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The U.S. Senate Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to rescind a measure in last year’s healthcare law that expands business transaction reporting requirements to the Internal Revenue Service.
Bowing to pressure from small business groups who say the new reporting requirements will tie up entrepreneurs in paperwork, the Senate voted 81-17, for the amendment, which was appended to an unrelated aviation bill.
Small firms and the self-employed are up in arms about the provision that, starting next year, they will have to submit 1099 tax forms on purchases of goods and services that total more than $600.
‘At a time when we need small businesses to help our economy grow, saddling them with expensive new requirements and paperwork burdens will only further hamper their ability to aid in our economic recovery,” Susan Eckerly of the National Federation of Independent Business said in a letter asking senators to support the amendment.
The $22 billion 10-year cost of repealing the provision is to be paid for by directing the administration to cut funding for some government programs, said Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow, who offered the amendment.
The Senate is expected to vote on the aviation bill next week.
The Republican-led House of Representatives is expected to support repeal of the 1099 provision.
[The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) also applauded the Senate vote. “Today’s vote is the first step towards saving American small businesses from a tidal wave of needless red tape,” said Jimi Grande, senior vice president of federal and political affairs at NAMIC. “With strong support for repeal on both sides of the aisle and in the White House, we hope to stop this bureaucratic barrage before it starts.”]
(Reporting by Donna Smith; Editing Chris Wilson)