What changes should small businesses be aware of for 2025?

For small businesses, the biggest change in the new year will be the arrival of a presumably more business-friendly administration in Washington. Among them: changes to state-level overtime and minimum wage rules, the delayed federal FinCEN registration, taxes on payments from third-party providers like Venmo and PayPal, and anything that might affect inflation, including tariffs. “What we’ve seen for the past two-and-a-half years is that inflation is the top concern for small business,” said Tom Sullivan, vice president of small business policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “As minimum wage rates rise, it adds to the financial pressures of running a business, especially in the face of fluctuating material costs and competitive pricing.” FINCEN REGISTRATION A rule that would require millions of small businesses to register with an agency called the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, by Jan. 1 is currently temporarily blocked in court. PAYMENT APP TAXES Another regulation that has been on small businesses’ radar for several years is taxes on payments via third-party apps like PayPal, Cash App, Venmo and similar platforms.