This week, the United States Senate voted by a margin of 87 to 12 to pass the House version of a bill to repeal the onerous provision in the healthcare reform law that would require small businesses to file 1099 forms for all vendors with whom they spent over $600 in one year. The bill is now on its way to President Obama, who has previously said publicly that he is in favor of repealing the provision. The National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) is among the strongest supporters of repealing this provision.
"Today is a major victory for America's 25 million small businesses and the nearly 1.5 million of them that are LGBT owned," said Justin Nelson, co-founder and president of the NGLCC after Tuesday's Senate passage. "The LGBT business community should be proud of our collective hard work in making this vote happen and we look forward to President Obama signing it soon."
Currently, a business must provide a 1099 form to the Internal Revenue Service for any services it receives from an unincorporated firm. The new healthcare reform law broadened the requirement so that a business would have to file the form for every vendor it uses, regardless of incorporation status, for goods and services above $600 in a year.
"We are pleased Congress has acted to correct a flaw that placed an unnecessary bookkeeping burden on small businesses. Small businesses are the engine of our economy and eliminating the 1099 reporting requirement is the right thing to do," said White House press secretary Jay Carney.
The NGLCC noted that while this provision was bad for small business, many provisions in the new law, including a tax credit that can be applied this year, are very good for small businesses and their employees.
