NFIB Backs Revised GOP Tax Proposals

Days after U.S. small business (SMB) lobby, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), denounced the House Republican tax plan, it has reversed its opinion and backed the proposals following revisions proposed by Representative Kevin Brady (R-Texas).

Business Insider reports news that the NFIB released a statement in support of the Republican tax reform bill.

“We are very grateful to Chairman Brady for listening to our concerns and working with NFIB to ensure that tax reform benefits the greatest possible number of American small business owners,” said NFIB President and CEO Juanita Duggan in a statement. “This amendment would create substantial tax relief for millions of small business owners who were left out of the original bill. We urge Republican and Democratic members of the House to support this amendment going forward.”

A previous statement released by the NFIB in response to the initial tax reform proposals said it “leaves many small businesses behind.”

Brady subsequently proposed a revision to lower the tax rate for those small businesses that wouldn’t quality as pass-through businesses, which, in the initial version, see a tax rate of 25 percent under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, first proposed by House Republicans earlier this month.

Qualifying as a pass-through business means SMB owners could be taxed at the pass-through rate of 25 percent instead of being taxed at an individual rate based on business profits.

The NFIB’s newfound support of the GOP tax proposal follows weeks after a survey by CNBC and SurveyMonkey, released in September, which found that confidence among U.S. small business owners in the Trump Administration’s ability to pass effective tax reform was dwindling. The survey found less than a third of SMBs expected any changes in tax policy to actually have a positive impact on their companies in the coming year; it was a 10 percent drop from the previous quarter, when 41 percent of SMBs said they expect tax reform to positively impact their businesses.