We Must Provide Certainty To Our Small Businesses

As a Certified Public Accountant and a former businessman for nearly 30 years, I have experienced first-hand the uncertainty created by Washington, which makes it difficult for a business to plan from one year to the next. We need to give businesses more predictability so that our job creators can develop a strategy for their financial futures and create the jobs that we need.

One of the best examples of the uncertainty created by Washington is the frequent expiration and extension of long-established and highly utilized tax policies, which leaves our small businesses constantly guessing whether a group of policies that they rely on will be around next year. Families and employers are uncertain which tax benefits they will be able to take advantage of from year to year, making it impossible to plan for what they'll owe or how much they can invest.  Yet, when examining these provisions, such as the research and development tax credit, we find that some have been around for thirty years or more and are often renewed retroactively, defeating their purpose of encouraging investment. This is simply bad policy. How can we expect businesses to hire or increase wages for workers when they do not know what their operating costs will be from year to year? Extending or making these tax policies permanent now will open the door for the economic growth we need.

Since joining the Ways & Means Committee, I have advocated for a simpler, fairer tax code that will encourage our small businesses to hire and expand, and provide relief to individuals and families who continue to grapple with the complexities of the current system. Over the past year, I participated in bipartisan working groups and multiple hearings that led to Chairman Camp’s proposal, which would make our tax code simpler, fairer, and more competitive. It would strengthen our economy, provide predictability to our small businesses, and create up to 1.8 million jobs. While it is not perfect, it is a comprehensive plan that is now on the table and up for debate.

The Ways & Means Committee is working to make important provisions of the code permanent, providing much-needed certainty to businesses. I have supported several permanent extensions in the House, including the New Markets Tax Credit. This tax credit encourages development in underserved areas and brings economic opportunity to neighborhoods that have often faced several generations of hardship. For instance, New Market Tax Credits have played a role in helping to revitalize downtown Cleveland. By making this tax credit permanent, investors and developers will be able to plan for the future and help grow our economy, while at the same time creating new opportunities for the unemployed and underemployed. I am also a supporter of making Bonus Depreciation permanent, which passed the House of Representatives this past July. Bonus Depreciation encourages businesses to grow by reducing the amount of time it takes to recover those costs. Thirdly, I supported making the Research and Development tax credit permanent, which will help promote innovation and maintain our role as a global innovator. This bill passed the House of Representatives this past May. Lastly, I have supported the permanent extension of Section 179, which allows small businesses to jump start their investments in new equipment and hiring.

While the goal is long-term, permanent reform of our overly burdensome tax system, I will continue to work to give businesses more certainty so that they can appropriately plan for their futures and create and keep good-paying jobs here at home. We've already waited too long to bring certainty and predictability to our job creators. While the House has already acted to make several provisions permanent, the Senate and President are unwilling to provide their support for this commonsense approach. We must work together to agree on an extension of critical tax provisions, and continue to work toward comprehensive reform. While I would rather see permanent tax reform, we owe it to the American people to provide some degree of certainty and relief by passing an extenders package as soon as possible.

If our office can be of assistance to you, please don't hesitate to call us at our Wadsworth office: (330) 334-0040, Parma office: (440) 882-6779, or Washington office: (202) 225-3876. I also encourage you to visit our website at renacci.house.gov and subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages to get the latest updates on my work in Washington and Ohio's 16th District.