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UPDATE: There is a new startups.stackexchange.com site now in public beta. Please see the details in the corresponding answer below.

Original post:

OnStartups is going to be closed next week. That's unfortunate (IMHO...), as I've enjoyed helping people there, mostly (not surprisingly) on US-related tax questions, but also occasionally on immigration - another topic I have a lot of knowledge about.

While immigration is not really interesting in the context of PF&M, taxes on small business and entrepreneurs is. I suggest we adjust PF&M on-topic list accordingly, to allow people who want to start a small business or a startup to have a place to ask questions, at least from the financial/accounting/tax perspective, if not legal or technical.

What say thee?

Mod Edit: The help has been clarified.

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    An interesting question at an interesting time. While I ponder my answer, one big thing to think about is our pending graduation. Is a shifting focus here going to affect our steady growth and traffic?
    – MrChrister
    Nov 9, 2013 at 6:41
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    I wouldn't describe it as "shifting focus", but rather widening the focus slightly... We already allow small business and self-employed questions here, what is the difference when talking about entrepreneurs?
    – littleadv
    Nov 9, 2013 at 7:48
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    What about people asking about venture capital to fund their entrepreneurial venture? While that is a financial topic, it seems to stray far from personal finance. And then, how about corporate taxation of a larger business? Where do you draw the line? While it's unfortunate that OnStartups is going away, I'd be concerned about widening the scope here too much. Could you be more specific about the kinds of questions that you're proposing might become on-topic?
    – Chris W. Rea
    Nov 9, 2013 at 17:22
  • @ChrisW.Rea I think we can explicitly allow questions about flow-through entities, to a limit that we're talking about a single-person or limited size business. I doubt anyone of us knows about schedule M3 reconciliation, but I'm sure answering simple questions about LLCs and S-Corps and various aspects of kickstarter funding would be helpful.
    – littleadv
    Nov 9, 2013 at 17:29
  • If an existing multi-employee small business owner were to ask a question about how his business is taxed, would that be on- or off-topic? Would it be off-topic because he's no longer starting the business?
    – Chris W. Rea
    Nov 9, 2013 at 17:31
  • @ChrisW.Rea for the sake of the argument I'd say it would be off topic. Starting a business is more personal than running a business. Flow-through entities end up on your personal tax return, however, so an existing flow-through business is a borderline thing - depending on the question itself.
    – littleadv
    Nov 9, 2013 at 17:38
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    I'm OK with this, as long as there is a firm dividing line of which sorts of businesses. Sole proprietorships and filing quarterly estimated tax seems reasonable. What about payroll tax or setting up an LLC?
    – C. Ross
    Nov 9, 2013 at 21:34
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    @C.Ross payroll tax should definitely be off topic, nothing personal there. LLC? I asked questions about LLC on this site before, LLC by itself should not be off topic. Many people use LLC for liability protection, not for business (I use it for my rentals).
    – littleadv
    Nov 10, 2013 at 0:14
  • @littleadv I think an answer should be written to attempt to draw the line, but I'm afraid I don't have the expertise to do it.
    – C. Ross
    Nov 10, 2013 at 2:16
  • @C.Ross I'll give it a try
    – littleadv
    Nov 10, 2013 at 2:59

2 Answers 2

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It's too bad onstartups is closing ...

I guess we can allow question on taxation on small business. At times we do have and answer questions on Sole Proprietorship ...

The only question we need to ask is "Do we have enough expertise in small business" if not then we would have a bunch of question that are unanswered, this can be bad for the site as people would come and see there question are not getting answered ...

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    Do we have enough expertise, OR can we attract the small business experts from the closing site that mesh with our proposed new purpose?
    – MrChrister
    Nov 15, 2013 at 18:16
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Although OnStatups is gone, a new startups.stackexchange.com site is now in public beta, after having gathered sufficient momentum in the Area 51 community-driven site creation process and the subsequent private beta.

Quoting Startups SE - Advancing To Public Beta:

Startups SE now has as long as it takes to work through the public beta phase, provided that the site doesn't become a deserted ghost town of run-down buildings full of broken windows. Put simply, unless we see the site overrun with extremely poor quality questions and spam, and no one doing anything about it, you've got a site.

We feel that this community has the best shot of any to make a much better place on the Internet for folks starting a new business to get good answers to their questions from people that have real experience, and that's what we're all about.

[...]

Here are a few popular questions on the beta site:

If you are interested in the subject, check it out.

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