What Do Hillary Clinton’s New Proposals Mean for Small Business?

Date: August 24, 2016 Last Edit: September 09, 2016

The presidential hopeful’s new plans are a mixed bag for small business owners.

Hillary Clinton wants to make starting a small business “as easy as setting up a lemonade stand in the front yard,” according to CNN Money.

The Democratic presidential nominee unveiled more plans to aid small businesses on Aug. 23, and she took questions about the proposal from entrepreneurs from Michigan and Virginia in a conference call.

Who will truly be the small business president?

“It’s a basket of small ideas that doesn’t match the problem,” says NFIB Media and Communications Director Jack Mozloom. “The tax code is a drag on the economy and it’s especially hard on small businesses.”

Clinton’s plan has six components to it, including a new standard deduction for small businesses previously only available to individual tax filers, tax relief for businesses with $25 million or fewer in gross receipts, and giving small businesses the ability to write-off $1 million in new investments from their taxes, up from the current threshold of $500,000, CNN Money reported.

“This is an agenda we’ve developed in conjunction with small businesses based on what we’ve learned from small businesses,” Clinton’s senior policy adviser Jacob Leibenluft told the Cincinnati Business Courier.

The standard deduction for small businesses has been the aspect of Clinton’s plan garnering a significant amount of attention. (Donald Trump, meanwhile, announced a plan earlier this month that would implement a single business tax rate of 15 percent, regardless of the business’ size.)

“Clinton is the first candidate to propose a standard tax deduction for small businesses that would take away the requirement of documenting each overhead cost such as phones and computers throughout the year,” the Cincinnati Business Courier reported.

Among other proposals in Clinton’s latest plan is offering incentives for states that simplify their business licensing processes and making it easier for entrepreneurs to get a loan from a bank, Bloomberg reported.

“[Small business owners] tell me more dreams die in the parking lots of banks than anywhere in America,” Clinton told Reuters.

Clinton would also expand a healthcare tax credit offered through the Affordable Care Act so businesses with up to 50 employees could benefit from it, according to the plan released by Clinton’s campaign.

“It’s not clear how much Clinton’s proposals would cost or how she would propose paying for them,” CNN Money reported. “Her default solution to pay for new programs and tax breaks has been to tax affluent households.”

*Note: This news coverage does not equate to an endorsement of any candidate by NFIB.

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