Lamar Whitman Posts

Just a month ago, the SBIR/STTR reauthorization legislation seemed poised for passage in the Senate, then something happened:  Amendments. One of the biggest controversies involved how to attach an amendment that would repeal the 1099 repeal provision; that controversy was solved when the 1099 repeal provision was introduced as stand-alone legislation, which ultimately passed.  It seemed at the time that removing the 1099 amendment from the SBIR/STTR legislation removed some of the urgency for m ...

Senate legislation that would re-authorize the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program has stalled, failing to receive the necessary 60 votes to move the legislation to the floor for a vote.  While the bill sailed through the Senate Small Business Committee by a vote of 18-1, disagreements erupted over amendments to the bill on the Senate floor. The SBIR Program provides small tech companies with opportunities to provide R&D ...

This week the IRS issued final regulations to implement the three-percent federal income tax withholding requirement on government contract payments.  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, in an unexpected twist, the IRS regulati ...

Legislation remains pending in both the House and Senate that would re-authorize the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program.  Both programs are set to expire on May 31st.   The Senate legislation would extend the program through 2019, while the House legislation would extend through 2014.Even though the core of this legislation is bi-partisan, dealing with proposed amendments has bogged down action, especially in the Senate, wh ...

SBA Advocacy recently released an important report, “An Examination of the 2001 IRS Tax Gap Estimates’ Effects on Small Businesses.”  The “tax gap” is the difference between the tax that is collected and the tax that should be collected.   In the current budgetary climate, this term is becoming more important. In 2007, the IRS released a report on the estimated 2001 tax gap.  That report found over a third ($109B out of $290B) of the estimated non-collected tax gap was due to underreporting of b ...

Legislation is expected to be introduced in the Senate that would require any seller to collect and file sales tax returns on all interstate sales.  Long-supported by a number of states, this anticipated legislation would bring some uniformity to state sales tax requirements but would require even small businesses to collect sales tax and file returns for any sales made into another state.  Under current law established in a 1992 Supreme Court decision, a seller is only required to collect sales ...

For years now, Congress has kicked the subject of tax reform down the road.  Even so, most everyone is in agreement that the tax laws and regulations are too complex, that the system is inefficient, and that compliance costs are too high. The last major tax reform occurred in the 1980s.  Lessons to draw from that exercise are that any industry – including technology – must be prepared to analyze and advocate when major legislative proposals are being developed. Last year, the President’s Commiss ...

The House introduced a new version of Business Activity tax legislation this week, H.R. 1439, the Business Activity Tax Simplification Act of 2011.  During the last Congress, CompTIA urged passage of similar legislation, which would have provided distinct physical presence requirements as a prerequisite for the taxation of interstate business activities.  On Wednesday, April 13, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law held a hearing on this new legislation for which ...

Finally the Senate voted today 87 to 12 to repeal the new 1099 tax provision reporting requirement, which would have required all businesses to file a form 1099 when paying any business or individual $600 or more for goods or services; this provision was set to go into effect in 2012.After much political maneuvering, Senate Leader Harry Reid agreed to take up the House-passed version of the repeal, H.R. 4. The Senate’s approval of the House-passed legislation (without amendment) means that it no ...

Successful small businesses that grow into medium-sized and large businesses are the key to this country’s future, President Barack Obama told an Ohio audience last week at the “Winning the Future Forum on Small Business”. “When our small businesses do well, America does well,” Obama said.  Standing at the intersection of the small business community and healthcare information technology (HIT), many of our nation’s small IT firms will continue to be c ...