Obama Urges Congress to Extend, Expand Small-Business Tax Breaks
February 08, 2012, 4:16 AM ESTBy Roger Runningen
Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama sent Congress today a package of small business measures he said would expand tax relief and unlock capital to boost the economy and create jobs.
The plan would expand and make permanent a zero capital gains rate on small business investments; enact a new, 10 percent tax credit for hiring or increasing wages; double to $10,000 from $5,000 the deductions a startup business could take and extend 100 percent first-year depreciation, for one year, for qualified property placed in service before Jan. 1, 2013.
Obama said he wants “to spur entrepreneurship, to help startups.” At the start of a Cabinet meeting at the White House, he called on Congress to quickly act on legislation and said he would “sign it right away.”
Over the past week, the president has been fleshing out proposals he advanced in his State of the Union address. Tomorrow, he’s scheduled to give remarks about the economy and talk about proposals to revive the nation’s housing market.
In the election-year tension between the White House and Congress, tax benefits for small business may be an area where Democrats and Republican are to bridge differences.
Details of the proposals will be included in the fiscal 2013 budget Obama submits to Congress Feb. 13.
The package builds on Obama’s Startup America, which was announced by the White House a year ago to foster entrepreneurship to create jobs.
A Small Business Jobs Act that Obama signed in September 2010 included eight tax cuts providing more than $12 billion in tax breaks for small businesses.
--With assistance from Margaret Talev in Washington. Editors: Joe Sobczyk, Bob Drummond
To contact the reporter on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steven Komarow at skomarow1@bloomberg.net
