Getting Rid of Burdensome Paperwork for Job Creators

Job-creating small businesses got some good news this week when Congress sent legislation to the President’s desk to repeal a burdensome tax reporting requirement that was included in the health care reform law enacted last year.

The U.S. Senate voted 87 to 12 for final clearance of what’s become known as the 1099 repeal.  Getting rid of this mandate is a big win for small businesses.  The 1099 provision required businesses to report all purchases of $600 or more to the IRS.  It would have buried employers in paperwork in order to raise money to help pay for the new health care law.  In addition to businesses, the 1099 mandate would have applied to farms, charities and state and local governments.

Despite the huge backlash to this provision from grass roots America and the fact that, in the end, even the Obama administration reversed its support for the requirement, it took Congress nearly a year to get rid of it.  I heard from hundreds of Iowans opposed to the measure.  It would have forced employers to spend tens of thousands of dollars to comply with paperwork requirements, at the expense of expanding business operations and hiring workers.

Along with other mandates, tax increases and higher premiums, it’s been said that the 1099 mandate illustrates that the more people learn about what’s in the health care law, the less they like it.  These detrimental effects on the economy and failures to reduce health care costs are why I opposed the health care law.