Author Archives: wippgovernmentrelations

WIPP’s Next Battle

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A2C

For the better part of two decades, WIPP championed the effort to help bring women into the lucrative federal market. As many of you know, we accomplished much of what we set out to do with the addition of sole source authority. Since then, however, WIPP’s team in Washington has focused on a statistic that kept repeating in our brains: women receive only $1 out of every $23 that is being loaned to small businesses. How was that possible?

For months WIPP devoted time to researching the landscape of business finance, capital access, and small business lending. What we found was that there are many policy ideas about how to stimulate lending to women – ultimately growing the economy because we all know the economic impact of women-owned businesses.

But we have a long way to go. In 2013, more than two in three loan applications for women-owned firms were denied. WIPP’s annual membership survey regularly finds that women must make multiple attempts to secure bank loans or lines of credit – with a full 40% never succeeding. All this despite women making up one-third of business owners, generating more than $1 trillion annually in receipts, and growing at 1.5 times the rate of average businesses.

The platform WIPP released today, Breaking the Bank: Women Entrepreneurs & the Need for Capital, will hopefully change that. The solutions span three main themes: changing the capital infrastructure, supporting small lending institutions, and strengthening government investment. The platform has four solutions that will change the capital infrastructure. For example, WIPP wants the government lending programs to consider FICO’s alternative credit scoring system. This system modernizes the way credit is calculated to provide new opportunities for women entrepreneurs trying to obtain loans. WIPP also wants to support small lending institutions by pushing for an end to a “one-size-fits-all” approach to regulation. Removing these burdens on small banks will allow them to return their focus to lending.

Changes to government policies are an important part of the platform. WIPP believes a small business seat at the Securities & Exchange Commission will ensure that smaller women-owned firms have an advocate as the next generation of alternative lending, like CrowdFunding, is eventually put into place. Modernizing the Microloan Program, where women are the majority of loan recipients will also make a difference. Women owned small businesses are growing at 1.5 times the rate of average businesses, but they will never get off the ground if they cannot obtain early stage capital.

WIPP does not have a monopoly on good ideas but we have an important voice in public policy. Over time, we may add to this platform to ensure that all policy solutions improving access to funding for women entrepreneurs can become part of the debate in Washington. We ask you today to look through WIPP’s access to capital platform and share it with one other woman you know. If our successes in Washington in the 15 years WIPP has been an organization are any example, we will need a lot of women behind us to make this platform a reality.

Sole Source Marches Forward

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by Ann Sullivan, WIPP Government Relations

Just a few days ago, the Small Business Administration announced a proposed regulation that puts in motion sole source authority for the WOSB procurement program.

SBA did a very wise thing—it separated out the sole source authority piece from the certification portions of the law. Why? Because sole source authority is standard language included in the HUBZone and Service-Disable Veterans programs. It is not a heavy lift to basically cut and paste the language into the WOSB program.

The certification piece, on the other hand, is not standard language. Each small business program administered by SBA has different certification requirements. The law also reads that SBA doesn’t have to put in place a certification program for WOSBs. SBA can choose to accept other federal agency, state certifications or 3rd party certifications. Or, SBA could establish its own certification for WOSBs if it so chooses.

This determination will require a thorough examination of resources SBA can devote to establishing and policing the certification and whether it could launch a program without significant delays as have been experienced in other programs.

Yet another consideration SBA will have to make is what to do with the tens of thousands of women who self-certified for the program. Without a proper transition, the program would be thrown into chaos.

For these reasons, the certification part of the law needs much more consideration and public comment than does the sole source portion of the law.

Now you need to take action. If you agree with SBA’s expeditious implementation of sole source, you need to let your voice be heard. Go to www.regulations.gov. Keyword: SBA. Click on the regulation and you will see the opportunity to comment. Let the SBA know that women business owners are waiting excitedly on this change.

In case you are not familiar with sole source authority, it allows contracting officers to award a sole source award through the WOSB procurement program, given the contracting officer does not have a reasonable expectation that two or more businesses will submit offers. Sole source contracts through the program are limited to $4-6.5 million depending on the industry.

SBA has taken the first step toward putting the WOSB procurement program on equal footing with other SBA programs. We expected no less.

More Taxes? No Taxes? How About Fair Taxes

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By John Stanford, WIPP Government Relations

WIPP recently submitted testimony to the House Small Business Committee on comprehensive tax reform. This blog gives an overview of WIPP’s advocacy efforts. For more details, I encourage you to read the testimony. Our government relations team strives to make official communications as easy-to-read as possible, but should you have questions please reach out to WIPP.   

 

Women entrepreneurs deserve a tax system that rewards the effort, tenacity, and risk it takes to start and grow a business. Moreover, they deserve a system of revenue collection (because that’s what taxes are) that is simple and fair.

In testimony submitted to the House Small Business Committee, WIPP said just that. Citing reports from the IRS National Taxpayer Advocate as well as the SBA Office of Advocacy, the testimony documents what women business owners already know: the tax system is broken, failing under the weight of complexity, uncertainty and outdated policies. But more importantly, the testimony addresses the impact of possible reforms – and the need for any overhaul to be comprehensive.

What does that mean? It means that the idea to lower the corporate tax rate, favored by the White House and some in Congress, must not happen independently of adjusting individual rates in a similar manner. This distinction matters because so many businesses, including almost 9 in 10 women-owned businesses, are structured as “pass-through” entities paying taxes as individuals (including S-Corps, Sole-proprietorships, partnerships, and LLCs).

Corporate-only reforms would be unfair to these businesses – and for that reason WIPP has always supported comprehensive (corporate + individual) reform. The testimony underscored this important point.

In addition, WIPP identified tax policies that, absent major reforms, would benefit women entrepreneurs. This includes making more small business tax credits and deductions permanent. In recent years, these tax “extenders” have been extended (hence their name) at the last minute, or even retroactively – not a good way for business owners to plan their budgets.

WIPP also asked Congress to consider tax credits that benefit new businesses, helping offset the costs of launching a new company. Another policy request was to avoid changing the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) provisions in the tax code, as these have proven to be both popular and good tools to incentivize productivity and long-term business health.

In agreement with the idea that simple businesses (sales – costs = income) should have simple taxes, WIPP also supports simplifying the cash accounting method and expanding its optional use to more small businesses. Finally, with healthcare costs an always-growing burden on employers, WIPP continues its support of expanding the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit so more women entrepreneurs minimize the cost of providing healthcare to employees.

More ideas for reforming the tax system to incentivize entrepreneurship and innovation are out there. WIPP will continue working to identify policies that let women business owners focus more on their business and less on complex tax requirements. At the end of the day, all of these decisions should be made with the basic principles of simplicity and fairness in mind. And that’s exactly what we asked Congress to do.

A Big STEP for Small Business

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by Abby Ware, WIPP Government Relations  

Thinking about exporting, but have no idea where to start? Take a look at the Small Business Administration’s State Trade and Export Promotion (STEP) program. As state governments receive funding from the STEP program in coming months, small businesses will have increased access to emerging trade opportunities and export support initiatives. Utilizing the STEP program is what JM Grain of Great Falls, Montana did when it decided it wanted to export lentils and chickpeas. The STEP grant allowed JM Grain to attend a Gulfood Trade Show in Dubai, exposing the small business to new markets and an estimated $600,000 in additional export sales.

The STEP program is a federally funded pilot program with two objectives: 1) increase the number of U.S. exporting small businesses, and 2) increase export value for small businesses that already export. State governments apply and match the funds with a federal to state ratio of 75% to 25% (65% to 35% for high exporting states). STEP activities are then provided and managed at the local level by state government organizations.

Small businesses in the State of Washington in particular have benefitted from STEP, better equipping Washington to incorporate trade-promoting programs such as Export Voucher. The Export Voucher program provides up to $5,000 to small businesses for export-related expenses for companies that want to export.  Washington has also provided financial counseling and targeted support for women, veteran and minority-owned businesses through STEP funding. More information on Washington’s efforts can be found here.

To see if a state already participates and receives STEP grants, go to this link and talk to them about their small business assistance.  Every state deploys its federal STEP program in different ways, so it is important to contact the office listed on the map.

Making the Affordable Care Act Work

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ACAIn Washington, there are a few axioms on which almost everyone (Rs and Ds alike) can agree. Don’t hold events in August. If the meeting is important, take a cab, not the metro. Social media can be dangerous. And of course, no law is perfect.

The biggest law of the last decade, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. “ACA” or “Obamacare” or “President’s Health Law”, and so on) is certainly a good example of the latter. The bill’s authors, President Obama, and more than just a few Congressional Republicans can agree on that. But that is no different than any other major policy change – they all undergo a period of fixes, tweaks, and changes usually addressing unintended consequences. Blame it on the nature of compromise, the mistakes of over-worked underpaid Hill staffers, or, I kid you not, typos.

If you read recent communications (or belong to the healthcare committee!) you will see that WIPP is supporting some of these changes to benefit women entrepreneurs. In our view, Obamacare is the law of the land* – but that doesn’t mean we cannot change it. Here are the tweaks we have supported recently:

Full Time is 40 Hours – Not 30

The Issue: Obamacare defined a full-time worker as working thirty hours a week. The definition matters for defining whether a business is exempt from the employer mandate (under 50 FTEs is exempt – yes, you have to add in part time employees, but good news: calculator). Just a refresher: if you have more than 50 FTEs and don’t offer health insurance, you may face penalties.

The Fix: The Save America’s Workers Act (creative license is allowed in bill names) changes 30 hours to 40 hours for the week calculation. WIPP supports the bill.

WIPP’s Position: A workweek is a workweek. Dolly Parton sang 9 to 5, not 10 to 4. The law used a thirty-hour definition in an effort to make the math (i.e. $$$) work. In addition, it was a tool to increase the number of low-hour workers that might receive employer-sponsored coverage. While increasing coverage is laudable, it should not have come at the expense of an arbitrary definition at odds with working America. The Obama Administration signaled opposition to the bill because it could undo some of the coverage gained in the past years. Whether or not this is true (wonks on both sides agree, the change would have little impact either way), the principle of the matter is simple: traditional definitions should not be upended on a whim. An American workweek is forty hours. Part-time workers, who also need coverage, should be addressed, but separately.

Bring Back HRAs

The Issue: Some very technical guidance from the IRS last fall removed a simple way for employers to help employees pay for health insurance premiums. Basically, a Health Reimbursement Arrangement, or HRA, let the employee find their own insurance and employers could reimburse employees at their discretion.

The Fix: Two options. One, the IRS could admit this was a bone-headed move and put out new guidance. Unlikely. Two, a few bills in the past Congress would allow HRAs to be allowed for businesses with fewer than 50 employees. WIPP is working with those offices in the new Congress. More to come.

WIPP’s Position: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It worked in the past, now it’s broken. Someone should fix this (so to sum up: it wasn’t broken, the ACA broke it, now it needs a fix). HRAs can be a good part of a solution that gets more people covered. Often business owners look for the path of least resistance – for some businesses, HRAs can be that path. While WIPP reviews every comma of legislation before endorsing, WIPP would likely back legislation that made this change.

Expand Eligibility for the Small Business Tax Credit

The Issue: One of the small business carrots in Obamacare was the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit. But this carrot came with a lot of strings attached (mixed metaphors?). Currently, the tax credit is only available to businesses with fewer than 25 employees and average wages of less than $50,000. Moreover, to receive the full tax credit, which covers up to 50% of employer-paid premiums, businesses must have 10 or fewer employees and average wages of up to $25,000.

The Fix: Expand eligibility for the tax credit. Under the Small Business Tax Credit Accessibility Act, these restrictions would be relaxed to make businesses with up to 50 employees and average wages of up to $80,025 eligible for the tax credit. Additionally, it would extend the number of consecutive years a small business can claim the tax credit from two (current law) to three years. It also removes the requirement that employers claiming the credit contribute the same percentage of the cost for each employee’s health insurance.

WIPP’s Position: WIPP supports the bill. All these efforts stem from the idea that small businesses need help to provide coverage. Accessing that help should be easy, and not limited to a few businesses. We’ve heard from business owners nationwide saying that they simply don’t qualify under these strict requirements.

In a law that in size 8 font is nearly 1,000 pages, with thousands more in regulations**, there are more than three needed fixes. These are a few where WIPP members’ experiences drove us to advocate for these changes. Please let us know if any law is adversely affecting your business. It’s what we are here for.

*The Supreme Court is currently reviewing substantial portions of the law. Depending on their decision, this could all be a moot point.

**WIPP recently visited with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office, which keeps a stack of the regulations, in case you wanted a visual.

John Stanford is part of WIPP’s Government Relations team in Washington, D.C., specializing in federal procurement and healthcare policy. When not bothering lawmakers about needed changes, he can be found in the woods at local golf courses.