Committee Urges Quick Refunds to Small Firms that Lost Money

U.S. House Committee on Small Business chair, Nydia M. Velasquez (D-New York), has issued a set of 10 recommendations to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman aimed at easing tax burdens on America’s small businesses. “Given the current economic climate, small firms need the IRS to be particularly responsive to questions regarding tax provisions within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,” Velasquez told the commissioner in a letter, which also thanked Shulman for his recent testimony before the committee. Among the committee’s recommendations, billed as a short list of desired outcomes, were better outreach to small business by the IRS, vis- & #341;-vis filing options and tax benefits; accepting more “offers in compromise” from small businesses; hiring more agents to process the expected flood of net-operating-loss tax refunds; hiring more agents to process the 65-percent COBRA-subsidy tax credits businesses will earn because the Stimulus Act required them pay the bulk of COBRA on behalf of “involuntarily terminated” employees; as well as other recommendations. Thom Senzee