Hi.

My name is Phyllis Grimes and I work for the IRS.

I'm the Director of Communications for the Small Business and Self-Employed Division.

I have some information that I'd like to share with you.

We have a lot of information on our website that really is important to the small business community.

Let me start by giving you the address to our website.

It's irs.gov/smallbiz.

That's b-i-z.

We want the small business owner to know that the IRS is here to help.

On our website you will find so much information that will be relevant to you whether you are starting your business, growing your business or just helping your business to manage and thrive.

Here are a couple of things that you'll find on that website.

First you'll find a link to several videos and webinars that we have put on there to help you understand several components of your tax obligations.

These webinars are specifically geared to provide information to you, the small business owner, about a variety of topics.

Click through all the various topics and take a look at some of these webinars.

These webinars are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

So they're available when you are available.

In addition to our videos and webinars we also have a tax calendar.

This is a great tool for you to download straight onto your computer, download onto your laptop, so that you can receive reminders about important due dates and know what's coming as not only your business unfolds but as the months unfold.

In addition to that we have an opportunity for you to sign up for electronic newsletters.

We have what we call e-news for small businesses and e-news for payroll providers.

So you know you may not always think to go onto the IRS website but by signing up for these electronic newsletters information can be delivered directly to you as it becomes available.

It will come straight into your email box and it comes from a trusted source: the IRS.

You know, there is so much information that's out there, it really is hard to really understand what you need to know and what might be nice to know.

And I think the website will give you an opportunity to click on the information that's most relevant to you, that's most important to you.

In addition it's really important that you, as a small business owner, keep up with the deductions and credits that are available to you.

Particularly this year, we've had two important deductions and credits that I'd like to talk about.

First with our small business healthcare tax credit; this is an opportunity for the small business owner to afford insurance coverage for their employees either for their first time or to continue to offer insurance coverage.

In addition we have a new deduction that is important for small business owners to know.

In the past, as small business owners acquired assets, they were required to depreciate those assets over many, many years.

With 2011 there is an opportunity for small business owners to acquire assets and be able to deduct right in the same particular year.

That really is important but is only useful if small business owners know about it and can take full advantage of it.

Those are just two deductions and credits that I wanted to talk about but there are so many more.

So again I have to direct you back to our website, irs.gov/smallbiz, so that you can really understand all the deductions and credits that are available to you.

And believe it or not, the IRS is on YouTube and we're on Twitter.

So follow us there as well.

We provide short bursts of information because we know your time is important but it does give you the information that you need to stay current and to stay connected.

Lastly I'll mention for our website, we have a small business tax workshop.

You know in years past, if you needed to go to a workshop you had to leave your office, attend the workshop perhaps all day, taking time away from you running your business.

Our small business tax workshop is available online and you can take a segment or two as it's available to you when you have the time.

You may want to find out about recordkeeping.

You may need to figure out if you're starting your business how, what your status is in terms of being a sole proprietor or a partnership.

We have all of that information available to you and it can be accessed anywhere, at any time.

So again please make sure that you understand that the IRS is here to help you and we want your business to succeed.

Visit us at irs.gov/smallbiz so we can help you in this endeavor.

Good luck.