NASE News

NASE, Micro-Businesses Met With Pres. Obama, Fought For Health Reform

Washington, D.C., December 31, 2009 – The self-employed and micro-business owners continued to plan for business, educational and personal success in 2009. They also became crusaders for health reform and fair tax treatment. During that time, the National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) continued to be a resource for these businesses as they navigated the stormy waters of the nation’s economy with advice on survival and even success.

Created to provide a boost to deserving micro-businesses, the NASE’s Business Development Grant Program continued to flourish and even presented a $30,000 Achievement Award to one member in recognition of the excellent small-business practices she employed to catapult her start-up venture into a successful business. The NASE’s grant program has awarded over $350,000 in grants since 2006.

The NASE also celebrated two decades of helping members send their dependents to college through the NASE Scholarship Program. In 2009, the program helped 18 families send their students to college, in addition to the recipient of the substantial NASE Future Entrepreneur Scholarship. Since the program was started in 1989 as a way to invest in the future of entrepreneurship, over $1.8 million has been awarded to the dependents of NASE Members.

The NASE is happy to help assist micro-business owners in other ways, as well. The NASE has been working with the Obama Administration to make sure that the needs of small-business owners are not forgotten. President Barack Obama discussed with the NASE how the Administration’s economic recovery efforts would benefit entrepreneurs, and at a meeting with the President the NASE made sure to mention that micro-businesses are still facing difficulties getting access to credit and financing while being crippled by health costs. A few NASE Members had the opportunity to visit the White House to listen to President Obama discuss health reform and why it is important to small business, and NASE Members from Allentown, Pa., were invited by the Administration to attend the start of the White House To Main Street tour with President Obama at Lehigh Carbon Community College.

Members of Congress remain in contact with the NASE for information on helping micro-business. In 2009, the NASE spoke up on a number of issues, including the likely impact of various health reform proposals on small-business owners, the need for a reduction in the complexity and amount of tax paperwork, and that certain tax incentives should not be allowed to expire.

Amid the economic stimulus and health care reform bills, some significant pieces of legislation for the self-employed were also introduced in the 111th Congress. The Home Office Deduction Simplification Act, a bill that would make it easier for home businesses to deduct office expenses by offering a $1,500 standard deduction to eligible taxpayers, was introduced in both the House and the Senate. The NASE supported the introduction of the Equity for Our Nation’s Self-Employed Act, legislation in the House that would eliminate an inequity in the tax code that inhibits the self-employed from receiving a full

deduction for health insurance costs, and the introduction of the Tax Equity for the Self-Employed amendment, legislation that would allow sole proprietors to deduct as a business expense 50 percent of their health premium costs, to the health care bill in the Senate.

Following the success of the NASE’s Tax Seminar program in 2007 and 2008, in March the NASE’s National Tax Advisor Keith Hall traveled to seven cities across the country to share micro-business tax strategies and to bring together fellow NASE Members.

The NASE worked to bring more benefits to members with the introduction of two new membership packages as well as the unveiling of the new Tax Resource Center. Formerly known as Tax Central, the Tax Resource Center is a Web page where NASE Members and other small- business owners have access to calculators, planning tools, tax advice from Tax Talk and more to help them with filing tax returns.

Visit the NASE on the Web (www.NASE.org) for more micro-business programs and news, including information on business grants and scholarships. For a list of legislative priorities, click on “Advocacy.”