Senate Democrats float health tax repeal

Senate Democrats said Friday that they’re prepared to repeal a new tax reporting requirement in the health care reform law that has riled up small businesses over concern that it is too burdensome.

The so-called 1099 provision would require businesses to file paperwork for all cumulative purchases from a vendor that top $600 in a year. It would have raised about $17 billion to help cover reform.

Speaking as a small business owner that will probably be directly affected by this, this is a very good thing. It was a stupid, onerous law and a particularly boneheaded burden to add to small businesses during a recession.

EDIT: To put this in perspective, this law meant that I’d have to file a 1099 just for buying a new Dell PC. That’s the kind of extraneous paperwork that makes people look at starting their own business and say “nah, it’s just too much of a headache”.

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