Congress repeals paperwork requirement for small businesses

AIA applauds the repeal of the provision that required small businesses to file paperwork every time they spent more than $600 with a single vendor.

Source: AIA

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The American Institute of Architects (AIA) commended the 112th Congress for passing the 1099 Taxpayer Protection and Repayment of Exchange Subsidy Overpayments Act of 2011, which repeals the expensive and unneeded new Form 1099 paperwork requirement that was part of the health care reform bill last year.

The 1099 provision required small business owners to provide an account to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of previously unreported business transactions. For example, small business owners would have been required to submit a 1099 tax form with the IRS every time they spent more than $600 with a single vendor, resulting in a sizeable increase in paperwork and accounting costs.

The House of Representatives voted on March 2 to repeal the 1099 tax-reporting requirement. The Senate vote was 87-12 to send the House bill to President Obama’s desk for his signature.

“As one of the key legislative priorities of the AIA, we are heartened by Congress passing this legislation,” said AIA president Clark Manus. “Many of our members are small businesses who are only now emerging from the long economic downturn. In the current legislative environment, it’s refreshing to see Congress able to agree on something as fundamentally positive to small businesses as repealing this onerous requirement.”