Small Business Week: May 25, 2010

In honor of small business week, I'd like to recognize the small businesses in the State of Wisconsin and thank them for the role they play in our local communities. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy.  They are generating 65 percent of jobs, serve as important anchors in our towns and villages, and are vital to our economic recovery. I will continue working to provide the resources our small businesses need to weather this economic climate and drive dollars back into our local economies.

To make it easier for small businesses to offer retirement plans for their employees, I authored the Small Businesses Add Value for Employees (SAVE) Act of 2010. This legislation provides incentives for small businesses to start SIMPLE IRA and 401(k) retirement plans for their employees, providing more flexibility and reducing administrative burdens.  I've also co-sponsored the Home Office Tax Deduction Simplification Act (H.R. 3615) to significantly minimize the paperwork and time spent on tax preparation for entrepreneurs managing their business out of their home.

The Small Business and Infrastructure Jobs Tax Act of 2010, passed by the House of Representatives in March, includes numerous provisions focused on helping to create an environment for small business growth. The bill improves the terms of Small Business Administration (SBA) loan guarantees to help free up credit for small businesses, increases the start-up deduction for small business start-up expenditures, extends the ability for small businesses to receive reduced taxes on gains on small business stock – which helps increase investment in small businesses, and eliminates an unfair tax penalty negatively impacting small businesses. The bill also extends Build America Bonds which help state and local governments stretch their dollars further.

To provide small businesses and family farms the same access to quality, affordable health care coverage, comprehensive health care reform was made law in March of this year.  Beginning in 2014, the bill creates state-based Health Insurance Exchanges, based on legislation I authored called the SHOP Act, to make health insurance affordable and accessible for small businesses and the self-employed. The bill also provides $40 billion in tax credits for small businesses to help them offer employee coverage, beginning immediately in 2010. Approximately 15,700 small businesses in western Wisconsin will be able to afford coverage with the help of these tax credits. To learn more about health care for small businesses, the tax credits, or for the tax credit calculator, click here. 

Small businesses and family farms also benefit from the Recovery Act. The Recovery Act spurs investments in small businesses by cutting the capital gains tax on investors in small businesses who buy stock (in the next two years) and hold it for more than five years. The Act also extends enhanced small business expensing, which doubles the amount small businesses can immediately write off their taxes for capital investments and purchases of new equipment made in 2009 from $125,000 to $250,000 and increases cash flow by providing a 5-year carryback of 2008 net operating losses for small businesses.

This legislation is a good start, but we still have steps to take to help provide our small businesses every resource possible for economic growth and stability. I am committed to working on behalf of small businesses not only in western Wisconsin but across the country.

For more information or if you are a small business that needs assistance you can call:

My office: (888) 442-8040

Small Business Administration Wisconsin Office: (608) 441-5541  

Small Business Development Center (608) 263-7794

Wisconsin Rural Development: (715) 345-7615