In another episode of Great Reruns from Congresses Past, a new bill to create a simplified standard home office deduction was introduced in the House last week. This time, the bipartisan legislation, astonishingly entitled the “Home Office Deduction Simplification Act of 2009″ (H.R. 1509), was sponsored by John McHugh (R-NY) and Kurt Schrader (D-OR). As [...]

Another item from previous sessions of Congress that has returned for an encore is the Equity for Our Nation’s Self-Employed Act of 2009 (H.R. 1470), introduced by Congressmen Ron Kind (D-WI), Wally Herger (R-CA), Suzanne M. Kosmas (D-Fla.) and David G. Reichert (R-WA). The bill is another gem of bipartisan legislative simplicity, the bulk of [...]

Last week, the SBA Office of Advocacy released its report on Regulatory Flexibility Act enforcement and compliance for fiscal 2008, the last such report detailing the results achieved under former Chief Counsel Tom Sullivan. The report includes updated information on federal agency compliance with the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) and E.O. 13272, agency compliance with [...]

The SBA Office of Advocacy announced last week that it had received thirty-eight nominations of burdensome regulations during the second round of its Regulatory Review and Reform (r3) initiative. That’s quite a drop from the first round, during which there were 83 nominations – more than double this year’s turnout. That almost certainly had to [...]

File this one under “studies in government being effective.” Last year, the SBA Office of Advocacy decided to light a fire under federal regulators on the matter of compliance with Section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act — the part that requires them to take out the rules occasionally, dust them off and examine them [...]

The House Small Business Committee was busy just before the August recess, holding hearings on issues such as access to health insurance and the need for additional economic stimulus measures for small businesses. Another item that came under review during a subcommittee hearing late last month was the perpetual issue of regulatory burdens imposed on [...]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a business alert to remind relevant firms that its Red Flag Rules will go into effect on November 1, 2008, and compliance is required as of that date. The relevant firms in question are financial institutions, which will not include any microbusinesses, and “creditors” — any firm that [...]

A new report released recently by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommends that enforcement action to address the tax gap should focus on the small number of large dollar non-compliant taxpayers, regardless of their structure — corporation, partnership, sole proprietor or individual. That, said panelists at a forum jointly hosted last September by the GAO, [...]

In a guest article reprinted by the MicroEnterprise Journal from the monthly Small Business Advocate newsletter, the Office of Advocacy’s John McDowell writes: “Changing markets, technology, and competition make it imperative that federal agencies periodically review how their current regulations affect small business. Only with regular evaluation can the enormous number of current regulations be [...]

Last week, we learned that Congress does occasionally go back to see if something they did is working. This week, we also learn that Congress also sometimes goes back to fix things they screwed up. Case in point: Congress has moved pretty speedily (for them) to pass a bill that protects merchants from frivolous lawsuits [...]