Washington, DC – Rhode Island Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse voted this week to repeal a provision of the health care reform law that imposed new tax filing requirements for small businesses. The provision required all businesses that conduct a transaction with a vendor for more than $600 to file a 1099 tax form. This was intended to increase tax compliance, but could have overly burdened small businesses with paperwork and reporting requirements.
“It is important that we support Rhode Island businesses as we continue to work to rebuild our economy and eliminating this additional reporting requirement was a way to help do that,” said Reed.
“The health care reform legislation will continue to help small businesses better afford health insurance for their employees, but I also heard from many Rhode Island business owners that this particular 1099 requirement would be overly burdensome,” said Whitehouse. “We have responded by removing this requirement so small businesses can spend more time helping our economy recover and less time filling out paperwork.”
The measure passed the Senate on Tuesday by a vote of 87-12 and has been passed by the House of Representatives. It will now go to President Obama to be signed into law.
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