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Senate Votes to Keep 1099 Reporting Requirements on Businesses
posted to:
Chamber of Commerce section
by Holdrege Chamber of Commerce on 9/14/2010
September 14, 2010 - The Senate today voted against an amendment from Nebraska’s U.S. Sen. Mike Johanns to strip a controversial tax-reporting provision from the new health care law.
In a 46-52 vote, lawmakers killed an amendment sponsored by Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) that would have saved businesses and non-profit groups from having to report an array of small and medium-sized purchases to the IRS. (The health care law mandates that companies track and submit to the IRS all business-to-business transactions over $600 annually.) Nebraska’s U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson was one of a handful of Democrats who voted for the Johanns proposal.
As reported by The Hill, “the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups had lobbied furiously in favor of the Johanns amendment,” since the new requirements impose a heavy cost on small businesses and could further stall any economic recovery. The Senate also voted 56-42 (four votes short) of an alternative to Johann’s amendment that “would have increased the reporting threshold to $5,000 and eliminated the requirement for businesses with fewer than 25 employees.”
U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President for Government Affairs, R. Bruce Josten, said the Senate’s failure to pass Senator Johanns’ amendment means “small businesses will now be forced to spend precious time and resources reporting to the federal government rather than producing, growing, and creating jobs for Americans.” Josten added that the vote “demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding about the challenges facing this economy.”