ASTA has praised President Obama’s inclusion of several key small business lending-related initiatives in his first State of the Union Address. “While ASTA awaits the details on these proposals, this renewed attention to the needs of the nation’s small-business owners is an encouraging sign of progress, and one that is sorely needed,” Chris Russo, ASTA’s president and chairman said. “New hiring incentives, promoting access to credit and reducing the tax burden on travel agents and other small businesses are the building blocks of an economic recovery.”
Among the legislative proposals in the President’s prime-time address were the use of $30 billion in repaid TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) funds to help community banks extend credit to small-business owners; a new tax credit to spur hiring and pay increases; and the elimination of capital gains taxes on small business investments. The President also used the address to call for new tax incentives for investing in new plants and equipment.
In December 2009, ASTA joined a group of allies in the small-business community to call for an expansion of existing Recovery Act tax incentives, such as bonus depreciation and expanded section 179 expensing limits. Since late 2008, ASTA has repeatedly called for federal action to reduce the tax and regulatory burden on small businesses and to promote access to capital through the Small Business Administration and other avenues.
For more information on this issue, contact Colin Tooze, ASTA’s vice president of government affairs, at [email protected].