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Dear Congress, Please Take It Easy On The Small-Business Owner
| For Immediate Release: | Contact: | Kristin Oberlander
(202) 466-2100
[email protected]
Twitter: koberlander
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Simplified Tax Forms Would Free 60 Hours For Entrepreneurs
Washington, D.C., May 8, 2009 -- A self-employed taxpayer, who files the Form 1040 with corresponding Schedule C,
will spend nearly 60 hours and $440 dollars to complete the return, according to
the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). To help remedy that, the National
Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) spoke with members of Congress today
about how small businesses would benefit from a reduction in the complexity and
amount of their tax paperwork.
Micro-businesses are often bogged down
with complexity of the tax code and tax forms. The NASE's National Tax Advisor
Keith Hall named four steps the federal government could take to help: 1)
the Internal Revenue Service's adoption of more simplified, "plain English"
forms and documentation; 2) the establishment of a standard home office
deduction; 3) clarification of the definition of an independent contractor; and
4) allowing sole proprietors to deduct their health insurance premiums in the
same manner as larger corporations.
"The IRS's Office of Burden
Reduction has implemented many positive changes by making IRS.gov more
accessible to business owners and information much easier to obtain," Hall said.
"We would like to keep that momentum going by asking Congress to approve current
legislation that would simplify the tax code. Two examples would be the creation
of a $1,500 standard home office deduction, and allowing small businesses to
deduct the cost of their health insurance premiums as a business
expense."
In March, President Obama announced that he was establishing a
task force that would raise revenue by narrowing the tax gap, or the difference
between what the I.R.S. collects annually versus what it is owed. In the past,
small business taxpayers have been blamed for a large portion of the tax gap.
Hall urged the committee to consider the effect that any new legislation could
have on the nation's entrepreneurs.
See highlights of Keith Hall's
testimony on YouTube.
Track the progress of current legislation that
would help micro-businesses and the self-employed by visiting advocacy.NASE.org.
About the NASE
The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) is the nation's leading resource for the self-employed and micro-businesses, bringing a broad range of benefits to help entrepreneurs succeed and to drive the continued growth of this vital segment of the American economy. The NASE is a 501(c) (6) nonprofit organization and provides big-business advantages to hundreds of thousands of micro-businesses across the United States. For more information, visit the association's Web site at www.nase.org.
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