THE HOME-BASED BUSINESS FAIRNESS ACT
 
 
U.S. Senator Kit Bond (R-MO), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business, introduced the Home-Based Business Fairness Act of 1997, legislation designed to level the tax playing field for home businesses by: implementing full deductibility of health-care costs for the self-employed: restoring the home-office deduction; and clarifying the definition of an independent contractor. Senator Olympia Snowe(R-ME), a member o the Small Business Committee and Senator Don Nickles(R-OK), Assistant Majority Leader, have joined Senator Bond as original cosponsors of the measure. Congressman Jim Talent(R-MO), Chairman of the House Small Business Committee and Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson(R-MO) will be introducing Senator Bond's legislation in the House of Representatives. 
ELEMENTS OF THE HOME-BASED BUSINESS FAIRNESS ACT
  • Full deductibility of health-care costs for the self-employed: The recently enacted Kassebaum/Kennedy Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act will incrementally increase the amount that self-employed individuals can deduct to 80% by the year 2006. While the increase definitely represents a step in the right direction, Senator Bond is committed to full deductibility of health-insurance costs for the self employed now. The home-based business legislation will accomplish that objective beginning this year.
  • Restoring the home-office deduction: Many taxpayers would like to see Congress expand availability of the home-office deduction. That way, small business owners who preform their work outside of the home, but whose office is their home, will be allowed to take the deduction without fear of an IRS audit.As the number of home businesses increases, the importance of the deduction mounts. To expand use of the home office deduction, the bill contains language that effectively overturns the 1993 Commissioner of Internal Revenue vs Soliman Supreme Court decision by adjusting the section of the U.S. Tax Code upon which the decision was based. Senator Bond's bill will change the rules upon which that decision was made with language that makes clear that the home office deduction may be utilized when the essential day-to-day administrative or management functions of the taxpayer are performed in the home and when there is no other location for the performance of those activities.
  • Clarifying the definition of an independent contractor: Current law makes it difficult for business owners to determine whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee. Senator Bond's legislation establishes a clear, safe harbor that  a business or a worker can use to determine independent-contractor status. In addition, the bill will ease small business owners' fear of retroactive reclassifications by the IRS that can destroy their businesses through payment of back taxes, interest and penalties.
"The home-Based Business Fairness Act is a common sense measure that has long been needed to provide the fairness for the ever-growing number of individuals who operate their businesses from home. "We should not keep them waiting any longer",  as stated by Senator Bond.  

Write in support to the Home-Based Business Fairness Act to:  

* Sen. K. Bond; 428-A Russell Senate Office Bldg.; Washington, D.C. 20510. 
* Sen. C. Dodd; 444 Russell Senate Office Bldg.; Washington, D.C. 20510. 
* Sen. Joe Lieberman; 706 Hart Senate Office Bldg.; Washington, D.C. 20510

 
 
   
 
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