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Washington Watch
July 16, 2003
NASE Meets New IRS
Commissioner
The NASE met with new IRS Commissioner
Mark W. Everson last week, and heard his ideas and
concerns for helping micro-businesses and the
self-employed meet their tax responsibilities. Everson
spoke at an IRS Small Business Forum, a semi-monthly
gathering of
IRS
and small business representatives that analyze the
tax code and its effect on the self-employed and
micro-businesses.
Everson was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in May, and
detailed three themes that he will focus on as
commissioner:
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reinforce and realign the agency around the taxpayer
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continue with IT modernization and fair enforcement of
the tax code
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work more closely with organizations like the NASE
"We can have lots of arguments about how the tax code
should look," Everson said. "But at the end of the
day, it is up to the IRS to fairly enforce it. And, we
can only do that with your help."
The NASE looks forward to working with Commissioner
Everson, and forwarding him your concerns about the
tax burden.
Tell us your tax
story
Senate
Committee Reauthorizes SBA During 50th Anniversary Year
The
Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
voted unanimously last week to reauthorize programs of the
U.S. Small
Business Administration for three more years.
S. 1375, the Small Business Administration 50th
Anniversary Act of 2003, is aimed at increasing
entrepreneurs' access to capital and discouraging contract
bundling by the federal government.
"This is an historic day, not only because we will be
reauthorizing the SBA and its programs for the next three
years, but because the SBA is marking a full, half century
of helping to create, assist, and guide small businesses,"
said Olympia Snowe (R-ME), chair of the committee. "The
future of our country is inextricably tied to the future of
small business - and by enhancing the conditions that
support small business, we will ensure a more prosperous
future for all."
Besides improving the credit and venture capital resources
for small enterprises through the 7(a) 504 and Microloan
programs, Small Business Investment Corporations, New
Markets Venture Capital and Surety Bond programs, S. 1375
also contains provisions to improve the SBA's procedures for
overseeing lenders participating in SBA credit programs.
It also incorporates provisions of Senator Snowe's bill, the
Women's Small Business Improvement Act of 2003 (S.
1154), to strengthen the
SBA's Office of Women's Business Ownership, the
Women's Business Centers program, the
National
Women's Business Council, and the Interagency Committee
on Women's Business Enterprise.
NWBC Conference Call: "Mentoring in the Business
Environment"
The next conference call in the
National Women’s
Business Council’s ongoing program, “Women’s Business
Connection,” will focus on peer-to-peer networking,
mentor-protégée and entrepreneurial training programs.
Guest speakers on the call include Dr. Marsha Firestone, founder
and president of the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO), an
organization currently operating nationwide and in Canada for
women whose businesses annually gross over two million dollars
and promotes peer-to-peer networking; Wilma Goldstein, assistant
administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s
Office of Women’s Business Ownership, which offers the Women’s
Network for Entrepreneurial Training (WNET) mentoring program
across the country; and Agnes Noonan, a board member of the
Association of Women’s Business Centers which provides services
offering guidance, advice, and training to new women
entrepreneurs.
To join this call - which will be held on Tuesday, July 22, 2003
at 3:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time – call toll-free
1-877-326-2337, and enter code #3687613. For further
information, contact Lindi Harvey, NWBC Director of Program
Outreach at (202) 205-6829 or by email at
Lindi.Harvey@sba.gov.
Do any of these issues affect you? Visit the NASE Legislative
Action Center and “Tell Your
Small Business Story.” This will help the NASE understand -
on a personal level - how key legislative issues are affecting
your business and your bottom line.
For more information about any of the articles in
Washington Watch, contact Maureen Petron, NASE public
affairs manager, at (202) 466-2100 or
mpetron@nase.org.
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