Posted by Sung Yoo - President Obama has outlined a plan in yesterday’s speech that offers positive benefits for small-business owners. These include tax cuts for small businesses that hire new workers or raise worker’s wages, 50% lower payroll taxes in the next year, faster payment for small businesses that contract with the federal government and the reduction of red tape that prevents startups from raising capital and going public. A full transcript of the address can be found here.

Though details of the American Jobs Act - as President Obama’s plan is called - are still forthcoming, the speech unfortunately did not outline any specific plans for self-employed individuals. The self-employed should be given all the same tax cuts and regulatory reforms larger companies can take advantage of.

“Being so small means the self-employed often rely on credit or micro-loans to keep their businesses afloat,” said Kristie L. Arslan, President and CEO of the NASE, in an open letter to the President and Congress. “They have watched with envy as large businesses and corporations have benefited from stimulus spending and lucrative bailouts. There was little to nothing in those efforts to help very small businesses jump-start the economy.

“Today’s small business could be tomorrow’s major employer, and even if they choose to stay small, increased entrepreneurship will help foster innovation, create jobs and bring in additional revenue,” Arslan continued. “Help the small-business community fuel the economy with long-term policies, not just short-term fixes."

Though the NASE applauds the president's efforts to spur economic growth, we urge him and Congress to put words into action now. No longer is it enough to simply pay lip service to our nation's smallest businesses - it is time to come up with concrete actions that can go a long way towards helping the self-employed stay afloat and prosper. One thing the president and Congress can do now: Give the country's smallest businesses payroll tax relief, and make it last. The self-employed should not have to pay both employer and employee payroll taxes.

Obama’s proposal, which included calls for infrastructure improvements and the hiring of new teachers, has been met with surprising cordiality from House Republican leaders. Speaker John A. Boehner said the plan merits “consideration,” while House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said via tweet the president’s plan has policies that both sides can work on. The president plans to unveil more details about the proposal in the coming weeks, and it remains to be seen how Congress will react.

Please feel free to comment below or reach us via Twitter or Facebook with your views on President Obama's new job plan and what the administration can do better to help the self-employed. We look forward to hearing from you!

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Comments 3

T.P. 09 Sep
The self-employed are continuing to be left out of nearly every form of assistance that has been provided since the economic downturn began. If a self-employed individual takes the business loss and loss carry deductions they are entitled to, they likely cannot get approved for a mortgage re-fi under HAMP or any other program although their mortgage may be underwater and due to reset despite that the economic downturn has limited their earnings significantly.

So, while all the homeowners around the self-employed homeowner may qualify to re-fi, the self-employed person is stuck . . . they cannot re-fi and they cannot sell for what their home is worth.

Then comes health insurance. Unless a sick or disabled person who needs constant medicine or continuing medical treatment is willing to do without these for 6 months, they are not eligible to obtain health coverage through one of the insurance exchanges. If you make more than $990 a month, you make to much for Medicaid if under age 65. Yet if you have a serious pre-existing medical condition, you cannot get non-group health coverage at any cost.

The self-employed entrpreneur is the backbone of small business and hence the economy in the U.S. You start out as a self-employed entrepreneur but have the opportunity to become the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, employing tensof thousands worldwide. But you need to be able to get there . . .

If you are worried about how to pay your mortgage after it resets (when you had planned to sell before it ever got the point which ran afoul went the mortgage went underwater) ... and if you are worried about how to pay for vital medicines and necessary continuing medical treatments because you can't get health coverage . . . how can you focus on building your business?

The mortgage companies, banks, automakers and Wall street got bail-outs which did not translate to benefits for the self-employed homeowner. In fact, at taxpayer expense (including taxes paid by the self-employed), millions were squandered on lavish vacations and mega-bonuses.

We need NASE to lobby hard for the self-employed--but not just regarding payroll taxes which will not benefit those with no employees operating a a loss due to the economy.

We urgently need a MORTGAGE MORATORIUM as they have in Great Britain, Spain and several other countries. By granting a 1-3 year mortgage moratorium, based on verifiable circumstances such as critical illness in the family, etc., the self-employed person will have cash flow to invest in their business (such as stepping up marketing), to rebuild savings accounts, to amass re-fi downpayment costs, to wait out a real estate market turnaround so they can get out of mortgages they can no longer avoid by selling (you cannot short-sell if you did a re-fi in our state without personally owing the deficit). No one gets hurt as the government guarantees the loan and the mortgage holder gets paid as payments resume at the end of the moratorium or on the back end. This would help entire neighborhoods and cities to come back from the mortgage crisis.

Those who were laid of when their companies were impacted by the downturn have gotten numerous extensions on unemployment benefits while the self-employed whose businesses have been impacted are ineligible.

All many self-employed who have been affected can do is wait for their houses to foreclose, their health to decline due to not being able to afford needed ongoing medical treatment, etc.

Is NASE speaking up regarding these specific issues? Is the President aware that extended jobless benefits, HAMP and the insurance exchanges do nothing to help the self-employed who can't meet the eligibility requirements? Especially now when so many of the jobless have joined the ranks of theself employed!
Sung 15 Sep
Hi T.P.,

Thank you so much for your comment. Please do not hesitate to contact the Advocacy team at advocacy@nase.org with more of your ideas.
mario 15 Sep
Hi, i'm a SBO and am interested some day to receive help to get these to items accomplished soon or raise funds for AAA Engineering Consulting Firm to Foster Paragraph 3 of this article. Till then have a Nice Day...