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House Passes Small Business Tax Package — What’s the Next Step?

Real quick, the House just passed its small business tax package (H.R. 976) to accompany the proposed minimum wage increase, 360-45. This action follows a very bipartisan markup last Monday, where the tone of the hearing was a dramatic departure from what we’ve come to expect from Ways and Means meetings. That this comity occurred over a $1 billion package that included no S corporation provisions was a little disconcerting, but it is something we will have to work on.

So what’s the next step? The Senate could take up the House-passed

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2019-02-06T18:46:06+00:00February 16, 2007|

Rangel Ready to Prepare Small Business Tax

Good news for S corporations and other closely-held businesses! Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) indicated yesterday that he plans to put together a package of small business provisions to be coupled with the minimum wage increase that has already passed both the House and the Senate. This announcement reverses the previous position of the House leadership, who had indicated they wanted to send the President a “clean” minimum wage bill. As BNA reports:

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) said Feb. 6 that the House would put together

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2019-02-06T18:46:06+00:00February 7, 2007|

Do S Corporations Pay the Minimum Wage?

Now that the Senate has adopted a package pairing the minimum wage together with provisions to improve S corporation rules, one of the questions our Capitol Hill friends have asked us is, “Do S corporations pay the minimum wage?” The answer is an emphatic yes. While there are no studies to our knowledge that directly track the payment of minimum wages by businesses structured as S corporations (to be sure, there is little economic data on wage levels period), a couple of items demonstrate that S corporations are more likely to be adversely impacted by an increase in the minimum

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2019-02-06T18:46:06+00:00February 2, 2007|

Stimulus Deal Announced

As the news reported over the last couple of days, Administration and House leaders have agreed to a package of temporary tax relief to provide the economy with fiscal stimulus. As reported, the package would reduce revenues by about $150 billion over ten years. The major provisions are:

  • Rebate checks (tied to a temporary cut in the 10% tax bracket) to families – $600 for singles making less than $75,000 and $1,200 for couples earning less than $150,000.
  • Fifty percent bonus depreciation for business investment through the end of 2008.
  • An increase in small business expensing (section 179) from $125,000 to $250,000.
2019-02-06T18:46:06+00:00January 25, 2007|

Minimum Wage & Small Business Tax Package Update

Just a quick update on the status of the $8 billion small business tax package that may accompany the proposed minimum wage increase. The bill is currently the pending business in the Senate. On Monday, Majority Leader Harry Reid filed a petition to close off the debate and pass just the minimum wage increase, without any offsetting small business tax relief. This vote is scheduled to take place momentarily.

The consensus is that Senator Reid doesn’t have the 60 votes necessary to move the minimum wage package without the offsetting business tax relief, and the vote is being characterized as part

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2019-02-06T18:46:06+00:00January 24, 2007|