Lamar Whitman Posts

As small businesses across the country continue to search for reliable sources of capital, Congress has fallen short of providing real solutions.  While there is no magic bullet that will free up much needed capital, there are some small steps that can be taken immediately to aid in capital formation for some small businesses.  H.R. 1070/S. 1544, the “Small Company Capital Formation Act of 2011” would reduce the filing and compliance burdens for certain small businesses that seek to raise capita ...

The President’s $447 Billion jobs bill, S. 1660, the “American Jobs Act of 2011,” failed to garner the votes needed to move forward.  By a margin of 50-49, the Senate vote fell short of the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster.This jobs bill was made particularly unpopular to most Republicans after Senate leadership changed the funding mechanism to a “millionaire surtax.”  Basically, this millionaire surtax would have required individuals to pay an additional 5.6-percent surtax on incomes in ex ...

The President’s $447 billion jobs bill includes a number of provisions that would benefit small businesses.  This legislation, which was sent to Congress on Monday, would: Provide a 50-percent reduction in payroll taxes for the first $5 million in wages.  Approximately 98 percent of all businesses pay out less than $5 million in wages. Eliminate employer payroll taxes for small businesses that create jobs or give a wage increase from the prior year.   An employer that increases an employee’s wag ...

The President announced new initiatives recommended by the White House Rural Council for creating jobs in rural America.  These initiatives are intended to help rural small businesses access capital, expand rural job search and training services, and increase rural access to healthcare workers and technology.   CompTIA has long-noted similar needs within the small IT community – whether rural or urban.Included in these initiatives are: $350 million in SBA funding over the next five years to ...

Enacted last year, the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 established an “Intermediary Lending Pilot Program” to provide direct loans to non-profit intermediaries for the purpose of making loans to small business.  This pilot program will terminate after three years.  Under this pilot, loans of as high as $1 million will be made to 20 organizations in 2011, and these organizations are required to use this money to make small business loans of as high as $200,000 in mostly underserved markets.This p ...

Both the House and Senate introduced legislation to require sellers to collect and file sales tax returns on all interstate sales.  In the Senate, Sen. Durbin introduced the bill (S. 1452) with co-sponsors Sens. Reed and Johnson.  And in a surprise move in the House, Rep. Conyers introduced a companion bill (H.R. 2701), with co-sponsors Reps. Shuler and Welch.  Although Sen. Durbin had been reported to be searching for a Republican co-sponsor, bi-partisan support did not materialize in either th ...

We have written earlier concerning our opposition to this new withholding requirement.  Enacted into law in 2006, this provision requires all federal, state and local government entities and instrumentalities to withhold three percent of payments made for goods and services.  Initially set to go into effect in 2010, legislative extensions had pushed the effective date to January 1, 2012.  And by regulation, the IRS further extended the enforcement to January 1, 2013.It seems pretty clear that n ...

We continue to see the most significant challenge facing small technology firms is the shortage of capital.  Congress has known about this issue for the last few years, however, there has been no substantial move to address the need.  And while the Recovery Act provided much needed funding for many businesses and government jurisdictions, small businesses were left without cover.  Of course, some noted that small businesses could apply for SBA loans, however, the banks were simply not lending.  ...

When the small business lending legislation (HR 5297) was enacted into law last September, it was heralded as a step to stimulate loans to small businesses by community banks.  Under this legislation, $30 billion has been directed to a “Small Business Lending Fund” administered by the Department of Treasury.  The purpose of this fund is to provide capital investments in small banks (community banks with assets of $10 billion or less) coupled with incentives for those banks to increase small busi ...

The House Judiciary Committee favorably reported out H.R. 1439, the "Business Activity Tax Simplification Act of 2011," by a voice vote yesterday. Now, this legislation can be considered by the full House, although the timetable is uncertain.This legislation sets up a physical presence nexus standard, which means that in order for a state to tax a business activity, that business must have a tangible connection to the state, such as an office or a sales force. Without this legislation, businesse ...