SBCA Goals
Working to bring certainty in the estate tax area for small business owners. We have testified before several committees in the House and the Senate setting forth the reforms needed in the estate tax system; specifically increasing the estate tax exemption to $3.5 million immediately and gradually increasing it to $5 million, reuniting the gift and estate tax systems, maintaining the current step up in basis and creating a new exemption for up to $1 million in retirement plan assets Working for more favorable tax treatment for retirement plans by reducing complexity and maintaining tax incentives - including making the automatic enrollment safe harbor provisions more workable for small business and allowing small businesses to sponsor employee pay all 401(k) plans without triggering the application of the unfair top-heavy rules aimed exclusively at small businesses Working to make tax penalties and IRS oversight more reasonable - the enactment of an expansion of the tax preparer and tax shelter reporting penalties and their enforcement have become onerous and at times, unconscionable in application, with the IRS being judge and jury without taxpayer rights. We are educating the Congress as to these IRS enforcement programs and seeking a more reasonable approach to these concerns. Supporting the Small Business Cafeteria Plan - S. 555 - which will provide new rules for Cafeteria Plans so that these employee benefit plans that are appreciated by employees will be available for small businesses and their owners. By doing so, the cost of health care for the employees of the small business will be reduced. Working to fix the AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax). Actively participating in the Congressional debate on how to solve the Medicare and health care crisis. The SBCA understands that the pressure due to the price fixing inherent in our Medicare system, combined with the better rates obtained by big business and the free coverage given to some of the uninsured have caused small businesses to pay way more than their fair share for health insurance coverage. We are committed to making sure that our country will have access to quality medical health care. We are fortunate to have many of the leading experts in the country on health care issues and how they affect small business. Working to exempt small businesses from the absurdly complicated Internal Revenue Code Section 409A that now treats many small business standard operational agreements as "non-qualified deferred compensation agreements" (which they are not...). The amount of $$ and time that will be expended by small businesses to comply with this code section is unconscionable. A good code section for the "real" non-qualified deferred compensation agreements used by the top execs at big business is almost nonsensical when applied to the small business world. Watching to make sure that changes are not made to the tax code that can adversely affect small businesses such as the national sales tax plan euphemistically referred to as the "Fair Tax." Working for repeal of unfair burdens and tax rates on professional service corporations Working to fight new federal and state bureaucracies and taxes on small businesses

SBCA Goals

Working to bring certainty in the estate tax area for small business owners. We have testified before several committees in the House and the Senate setting forth the reforms needed in the estate tax system; specifically increasing the estate tax exemption to $3.5 million immediately and gradually increasing it to $5 million, reuniting the gift and estate tax systems, maintaining the current step up in basis and creating a new exemption for up to $1 million in retirement plan assets

Working for more favorable tax treatment for retirement plans by reducing complexity and maintaining tax incentives - including making the automatic enrollment safe harbor provisions more workable for small business and allowing small businesses to sponsor employee pay all 401(k) plans without triggering the application of the unfair top-heavy rules aimed exclusively at small businesses

Working to make tax penalties and IRS oversight more reasonable - the enactment of an expansion of the tax preparer and tax shelter reporting penalties and their enforcement have become onerous and at times, unconscionable in application, with the IRS being judge and jury without taxpayer rights. We are educating the Congress as to these IRS enforcement programs and seeking a more reasonable approach to these concerns.

Supporting the Small Business Cafeteria Plan - S. 555 - which will provide new rules for Cafeteria Plans so that these employee benefit plans that are appreciated by employees will be available for small businesses and their owners. By doing so, the cost of health care for the employees of the small business will be reduced.
Working to fix the AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax).
Actively participating in the Congressional debate on how to solve the Medicare and health care crisis. The SBCA understands that the pressure due to the price fixing inherent in our Medicare system, combined with the better rates obtained by big business and the free coverage given to some of the uninsured have caused small businesses to pay way more than their fair share for health insurance coverage. We are committed to making sure that our country will have access to quality medical health care. We are fortunate to have many of the leading experts in the country on health care issues and how they affect small business.
Working to exempt small businesses from the absurdly complicated Internal Revenue Code Section 409A that now treats many small business standard operational agreements as "non-qualified deferred compensation agreements" (which they are not...). The amount of $$ and time that will be expended by small businesses to comply with this code section is unconscionable. A good code section for the "real" non-qualified deferred compensation agreements used by the top execs at big business is almost nonsensical when applied to the small business world.
Watching to make sure that changes are not made to the tax code that can adversely affect small businesses such as the national sales tax plan euphemistically referred to as the "Fair Tax."
Working for repeal of unfair burdens and tax rates on professional service corporations
Working to fight new federal and state bureaucracies and taxes on small businesses