreneurs to keep records far longer than most statutory requirements, and potentially penalize those who acted in good faith during the pandemic’s darkest days.

This “anti-American” sentiment, as O’Leary frames it, stings all the more in contrast to his recent experience overseas. Fresh from a trip to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, O’Leary marveled at their rapid adoption of artificial intelligence and entrepreneurial dynamism, drawing a sharp line between foreign growth policies and what he perceives as punitive measures at home.

His criticism arrives at a time when lawmakers are otherwise touting headline-grabbing tax cuts, promising “no tax on tips, no tax on overtime and, notably, no tax hike on millionaires.” Yet, O’Leary insists, the fine print tells another story—one that he fears could chill investment, curb hiring, and set back the small business recovery that is so vital to broad-based American prosperity.

The debate is unlikely to dissipate soon. As Congress mulls the future of the tax bill, O’Leary vows to take his case to Capitol Hill, urging legislators to “read this thing” and see the consequences for small businesses firsthand. “This is a big, ugly piece of that bill,” he insists. “It’s got to get fixed—just because of the attack on small business.”

In the end, O’Leary’s charge lands as both a policy critique and a cultural alarm. If America’s claim to economic dynamism rests on the ingenuity of its entrepreneurs, then, in O’Leary’s telling, the current tax proposal isn’t just a ledger adjustment. It’s a test of the country’s commitment to its small business backbone—a test, he suggests, the nation can scarcely afford to fail.