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NFIB: Winning Victories and Overcoming Challenges for Small Business

VICTORIES

  • • Repealed Onerous IRS 1099 Mandate!
    Protected small business owners from paying for healthcare law through what some estimates predicted would be a 1,200% increase in tax filings and paperwork. 
  • • Won Court Challenge Against Individual Mandates!
    NFIB’s legal team was victorious in the initial legal challenge to the federal healthcare law; NFIB’s Small Business Legal Center plans to take this issue all the way to the Supreme Court.
  • • Extended 2001 Tax Cuts Through 2012!
    Prevented an increase in individual and small business tax rates that would have nearly doubled federal income taxes on someone earning $50,000 from 15% to 28% and increase the top two brackets to 36% and 39.6%; Capital Gains Taxes would have increased from 15% to at least 20%; the Estate (Death) Tax would have increased from 35% to 55% and the exemption dropped from $5 million to $1 million.
  • • Extended & Expanded Small Business Expensing!
    Fought to increase the equipment expensing allowance to $500,000, up from $250,000 and expanded it to include up to $250,000 on real property improvements for restaurants, retailers and leasehold property owners.
  • • Defeated Construction Healthcare Mandate!
    Successfully shielded small construction firms from being singled out in the federal healthcare law.
  • • Simplified Deduction of Cell Phones!
    Worked to simplify the deduction of cell phones by allowing a business owner to deduct the full amount of each monthly bill rather than having to go line-by-line to track each call and determine if it’s deductible.
  • • Protected Family Farms from "Spilled Milk" Regulations!
    A few years ago the EPA finalized an oil spill rule that qualified spilled milk in the same manner as gasoline. This burdensome and costly regulation would have affected our nation's dairy farmers and anyone who buys milk at the supermarket. After NFIB relayed the concerns of dairy farmers, the agency agreed to exempt milk containers from the initial rule.
     

CHALLENGES

  • • Repeal New Federal Healthcare Law
    NFIB is leading both constitutional and legislative challenges to the 2010 federal healthcare law; we’re the only business organization that is fighting for small business on this issue in both the courts and in Congress; a victory on this issue will help prevent the hiring of an estimated 17,000 new IRS agents to regulate the law and save the average family of four what’s estimated will be an extra $500 per year ($5,000 over 10 years) in additional compliance costs.
  • • Small Business Healthcare Reform
    NFIB is leading the fight to improve healthcare access and affordability for small business through tax credits, vouchers, portability, medical liability reform and allowing pooling across state lines to increase buying power and put small business on the same playing field as big business.
  • • Permanently Extend 2001 Tax Cuts 
    NFIB is fighting to stop an increase in individual and small business tax rates that would have nearly doubled federal income taxes on someone earning $50k from 15% to 28% taxes on someone earning $50,000 from 15% to 28% and increase the top two brackets to 36% and 39.6%; additionally, Capital Gains Taxes will increase from 15% to at least 20%; the Estate (Death) Tax will increase from 35% to 55% and the exemption dropped from $5 million to $1 million; and Equipment Expensing Allowance will be reduced from $500,000 to $25,000 if the 2001 Tax Cuts aren’t extended.  NFIB continues to fight for permanent tax relief for small business.
  • • Kill Burdensome IRS, EPA, OSHA Regulations
    NFIB is fighting to make regulators more accountable for costs of regulating small business; we’ll continue to fight Cap and Trade (the “Light Switch Tax”) which the EPA is attempting to implement against the will of Congress at an estimated cost of 40% in additional energy costs ($1,300/year in increased energy costs for average homeowners); NFIB is also fighting new EPA proposals on Dust Regulation, Lead Rules and Livestock Taxes; and, attempts by OSHA and the Labor Department to make it easier for workers to tie up employers in costly litigation.


 

 NFIB President Dan Danner appeared on Bloomberg News to discuss the challenges facing small business.