Small Business
Modernizing the Tax Law for Small Businesses
On April 10, 2008, the House Small Business Committee held a hearing - “Modernizing the Tax Code: Updating the Internal Revenue Code to Help Small Businesses Stimulate the Economy." The Committee also issued its own report - “Seven Ways to Stimulate the Economy by Updating the Internal Revenue Code." In addition to having witness testimony online in written form, the Committee has videos on YouTube about the hearing. This can all be accessed at this summary of the hearing.
I think the ideas presented by witnesses and in the Committee's report fall into two categories:
- Tweaks to the federal tax law to make compliance and doing business easier for small businesses.
- Changes that reflect the fact that most of the federal tax law was written before we entered our global, interconnected, knowledge-based economy and society and thus is in need of modernization.
Examples of Category 1 suggestions:
COVERAGE: Health Costs Squeezing Small Businesses -- And Their Workers
We've known for years that small companies face a struggle to offer health care to their workers, or pass on more of the costs to the employees. But, with health costs increasing every year, these struggles are even more pronounced. More bad news; the plans they offer are also of a slightly lower quality, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn at Health Populi tells us.
Small companies don't have the bargaining clout of a huge corporation, and with fewer workers, they can't spread the risk as well. Federal legislation to allow them to band together has been stuck for years, victim in part of deep disagreement about the role states should have in regulating insurers or requiring specific benefits. But a new study from the Kauffman-RAND Institute for Entrepreneurship Public Policy (KRI) sheds light on coverage trends among big and small firms between 2000 and 2005.
COVERAGE: Bipartisan Bill Addresses Small Business' Concerns
Left, right and center know that more than 80 percent of small businesses owners say finding affordable health care is a challenge. But lawmakers have been stalemated for years about a solution. Four senators took a bipartisan step forward today offering a bill called SHOP - the Small Business Health Options Program.
Senators Richard Durbin (D-Il), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), and Norm Coleman (R-MN) introduced the latest policy proposal designed to increase access to affordable, quality health insurance for small businesses. Just 59 percent of small businesses offered any health coverage to their workers in 2007, and fewer than half of very small businesses (9 workers or less) did.
Under the Small Business Health Options Program or SHOP:
