National Association for the Self-Employed Urges Action on Issues Ranging from Health Care to Regulatory Evaluation and Tax Reform
NASE VP: Eliminate Health Care Penalty and Incentivize Health Care Coverage – Offer Tax Deduction
WASHINGTON, D.C. – As President-Elect Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans meet to outline an agenda for the first 100 days of a new administration, The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE), the nation’s leading advocate and resource for self-employed and micro-businesses, is urging swift action on a range of small business issues ranging from health care to regulatory evaluation and tax reform.
“We congratulate President-Elect Trump and Republican leaders in Congress on last week’s electoral victory and look forward to working with them to advance a pro-small business and self-employed agenda in Washington,” said Katie Vlietstra, Vice President for Government Relations and Public Affairs. “The small business and self-employed community is urging our new government to address key priorities in health care, regulatory evaluation and tax reform in the first 100 days to help ease the burden and spur growth for the small business community — the lifeblood of our nation’s economic engine.
“We stand at-the-ready to represent entrepreneurs and Main Street businesses across the country during the transition of this new President and the incoming 115th Congress. When small businesses succeed, America succeeds,” continued Vlietstra.
As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office and has already begun meeting with Congressional leadership to outline an agenda for the first 100 days of his new administration, the nation’s leading advocate and resource for self-employed and micro-businesses, is urging swift action on three sets of priority issues for the small business and self-employed community:
HEALTH CARE
The Affordable Care Act provided vital health care coverage for millions of Americans, but it must be fixed to ensure it works for everyone. With increasing premiums and fewer choices, the Trump Administration and leaders in Congress must implement a system that incentives Americans choosing to enroll in health care by first eliminating the penalty, offering a tax deduction, while reducing costs and implementing additional options for the American public and self-employed who fall into the individual market.
Vlietstra stated: “While the Affordable Care Act was a good start, we need a health care system that is more affordable, flexible and works for all types of American businesses, including micro-business and the self-employed. Now is the time to eliminate the unfair penalty, and instead incentivize health care by offering a tax deduction for those individual small business owners who enroll in coverage but are continually left out of the current tax rebate system.”
ELIMINATING BURDENSOME REGULATIONS
Millions of American small businesses are overwhelmed with a burdensome malaise of regulations that unnecessarily impact their budgetary bottom-lines. Before implementing any new regulations, our government and policymakers must undertake a rigorous and realistic evaluation of how current regulations are already negatively affecting the American small business community. For instance, the recent Department of Labor Overtime Rule negatively affected many small businesses and hit them right in their pocketbooks.
Vlietstra stated: “Our regulatory process is incredibly complex and burdensome on small businesses. We encourage policymakers to conduct a thorough evaluation of current regulatory policies in place to assess any negative impact those burdensome laws may currently have on our nation’s self-employed entrepreneurs. A rigorous regulatory evaluation process should be employed to assess the bottom-line and direct impact any new regulations will have on our small businesses and economy as a whole.”
TAX REFORM
To strengthen our economy and build a strong and healthy workforce — including small and large businesses alike — we must move forward with an approach to tax reform that makes our code fairer and simpler, including individual tax reforms, which is where most self-employed and micro-businesses file. These individual changes include small tweaks and are fertile ground for bipartisan cooperation on any reform package, such as amending the definition of “employee” to include an owner of a sole proprietorship to take advantage of additional benefits; simplifying the definition of a independent contractor to clarify a workers’ status; streamlining the deduction process, such as creating a standard schedule C-Z by expanding as many deductions as possible for business expenses; and offering a standardized business deduction.
Vlietstra stated: “Our nation’s tax system is in desperate need of an overhaul. While comprehensive tax reform should be considered in 2017, reforming the individual tax rate is imperative for the millions of self-employed who file as individuals. Small businesses are already hampered by outdated and unfair regulations and taxes negatively impacting their pocketbooks are preventing them from growing, expanding and saving. As the heart of the middle class, we need to support our small business community so they can strengthen our local and national economies.”
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The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) is the nation’s leading resource for the self-employed and micro-businesses, bringing a broad range of benefits to help entrepreneurs succeed and to drive the continued growth of this vital segment of the American economy. The NASE Small Business Locator helps identify and connect our nation’s smallest businesses. In addition, NASE’s new health care portal helps small business owners navigate the nation’s health care marketplace. The NASE is a 501(c) (6) nonprofit organization and provides big-business advantages to hundreds of thousands of micro-businesses across the United States. For more information, visit the association’s website at NASE.org
