Election 2024: What a Harris Presidency Would Imply for Small Companies

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Vice President Kamala Harris has been laborious at work selling her fiscal concepts for small enterprise house owners all through her short-lived presidential marketing campaign in 2024. And even earlier than securing the Democratic nomination, the present second-in-command has been vocal about her advocacy for small enterprise all through her vice presidency. 

Within the weeks main as much as the election, she has introduced a number of proposals aimed to assist extra entrepreneurs get their operations off the bottom, and the way she plans on adjusting the tax code to be favorable for small companies. 

Right here’s what it’s worthwhile to know as a small enterprise proprietor if Harris wins the presidency in 2024. 

A Harris Presidency and How She Goals to Assist Small Companies 

The Kamala Harris marketing campaign web site has a piece devoted to the small enterprise group, and what she goals to do together with her Alternative Financial system agenda. It consists of formidable objectives like: 

• Develop new enterprise functions to 25 million by the tip of her first time period 

What this implies for SMBs: This might probably characterize not solely extra opponents in your business, however extra folks setting out on an entrepreneurial journey, lowering the out there workforce to fill open job listings. Small companies face headwinds discovering certified staff, with 90% of enterprise operators attempting to rent reporting few or no certified candidates for the positions they had been attempting to fill, based on the NFIB. 

• Broaden the startup expense tax deduction for brand new companies from $5,000 to $50,000, and increase house owners’ capability to make use of the deduction instantly 

What this implies for SMBs: This might give aspiring entrepreneurs the increase they should get began. The common enterprise startup prices about $40,000, based on Shopify. Nonetheless, critics say this doesn’t resolve the foundation situation of early enterprise failure: money circulation. Many early companies don’t flip a revenue of their infancy, and if a enterprise folds earlier than changing into worthwhile, the deduction received’t be capable to be used. However for those who do make it to profitability, it may be a good way to scale back their tax burden. 

• Develop a typical tax deduction for small companies 

What this implies for SMBs: For those who’re already in enterprise, you possible know the complications of submitting enterprise taxes, Harris’ plan may decrease your tax complications with a typical deduction. This isn’t a brand new idea as Hillary Clinton proposed this concept throughout her 2016 presidential marketing campaign. It’s estimated {that a} small enterprise spends 82 hours and $2,900 per yr on tax compliance, based on the Taxpayer Advocate Service. 

• Recapitalize the Treasury Division’s small enterprise financing program, the State Small Enterprise Credit score Initiative (SSBCI), aimed toward entrepreneurs in rural America, center America, and underserved communities 

What this implies for SMBs: In a July 2024 report, the SSBCI reported it accredited 3,600 companies for capital funding. 80% of these accredited had been companies with lower than 10 staff. Harris goals to proceed pushing extra funding into these applications to make sure small enterprise house owners proceed getting the funding they could not in any other case be accredited for. 

You possibly can learn extra about her small enterprise coverage breakdown right here (see web page 46). 

How This Might Influence Your Small Enterprise 

If Harris is the winner within the presidential marketing campaign in 2024, enterprise house owners may probably see vital tax modifications. For instance, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed through the Trump administration would possible expire with out extension on the finish of 2025. The TCJA provides enterprise house owners the power to deduct 20% of their prices earlier than their earnings “passes via” to their particular person returns. This has considerably benefitted small enterprise house owners, however Democrats have slammed the TCJA as merely a means for enterprise house owners to pay much less taxes.  

Moreover, Vice President Harris has proposed elevating the company tax price from the present 21% enacted by the TCJA to twenty-eight%. This can be a stroll again of her 35% proposal throughout her temporary presidential marketing campaign within the final basic election. The Harris marketing campaign says that is “a fiscally accountable method to put a reimbursement within the pockets of working folks.”  

For those who’re somebody seeking to begin a enterprise, the Harris marketing campaign seems to be to be bringing some nice incentives. Nonetheless, for somebody that’s at the moment working a worthwhile enterprise, you can see the next tax invoice if Harris is the 47th President of the USA.

Backside Line 

A few of Vice President Harris’s proposals may have a major impression on your online business operations if she is elected president in 2024. You possibly can learn extra in regards to the insurance policies she is operating with right here. 

We’re right here to provide the info of the US presidential candidates and their respective small enterprise insurance policies to make the most effective voting determination for you and your online business.