Lawmakers Push for Fairness in Tax Code, Health Care

Washington, D.C. The National Small Business Association applauds Reps. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and Wally Herger (R-Calif.) for introducing legislation that stands to greatly improve entrepreneurs' ability to afford health insurance. The Equity for Our Nation's Self-Employed Act of 2007 (H.R. 3660) is a top priority for NSBA and will correct a significant error in the tax code that penalizes self-employed individuals. Currently, corporations can deduct the cost of premiums as a business expense and forego all payroll taxes on these expenses. The self-employed are unfairly prohibited from taking that deduction, resulting in an additional 15.3 percent tax on their health insurance premiums. This inequity serves a significant competitive disadvantage for small business in being the only sector of the U.S. economy hit with such a substantial tax penalty on the cost of their employer-provided health coverage. "With everyone in the country talking about the need for health care reform, Congress should see this as a very important, very doable reform," NSBA President Todd McCracken said. "This simple correction in the tax code would have broad implicationsmore than 21 million entrepreneurs would have greater access to affordable health insurance under this legislation." For more information, please visit: www.setaxequity.org/ Since 1937, NSBA has advocated on behalf of America's entrepreneurs. Reaching more than 150,000 small businesses, NSBA is proud to be the first national small-business advocacy organization in the United States.