Testimony to Senate Small Business Committee for AICPA

On June 14, 2017, I had the privilege to testify on behalf of the AICPA before the Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship. The title of the hearing - Tax Reform: Removing Barriers to Small Business Growth. A goal of the hearing was for this committee to help the Senate Finance Committee know that they want to be sure tax reform helps small businesses and that such businesses are not forgotten in efforts to reduce the corporate tax rate.

The AICPA's written testimony is at the hearing page and AICPA website. There is a good summary of the hearing in Accounting Today, "AICPA tells Senate corporate tax cuts should also go to small business," Michael Cohn, 6/14/17.

In my 5 minutes, our AICPA testimony focused on:

• Any rate reduction should apply not only to C corporations but also to other entity types (sole propreitors and passthrough entities).
• The cash method of accounting should not be limited.
• Small businesses should be allowed to continue to deduct interest expense.
• The Section 195 start-up expensing amount should be inccreased.
• The AMT should be repealed.
• IRS should be modernized and a new executive-level practitioner services unit formed.
• S. 540, mobile workforce legislation should be enacted (note that HR 1393 passed in the House on 6/21/17)

There is a video of the hearing at the committee website. It was an enjoyable experience and a nice opportunity to discuss tax reform and small business and hear of the concerns of the committee members.

What do you think about tax reform and small businesses?