WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Tom Udall today joined 60 of his Senate colleagues in approving legislation that will help Americans get back to work by creating the right economic conditions for small businesses to expand and create new jobs.
The 61-38 vote on the Small Business Jobs Act came after weeks of obstruction by Senate Republicans, who continue to side with Wall Street over the interests of Main Street and the small businesses that have created two-thirds of all new jobs in America over the past 15 years.
The legislation will help small businesses create 500,000 new jobs nationwide through $12 billion in new tax cuts, increased small business lending and expanded access to private capital.
"When small businesses succeed, Americans succeed, and this legislation will give entrepreneurs and small businesses the resources they need to lead our economic recovery," Udall said. "For too many weeks, my Republican colleagues chose partisan politics over the passage of this critical legislation. While this bill should have passed months ago, I'm happy that its approval today will help New Mexicans grow their businesses and create good jobs."
The legislation, which now must go back to the House for consideration, would do the following:
Help Small Businesses Access Capital
- Incentivizes investors by giving 100 percent exclusion from capital gains taxes on small business investments.
- Creates a targeted $30 billion Small Business Lending Fund to provide small community banks with capital to increase small business lending.
- Gives $1.5 billion in grants to support $15 billion in new small business lending through already successful state programs.
- Reduces the tax burden for small businesses by allowing them to carry back general business tax credits to offset their tax burdens from the previous five years. Small businesses will also be able to count the general business credits against the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), freeing up capital for expansion and job growth.
- Increases Small Business Administration (SBA) loan limits and improves access and lowers costs for small business to access SBA loans.
Increase Small Businesses' Ability to Make Investments
- Increases Section 179 expensing - permitting up to $500,000 in capital investments that businesses can expense.
- Extends Bonus Depreciation - allowing taxpayers to immediately write off 50 percent of the cost of new equipment.
Promote Entrepreneurship
- Increases to $10,000 the tax deduction for start-up expenditures - doubling the current levels.
- Creates new tools to help small businesses export goods, which will leverage more than $1 billion in exports.
- Establishes a new State Export Promotion Grant Program (STEP), which would increase the number of small businesses that export goods to other countries.
Promote Fairness in Competition
- Improves tax fairness by preventing small businesses from incurring large tax penalties aimed at large corporations and wealthy individuals investing in tax shelters.
- Improves small business contracting by clarifying that no single contracting program receives priority over another program when competing for federal contracts.
- Allows self-employed individuals to deduct health insurance costs for purposes of paying the self-employment tax.
