Some lawmakers need to improve the 1099-Ok tax reporting thresholds

As the year-end approaches, there’s been debate around tax reporting for business transactions on payment apps such as Venmo and PayPal, along with e-commerce companies, such as eBay, Etsy and Poshmark.

Some lawmakers are pushing to increase the IRS reporting threshold for Form 1099-K, which covers third-party business payments. Taxpayers who use a payment app to process transactions for a side hustle or small business, or who sell a product or service through an e-commerce site, will receive a Form 1099-K at tax time detailing that income if their transactions exceed the threshold.

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 dramatically reduced the threshold, and now lawmakers are looking to change course.

“There’s bipartisan interest in the backslide because of all the misinformation that’s out there,” said Steve Rosenthal, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, who addressed the issue on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” last week.

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How the tax rule change affects payment app users

Before this year, you may have received Form 1099-K if you had more than 200 transactions worth an aggregate above $20,000. But the 2023 threshold is just $600, and even a single transaction can trigger the form.

That change is expected to result in a flood of Forms 1099-K in early 2024 when taxpayers typically receive so-called “information returns” from employers and financial institutions. Duplicate copies go to the IRS.

The threshold doesn’t apply to personal transfers on apps like Venmo and PayPal, such as sending a friend or family member money. But experts have expressed concern that some taxpayers may now receive a 1099-K by mistake, creating headaches at tax time.

And given that just one transaction above $600 is enough to trigger the form, even someone who makes a one-off sale of, say, an old couch or hot concert tickets could find themselves with an extra tax document to contend with.

The lower 1099-K reporting thresholds have been controversial amid increased scrutiny of the IRS, particularly among online sellers, gig economy workers and others who worry about confusion and higher taxes.

There’s bipartisan support for the change

The lower Form 1099-K thresholds were originally slated for 2022. But the IRS delayed the rule in late December, to “help smooth the transition and ensure clarity” for taxpayers and professionals.

Now, with the tax season fast approaching, there’s a legislative push from both chambers to increase the 2023 reporting threshold.

The Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee in June approved legislation to revert the reporting thresholds back to 2022 levels. There are also proposals in the Senate, including the Red Tape Reduction Act, introduced by Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Bill Cassidy, R-La., in May, which aims to raise the threshold to $10,000.

But advocates say the lower 1099-K threshold will reduce taxpayer burden. “[Information returns] don’t actually increase taxes,” said Rosenthal. “They only help determine taxes already owed.”

Form 1099-K has ‘always been problematic’

Meanwhile, there are lingering worries among tax professionals about the 1099-K change. The American Institute of CPAs in June renewed its support for raising the reporting threshold to avoid “significant confusion in the tax system.”

In a June letter endorsing the Senate’s Red Tape Reduction Act, AICPA voiced concerns about an administrative burden for taxpayers and the IRS, especially if Forms 1099-K wrongly include personal transactions, such as gifts or reimbursements.

Form 1099-K has always been problematic.

Phyllis Jo Kubey

Immediate past president of the New York State Society of Enrolled Agents

“Form 1099-K has always been problematic,” said Phyllis Jo Kubey, a New York-based enrolled agent and immediate past president of the New York State Society of Enrolled Agents. “Even in its older iteration with the higher thresholds and number of transactions, a lot of times it just didn’t accurately reflect what should be taxable income.”

For businesses selling goods, she said Form 1099-K may not accurately reflect returns or adjustments. “But if the IRS has a document that says ‘X,’ and you’re saying ‘Y’ on your tax return, it may provoke more scrutiny, which is another level of time, expense and aggravation that people don’t need,” Kubey said.

How to prepare for the 1099-K reporting change

Even if you don’t receive a Form 1099-K, business payments are still taxable, and experts say it’s a good time to start getting organized.

Regardless of the payment platform, it’s important to “be familiar with the systems,” know where to access payment information and to keep your account open, said Albert Campo, a certified public accountant and president of AJC Accounting Services in Manalapan, New Jersey.

“Our biggest piece of advice is to make sure you get the [payment] information as soon as you have it available,” which may save time next filing season, he said.

Can costly, American-made weapons like F-16s flip the tide in Ukraine’s battle in opposition to Russia?

The Ukrainian counteroffensive that launched in June against Moscow’s invasion has run into a Russian wall. 

In the run-up to the Ukrainian push, weapons from Western allies — such as tanks, artillery and other equipment — poured into Ukraine. Despite some small gains, Ukrainian forces have yet to see a large breakthrough, leaving some to wonder what else is needed.

“This is about as hard as it gets,” said Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Think World War I with drones. … That’s a little bit what the Ukrainians are facing. And so in our microwave culture here in the United States, we want results yesterday, but that’s just not the way it works when you’re confronting a military like the Russians.”

Land mines have been a massive problem for Kyiv’s forces. Russia has deployed large tracts of the explosive devices, including mines aimed at troops as well as mines that are designed to take out armored vehicles like tanks, slowing down any Ukrainian advance. And with Russia’s ability to lay mines with specialized artillery, keeping cleared lanes open to send forces through has been a struggle.

“Let me be clear, this would present a significant challenge for any force that is trying to take it without the full scope of Western capabilities,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, executive chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator and co-founder of CrowdStrike.

Many in Kyiv have called for the introduction of Western fighter jets, such as the F-16, to beef up the beleaguered Ukrainian Air Force, which has managed to keep flying and fighting despite what on paper is an overwhelming Russian advantage in air power. These fighters would also help take the pressure off of air defense forces, which consists of older Soviet surface-to-air missile systems that are difficult to resupply, and the newly provided Patriot missile system. Just sending F-16s to Ukraine wouldn’t turn the tide overnight. It would take months, if not years, of training to get the most out of these expensive jets.

“These weapons are not silver bullets,” said Mick Ryan, a retired major general of the Australian army and adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “There’s no such thing as a single weapon system that will provide that. It’s when you have lots of different weapons systems in the air on the ground. You have operators who are technically proficient and then you’re able to undertake the collective combined arms training, that’s when you have a really war-winning capability.”

Watch the video above to find out if more big-ticket, U.S.-made weapons such as F-16s, the Patriot missile system and HIMARS can turn the tide in Ukraine.

New vaccines will possible defend in opposition to Eris variant

A pharmacist prepares to administer Covid-19 vaccine booster shots during an event hosted by the Chicago Department of Public Health at the Southwest Senior Center in Chicago, Illinois, Sept. 9, 2022.

Scott Olson | Getty Images

New Covid vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax will likely provide protection against the new “Eris” variant, now the dominant strain of the virus in the U.S.

The drugmakers designed their updated vaccines to target the omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, which is slowly declining nationwide. But health experts and initial data suggest that the new shots will still be effective against Eris, or EG.5, and other widely circulating variants – all of which are descendants of omicron. 

“I think that these vaccines will provide very substantial protection against EG.5. Maybe just a little bit of loss, but it’s nothing that I’m very concerned about,” Dr. Mark Mulligan, director of the NYU Langone Vaccine Center, told CNBC. “It looks like we’re going to be OK.”

All three companies are still waiting for the Food and Drug Administration to approve their vaccines, meaning those jabs won’t be available to the public for a month or so. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has to decide which Americans should get the shots and how often. 

Still, the upcoming arrival of those vaccines offers some reassurance to Americans as Eris and other Covid variants fuel a slight uptick in cases and hospitalizations across the country but remain below the summer peak that strained hospitals this time last year.

Eris accounted for 17.3% of all cases in the U.S. as of earlier this month, according to the latest data from the CDC. The new strain surpassed XBB.1.5, which accounted for roughly 10% of all cases. 

The World Health Organization earlier this month designated Eris a “variant of interest,” meaning it will be monitored for mutations that could potentially make it more severe. 

But the health agency and experts said Eris does not appear to pose a significant threat – or at least no more than any of the other omicron variants currently circulating in the U.S. It’s also not expected to cause a huge wave of Covid cases like other strains have in previous years. 

Why are the shots likely effective against Eris?

The new vaccines will likely provide protection against Eris because the strain has a very similar genetic makeup to XBB.1.5. 

The key difference is that Eris carries an additional amino acid mutation, which may make the strain only slightly more capable of evading immunity from previous infection or vaccination. 

“It’s not like back then when we had the alpha, beta, delta and omicron variants emerge and they were significantly different from one another,” said Dr. Nicole Iovine, chief hospital epidemiologist and an infectious disease physician at the University of Florida. “These are all omicron variants, so they’re much more similar to each other. I think this vaccine is actually going to be quite effective because of that.” 

A nurse administers a booster shot at a Covid-19 vaccination clinic on April 0=6, 2022 in San Rafael, California.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

That’s backed up by new data from the three companies.

Moderna on Thursday said its updated shot caused a “significant boost” in protective antibodies against Eris and another quickly spreading strain of the virus called “Fornax,” or FL 1.5.1, in a clinical trial. The company didn’t provide specific data on antibody levels since the trial results are preliminary. 

But Moderna President Stephen Hoge said in a release that the results “reflect our updated vaccine’s ability to address emerging Covid-19 threats.” 

A Pfizer spokesperson, in a statement to CNBC on Thursday, said the company’s own shot “effectively neutralized” a number of omicron variants, including Eris and XBB.1.5, in a recent study on mice. The company plans on releasing the entirety of the study results in a research publication, the spokesperson said. 

A Novavax spokesperson also told CNBC that it expects its updated Covid vaccine to work against Eris given its similarity to the XBB.1.5 strain. 

“We’re now conducting testing to demonstrate that,” the spokesperson added. 

Should you wait for the new shots? 

As Eris gains a stronger foothold in the U.S., some Americans may be questioning whether they should get one of the currently available Covid boosters rather than waiting for the new shots to arrive. 

Some experts say it depends on individual circumstances and risk levels, so patients should talk to their doctors.

Mulligan said unvaccinated or immunocompromised people who haven’t gotten the available boosters could potentially consider taking them now. Those patients are at a higher risk of getting severely sick from Covid. 

But he added that most people, especially healthy patients, could probably afford to wait for the new vaccines.

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Eris isn’t expected to infect a substantial number of Americans before the shots come out. “Some of us may get impacted, but I don’t expect us to see a huge wave in a short period of time between now and the next month or two,” Mulligan said.

The currently available boosters also might not provide as much protection against Eris because the variant has “drifted too far away” from omicron BA.5, according to Dr. Dean Blumberg, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis Health. The boosters target BA.5, BA.4 and the original strain of Covid. 

“It’s probably not going to be that beneficial and we do expect the updated vaccines to be available in about a month or so,” Blumberg said. “So I would wait for that one and get one as soon as it’s available.” 

Still, it’s unclear how many Americans will take the new Covid shots given widespread vaccine fatigue.

Prime GOP voice on China menace says funding restrictions fall quick

WASHINGTON — A leading House Republican voice on the national security threat posed by China said the White House’s plan to restrict outbound investment in the Chinese military and defense companies falls short of addressing the real problem.

President Joe Biden’s executive order, which is expected to be implemented next year, “takes an important step in the right direction,” but it should have accounted for public market investments into Chinese firms collaborating with the Chinese military or complicit in human rights abuses, Rep. Mike Gallagher, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Friday.

The executive order will also require outbound U.S. investors to notify the Treasury Department about transactions involving certain technologies that could pose a threat to the United States.

The Wisconsin Republican is the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and a leading voice in the House on the risks of U.S. investment in China.

Americans who invest in company stocks, mutual funds, ETFs and bonds on the public market risk inadvertently contributing to technology that poses a potential national security threat if they rely on U.S. financial firms that invest in companies blacklisted for supporting the CCP.

The House CCP Committee has flagged around 50 firms, including machinery, aircraft and technology firms and created a de facto blacklist.

Gallagher argued that investment restrictions can be used both defensively for national security, and as a weapon to weaken China’s economic stature and its military capabilities by cutting off funds.

“The CCP is an adversary and you don’t defeat an adversary or deter an adversary by shoveling billions of dollars into their military and technology program,” he said.

He also contended that investments like American retirement plans should not be dependent for returns on companies that could pose a threat to the long-term security of the plans’ investors.

“We have to ask ourselves if we want the pension fund, the overall retirement health of millions of Americans, to be dependent on the success of investing in things like [Chinese] aircraft carriers, artillery shells, and fighter jets.”

China is currently the third largest U.S. trading partner behind Mexico and Canada, a reality that puts the White House in a tricky position of trying to restrict specific U.S. investments while keeping the overall bilateral trade relationship stable.

Gallagher’s statements come as the Chinese government announced on Thursday that it is considering countermeasures to Biden’s order.

Last month, the House CCP Committee sent inquiries to U.S.-based global investment firms MSCI and BlackRock seeking more information about how the firms might direct U.S. investments into Chinese companies on a committee blacklist.

“We don’t think Blackrock or MSCI should funnel American dollars into certain companies like this, and we need to close the loopholes and at a minimum, ensure Americans are not knowingly or unknowingly funding the Chinese Communist Party,” Gallagher said Friday.

MSCI provides investment data and analytics to help clients make investment decisions in different global markets. In a statement to CNBC, the company said it is that it “engaging constructively with the House Select Committee” and “complies with all applicable U.S. laws.”

BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager and has previously said it offers its clients options to avoid investing in certain Chinese sectors. The company told CNBC Friday that it complies with applicable laws and “the majority of our clients’ investments in China are through index funds.”

The executive order grants Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen broad authority to determine what is a covered investment — too much authority, according to Gallagher.

The brewing debate over how widely to apply restrictions is pitting the White House against China skeptics on Capitol Hill, both Republicans and a significant cohort of Democrats.

Yellen has already signaled that she intends to keep any investment restrictions “narrowly targeted” to protect U.S. national security, and insists they are not intended to weaken China’s economy.

“Even though these policies may have economic impacts, they are driven by straightforward national security considerations,” she said in an April speech.

Treasury is accepting public comment on the proposed rules in the executive order through Sept. 28. So far, however, no formal timeline has been released for the issuance of final rules on outbound investment restrictions.

TJX Firms (TJX) earnings Q2 2024

Shoppers at a TJ Maxx store in New York.

Scott Mlyn | CNBC

Cash-strapped consumers may be pulling back on discretionary purchases at Target, but they’re spending big on name brands and home goods at off-price TJX Cos. 

The discounter raised its full-year outlook on Wednesday after posting a 7.7% year-over-year sales jump and a 23% rise in profits. It cited high customer traffic and a windfall of premium merchandise that it secured from higher-end retailers eager to offload their bloated inventories. 

Here’s how TJX Cos. did during its fiscal second quarter, compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:

  • Earnings per share: 85 cents vs. 77 cents expected
  • Revenue: $12.76 billion vs. $12.45 billion billion expected

The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended July 29 was $989 million, or 85 cents per share, compared with $810 million, or 69 cents per share, a year earlier. 

Sales climbed to $12.76 billion, up 7.7% from $11.84 billion a year earlier. 

Shares of TJX Cos. reached a new 52-week high on Wednesday, spiking more than 4%.

TJX Cos., which runs T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, Sierra and Homesense in the U.S., raised its full-year outlook for comparable store sales, pretax profit margin and earnings per share following the strong quarter.

The company now expects comparable store sales to climb 3% to 4%. It anticipates pretax profit margin in the range of 10.7% to 10.8%, and earnings per share between $3.66 and $3.72. Analysts had been expecting earnings to be $3.59 per share, according to Refinitiv. 

TJX may have had a stronger quarter, but the figures also compared with a prior year when sales had slid 1.9% and comparable store sales had fallen about 5%, Neil Saunders, managing director and retail analyst at GlobalData, noted. Still, the retailer is managing to win market share.

As inflation-weary and debt-laden consumers pull back on high-ticket and discretionary items and use their precious dollars on services, they are still seeking deals and are splurging on accessories, clothes and home goods at TJX’s many off-price stores. Traffic increased in all of the company’s divisions, driving the strong quarter, the retailer said. 

TJX Cos. has been able to offer a wider assortment of premium merchandise because so many of its suppliers, which tend to be full-price, high-end retailers, have been dealing with bloated inventories and offloading more of their stock than usual. 

“The third quarter is off to a very strong start and we are seeing tremendous off-price buying opportunities in the marketplace,” TJX Cos. CEO Ernie Herrman said in a news release. “Going forward, we continue to see excellent opportunities to grow sales and customer traffic, capture market share, and drive the profitability of our Company.”

The home goods sector has been under pressure recently after consumers shelled out to upgrade living spaces during the Covid pandemic and then switched their spending toward experiences and services. Even so, TJX’s HomeGoods posted a 4% comparable sales increase as consumers still sought out home decor, throw pillows and other furnishings.

Meanwhile, Target reported fiscal second-quarter earnings on Wednesday and is continuing to see a pullback in spending on discretionary items like clothes and home decor. It slashed its full-year forecast and said consumers still face pressure from high inflation in food, beverages and household essentials.

Tuohy Household Lawyer Slams Michael Oher’s Lawsuit as “Shakedown Effort”

Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy‘s lawyer is calling a foul on Michael Oher‘s lawsuit.

Marty Singer, who is representing the couple in the case, fired back at the former NFL star’s allegations that the family had lied about adopting him and subsequently made millions from his story, which was the basis of the 2009 movie The Blind Side. Singer argued that his client had “given Mr. Oher an equal cut of every penny received from The Blind Side” and accused the 37-year-old of using the lawsuit as a “shakedown effort” for more cash.

“Anyone with a modicum of common sense can see that the outlandish claims made by Michael Oher about the Tuohy family are hurtful and absurd,” Singer said in a statement to E! News on Aug. 15. “The idea that the Tuohys have ever sought to profit off Mr. Oher is not only offensive, it is transparently ridiculous.”

Saying that the Tuohy’s wealth came from their “hard work and good fortune” in the restaurant business, Singer continued, “The notion that a couple worth hundreds of millions of dollars would connive to withhold a few thousand dollars in profit participation payments from anyone—let alone from someone they loved as a son—defies belief.”

“In reality, the Tuohys opened their home to Mr. Oher, offered him structure, support and, most of all, unconditional love,” he said. “They have consistently treated him like a son and one of their three children.”

Jim Cramer talks about his ‘favourite inventory,’ telling buyers to purchase some

Trump Is Now Publicly Tampering With Georgia Witnesses

Trump told former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan not to testify before the Fulton County grand jury and is tampering with a witness in the investigation.

On Truth Social, Trump wrote (Bold mine):

I am reading reports that failed former Lt. Governor of Georgia, Jeff Duncan, will be testifying before the Fulton County Grand Jury. He shouldn’t. I barely know him but he was, right from the beginning of this Witch Hunt, a nasty disaster for those looking into the Election Fraud that took place in Georgia. He refused having a Special Session to find out what went on, became very unpopular with Republicans (I refused to endorse him!), and fought the TRUTH all the way. A loser, he went to FNCNN!

Trump tampered with 1/6 committee witnesses. Trump tampered with Mueller investigation witnesses. Trump appears to be tampering with the witnesses in the Jack Smith brought indictments, and Trump is suspected of tampering with the witnesses in the New York cases and investigations of him.

Witness tampering is one of the tactics that Trump learned from his father and Roy Cohen.

Trump accuses Choose Tanya Chutkan of bias in federal election case

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as he campaigns at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. August 12, 2023.

Scott Morgan | Reuters

Former President Donald Trump kicked off the week of his expected fourth indictment by railing against the judge overseeing the federal case charging him with illegally conspiring to subvert the 2020 election results.

In a pair of social media posts just after midnight Monday, Trump attacked U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan as “highly partisan” and “very biased & unfair!”

“She obviously wants me behind bars,” Trump wrote on Truth Social at 1:14 a.m. ET.

That post was made in reference to Chutkan’s remarks from an October sentencing hearing for Christine Priola, one of the hundreds of people to face criminal charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

“The people who mobbed that Capitol were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man,” Chutkan said, according to a transcript of the hearing. “It’s a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.”

Trump posted that quote in all caps less than an hour after midnight.

Later Monday morning, Trump vented rage at the prosecutor in Fulton County, Georgia, who is expected to bring her state-level election interference case before a grand jury this week. Trump even targeted former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a potential witness, as “a loser” and said he should not testify before that grand jury.

Numerous legal experts have told CNBC they expect Trump to face a gag order as he continues to inveigh against the constellation of figures related to his expanding legal troubles.

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The Capitol riot, carried out by a violent pro-Trump mob who believed his false claims of a “rigged” election, is central to special counsel Jack Smith’s second federal case against Trump. The former president appeared in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., earlier this month to be arraigned on the four-count indictment accusing him of trying to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden.

Trump’s latest salvo against Chutkan, who has garnered a reputation for giving tough sentences in Jan. 6-related cases, escalated his already aggressive commentary about the criminal proceedings. Trump has previously claimed there is “no way he can get a fair trial” before Chutkan and has said he will seek a new judge and venue for the case.

The most recent posts came three days after she issued a protective order that limited what evidence Trump can share in the election interference case. Chutkan granted a request from Trump’s lawyers for a narrower protective order than what federal prosecutors had proposed, though she gave the Justice Department a say in the specific parameters of the order.

In that hearing, Chutkan warned Trump and his legal team not to post anything that could potentially impact the integrity of the case. “Even arguably ambiguous statements by the parties or their counsel, if they could be reasonably interpreted to intimidate witnesses or to prejudice potential jurors, can threaten the process,” she said.

Trump nevertheless fired off a social media fusillade over the weekend that decried his D.C. case and his other legal troubles.

He shared a post Sunday that included a photo of Chutkan and described her as “an Obama leftwing activist judge in DC, whose husband also got appointed by Obama as a DC judge.”

That post claimed Chutkan “openly admitted she’s running election interference against Trump.” It referenced the judge’s quote from Friday’s protective order hearing that Trump’s presidential campaign cannot take precedence over his criminal case. “If that means he can’t say exactly what he wants to say about witnesses in this case, that’s how it has to be,” she said.

On Friday evening, Trump posted a link to a blog post on a conservative website that promoted the idea of Chutkan’s recusal in the case.

That is America’s most unconsidered workforce, with 80% unable to seek out work

With national labor market data showing that the economy only provides jobs for one out of every five Americans with intellectual and developmental disabilities, the opportunities for those with I/DD in the workforce are clearly lacking. Amy and Ben Wright, co-founders of Bitty and Beau’s Coffee, are entrepreneurs — and parents — making a dent in this disconnect between available labor and market demand, and at a time when employers have struggled to find enough workers to fill all of their open positions.

The Wrights have four children, the youngest two diagnosed with Down syndrome. They opened their coffee franchise, named for these children, to show that a business model can be a success based on hiring the disabled. Bitty & Beau’s has grown to 19 stores and over 400 employees, the majority with disabilities. 

“Any business can take this model of employing at least one person with a disability in their organization,” Ben Wright said during an interview with CNBC’s Sharon Epperson at the Small Business Playbook virtual summit on Wednesday. “What I saw was that when people spent time with our kids, Bitty and Beau, who have Down syndrome, it changed them. They saw them as real people, not just oh, there’s a person with a disability.” 

He stressed that society and the business sector need to reframe their view of people with disabilities, who are, “deserving of the innovation that the business world can bring to bear on them.”

Business owners may also benefit from state and federal tax incentives related to hiring from among the disabled population.

“Above and beyond even the tax credits, I think that there are some intangibles in there. In addition to the tax credits that are available, companies will find that there’s a whole new level of innovation and problem-solving and creativity that will start to creep into a business when they start to have people with I/DD in their four walls,” Ben said.

The numbers have been improving. In 2022, the labor force participation rate (23.1%) and the employment–population ratio (21.3 percent) for disabled workers increased, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those were record levels for this data since the BLS began tracking it in 2008. Unemployment among disabled workers also fell by 2.5 percentage points to 7.6% in 2022. But that is still twice as high as unemployment among the non-disabled. Meanwhile, the employment–population ratio for people with no disability was 65.4% last year (the BLS notes that a disabled population that skews older relative to the non-disabled population is one contributing factor in this gap).

Although the Wrights find the recent improvements encouraging, they say there’s still a long way to go. 

The first Bitty and Beau’s Coffee opened in 2016, in Amy’s hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina, after she quit her job at another one of her ventures — a theater program for kids. Ben left his job in 2020, after working at a financial advisory firm he founded in 2013, to work on the Bitty and Beau’s franchise full-time. Bitty and Beau’s is operational in 11 states with a majority of its 19 locations across the South, Southwest, Midwest and Northeast. 

Bitty and Beau’s Coffee staff celebrate the grand opening of a new location.

Bitty and Beau’s Coffee

At the CNBC small business event, the Wrights provided some starting advice for employers on how to be more inclusive in hiring. 

Start a conversation at your company.

Amy said it is as simple as an owner saying, “this matters to us.”

Spreading the message will have an impact on employees, she says, and sets an example for other businesses in your community by demonstrating that you prioritize it.

She noted that with one in five people having a disability in the U.S., employees are likely to have relatives and friends that would be interested in employment. That could be a “great starting point,” she said.

Identify the best positions for workers with disabilities.

Once business leaders recognize people with I/DD are deserving of employment, they should find the right positions for these employees within their organizations, Ben said.

“Figure out what they can do and what ways you can innovate around them so that you can be successful,” Ben said, adding that in the Wrights experience, it is not always the first job that a disabled worker starts with that ends up being the best job for them.

Amy noted that even though the majority of its workers are disabled, the company employs non-disabled workers who are a key support network for the entire workforce.

Companies that get this right will prove that hiring workers with I/DD can become “a winning competitive advantage for your company,” he said. 

Choose the right language for job postings.

While it is illegal in the U.S. to discriminate against disabled job candidates, Epperson noted during the interview that the top of a Bitty and Beau’s job description for a food service worker position at their D.C. location stated: “Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.”

That was notable because the language came before listing the job responsibilities.

Amy stressed the importance of such language for other businesses to highlight prominently. If someone would like to start working and “learn something new, we give you a chance and we figure out how we can make accommodations to set you up for success,” she said. “That’s truly how every business should look at it.” 

Hiring untapped talent: Hiring workers with a disability