NSBA Urges Senate to Enact Permanent Estate Tax Reform
Contact: Molly Brogan 202-552-2904
Washington, D.C. — As the remaining days of 2009 quickly speed by, NSBA is calling upon the Senate to enact permanent reform to the estate tax. Due to its instability and its crushing cost, the estate tax is one of the most financially and administratively burdensome taxes small-business owners face. Today, lawmakers have before them one of the rarest of opportunities found in Washington, D.C.: true compromise legislation—but they must act soon.
“This is not a new issue that requires a great deal of deliberation, rather it is an issue that requires leadership and the will to enact what many traditionally opposing parties view as a reasonable compromise,” stated NSBA President and CEO Todd McCracken. “Yet another patchwork, limited fix to the estate tax does very little to truly help small businesses.”
Although NSBA continues to believe that full repeal is the best way to deal with the estate tax, the organization has endorsed compromise language as a way to move forward and provide some long-term stability to small businesses. Set to expire in 2010, the tax will skyrocket in 2011 to a mere $1 million exemption and a 55 percent top rate.
NSBA could support an estate tax exemption of at least $3.5 million per person (indexed for inflation) with a reduced top rate of 45 percent. Unfortunately, the House failed to index these levels for inflation, and the Senate is considering short-cutting permanent reform in favor of a meager two-year fix.
The longest-running small-business advocacy group in the U.S., NSBA is no stranger to the need for compromise. While the estate tax compromise at-hand isn’t our number one or even our number two preference for addressing this huge burden on small business, it is a way to offer real relief to small businesses—but only if it includes permanency and a provision to index for inflation the exemption levels.
“As a small-business owner, it is unfathomable to me why Congress would knowingly make bad decisions on a tax policy that is a top priority for millions of Americans, and especially America's small-business owners," stated Keith Ashmus, chair of NSBA and co-founding partner of Frantz Ward in Cleveland, Ohio. "Have we learned nothing from the massive quagmire created by the Alternative Minimum Tax?"
Time is running out. NSBA implores the Senate to enact this very reasonable compromise as a permanent and fair solution to what has been one of the biggest tax burdens for small businesses in the last decade.
Since 1937, NSBA has advocated on behalf of America’s entrepreneurs. A staunchly nonpartisan organization, NSBA reaches more than 150,000 small businesses nationwide and is proud to be the nation’s first small-business advocacy organization. For more information, please visit www.nsba.biz.
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