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Washington Watch
May 28, 2003
Stimulus Package Passed;
Will Spur Micro-Business Growth
The
House of Representatives and
Senate passed an economic stimulus package (H.R.
2) last week that had been debated in Congress for
several months. Two provisions in the package passed
will spur growth among the self-employed and
entrepreneurs as key drivers of jobs and innovations
in the marketplace.
“Increasing the amount of equipment a micro-business
owner can expense, and accelerating the individual
income tax rate reductions frees up capital that the
self-employed and micro-business owners can reinvest
in their businesses,” said Robert Hughes, NASE
president.
The $350 billion tax cut plan provides for an increase
in the amount small businesses can expense for
equipment purchases from the current $25,000 to
$100,000, and accelerates the depreciation timetable
for equipment such as computers and software. The
accelerated reduction in individual income tax rates
is retroactive to the beginning of 2003, with workers
seeing an increase in their take-home pay starting
July 1. Both provisions will end in a few years.
“Nearly 18 million Americans are self-employed or own
a business with ten or less employees,” Hughes said.
“Yet despite their small size, entrepreneurial firms
have leveraged flexibility and entrepreneurship to
ignite one of the most remarkable eras of innovation
and expansion in our nation’s history. With these tax
provisions, micro-businesses can marshal their
resources and grow the American economy by doing what
they do best - create, produce, build and grow.”
The stimulus package’s small-business expensing
provision was part of a priority plan that the NASE
proposed to Congress earlier this year. The NASE plan
focused on measures that would spur micro-business
growth.
“Micro-businesses have been pillars of innovation,
integrity and reliability, fueling much of what is
great about America,” said Hughes. “I am glad this
stimulus package recognizes and rewards their
contribution. But, I urge Congress to contemplate the
immeasurable role micro- businesses play in the
creation of jobs and in the ideas that are inherent to
a growing economy, and make the small business
provisions permanent.”
The stimulus package, which now heads to President
Bush to sign into law, also includes a capital gains
tax reduction, and accelerates the expansion of the
child tax credit and elimination of the “marriage
penalty.”
NASE Women’s Advisory Council Chosen
The NASE Women’s Advisory Council has been chosen from dozens
of member applications, setting in motion the Association’s
women’s initiative. Active NASE members and micro-business
owners comprise the Advisory Council, and are tasked with
providing feedback and ideas on how the NASE can meet the unique
challenges facing women entrepreneurs today. The ten women
entrepreneurs come from a range of backgrounds, experience
levels and areas of the country. Congratulations to:
- Dara Michael of Southfield, Michigan
- Allison Wiley of Boca Raton, Florida
- Carol Knight of Advance, North Carolina
- Vicki Simmons of Sugarland, Texas
- Anne Alberg of Kirkland, Washington
- Lee Auerbach of Sudbury, Massachusetts
- Angela DiBiaso of Slatington,
Pennsylvania
- Cynthia Cagle of Dallas, Texas
- Susan Waldman of Arlington, Virginia
- Shonda Parker of Monroe, Louisiana
- Judy Hoberman of Shelton, Connecticut
- Cheryl Maloney of Fremont, California
House Subcommittee Votes to Extend Moratorium on
Internet Tax
The
House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative
Law last week passed a bill that would permanently extend
the moratorium on Internet access taxes, the double taxation of
Internet purchases, and on discriminatory Internet taxes, or
taxes that treat Internet purchases differently than purchases
elsewhere.
H.R. 49, the Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act, now heads
to the full
Judiciary Committee and the House floor, where it is
expected to pass both easily.
H.R. 49 is likely to face a more difficult time in the
Senate,
however, where Senators want to give fiscally struggling states
the ability to collect billions of dollars in taxes on Internet
purchases.
The moratorium on taxing Internet sales was first issued by
Congress in 1998, and then extended in 2001. The moratorium is
set to expire November 1, 2003, unless extended or made
permanent by Congress.
The NASE encourages the development of e-commerce by keeping the
Internet and telecommunications as tax-free as possible. Taxing
the Internet and goods sold over the Internet will add to the
imbalance micro-businesses face on an already unequal playing
field. Tell your Senators and Representatives that this issue is
important to you at the NASE
Legislative Action
Center.
NASE Launches National
Opinion Survey: Micro-Business and the Economy
How do you feel about the tax cut stimulus package passed by
Congress last week? The NASE is conducting a national survey to
gauge your opinions about the economy and how you think the tax
cuts as the core of President Bush's economic stimulus plan will
affect your business and other micro-enterprises. Poll findings
-- to be released in early June -- will feature attitudinal
trends among a randomly selected sample of NASE members. Look
for results to be posted in Washington Watch soon.
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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