OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — Small businesses here in Oklahoma are continuing to feel the impacts of inflation, but experts say there is something Congress can do to help.
The NFIB says they are advocating for the Main Street Tax Certainty Act, which would make tax cuts passed by Congress in 2017 that are meant to help small businesses permanent.
If that legislation does not pass, those tax deductions will expire in 2025, leaving small businesses in Oklahoma and across the country vulnerable.
Experts say small businesses are the backbone of our economy,
“According to the SBA, the Small Business Administration, 98% of employers in Oklahoma are classified as small business,” said Oklahoma’s NFIB Director, Jerrod Shouse, “They create two-thirds of the net new jobs in our state and in our country, and so small businesses are absolutely critical.”
But according to a recent survey from the NFIB, small business owners say they’re struggling with inflation,
“It could be how inflation is affecting how they do their prices, it could be how much it costs to bring on contractors or employees to work, it could be the amounts they’re having to pay to bring in something,” Shouse said.
The NFIB says as small businesses grapple with inflation daily they also feel uncertainty of future economic conditions, with a 20% tax deduction that has been in place for seven years set to expire in 2025,
“In 2017 Congress passed some tax cuts that were meant to help small business owners, that’s a 20% Small Business deduction,” said Shouse, “A great, great number of our members take advantage of this, but it’s set to expire in 2025 and so that’s our number one focus right now, on capital to Washington, DC.”
According to the US Chamber of Commerce, the collectible benefit of that tax deduction is over $1.4 billion,
“They are really banking on Congress to do their job and passing the Main Street Tax Certainty Act,” Shouse said, “That is our number one goal in Capital Hill, and we’ll be communicating with our members here in Oklahoma, what’s happening pretty regularly throughout that.”
The NFIB encourages Oklahomans to reach out to their member of Congress to ask them to support the Main Street Tax Certainty Act, they say they hope to have it passed by the end of the year.
