08/15/2000
The NFIB Legal Foundation took its battle for tax simplification to the courts Monday, filing a brief in support of overturning a U.S. Tax Court decision that would force small businesses to run through a confusing maze of tax calculations, as opposed to taking a simpler, more direct route.
The NFIB Legal Foundation joined the American Trucking Associations, Inc., in filing the amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief in the appeal of U.S. Freightways, Inc., v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue. Specifically, the case affects the ability of many small businesses to expense costs such as annual permits and licensing fees, forcing them instead to take the more complex and costly route of capitalization and depreciation.
Expensing allows small businesses to simplify their tax calculations and to expand and create more new jobs by increasing their cash flow. In contrast, the long and complex depreciation tables encouraged by the Tax Court decision add to the already-burdensome regulatory costs of small business owners.
NFIB has a long history of fighting to simplify the tax code for small business and to allow wider use of expensing, said NFIB Legal Foundation Executive Director Tom Sullivan. This brief expands NFIB's tax-simplification battle from the legislative and regulatory fronts into the judicial system.
NFIB represents more than 7,000 small trucking businesses across America. Sullivan points out that the precedent set in the current case would have an impact far beyond the trucking community, though.
Expensing is a huge issue for hundreds of thousands of small business owners, ranging from small high-tech start-ups to those in the construction business, Sullivan said. We're fighting on behalf of all of those small businesses."
CONTACT: Michelle Dimarob, (202) 554-9000
