April 5th was a good day for Businesses across the country explained Kelly Hall, President/CEO of the Longview Chamber of Commerce! By a vote of 87-12, the Senate passed HR 4, a bill that already passed the House that repeals the 1099 reporting provision contained in last year’s health care law. That provision would have required all businesses as of 2012 to report all non-credit card purchases totaling $600 or more with any vendor in a tax year to the
IRS. The 1099 reporting mandate was used as an unrelated “pay for” in the health care reform law.
At a time when they can least afford it, entities will have to institute new complex record-keeping, data collection, and reporting requirements to track every purchase by vendor and payment method. This provision will dramatically increase accounting costs and could expose businesses to costly and unjustified audits by the IRS, the US Chamber noted in a key vote letter sent to members of the Senate ahead of the April 5 vote.
It’s estimated that the new regulation will affect 40 million businesses, of which 26 million are sole proprietorships. The requirement is most threatening to small businesses because they lack the resources to track and manage this type of reporting. Chamber member Brian E. Daugbjerg with Longview Scrap & Metal said, “This has been a massive ordeal and I’ve never called or emails senators before this issue came up 2 years ago. I think chamber members will be pleased to see this.”
The Senate passed its version of the 1099 repeal in February as an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization legislation. However, the two bills contained different provisions on how to pay for the expected $19 billion shortfall. The Senate has agreed to the House version, which would go after overpaid tax subsidies in the health insurance exchanges from families whose income ended up disqualifying them for the subsidies.
The Longview Chamber worked in concert with the US Chamber of Commerce and NFIB to help create widespread grassroots support for full 1099 repeal, sending lawmakers a letter signed by 2,605 organizations and businesses representing all 50 states and employing millions of American workers.
Tuesday’s success in the Senate is an example of how Chambers of Commerce can collectively influence positive change! We will continue to reach out to our members explained Hall and encourage them to utilize http://www.longviewvotes.com/ to share their concerns with elected officials. Today we will be launching an action alert to Congress by asking them to Vote on Measures to Stop EPA Overreach this Week.
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