From Washington DC to Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, the world will be talking about micro-and small business. As the U.S. Congress starts work this week, legislators will consider 11 bills related to micro-business – from access to capital to entrepreneurship training to self-employment tax help. Meanwhile, across the pond economic leaders will discuss new models for job creation including micro-entrepreneurship.
Contact
Heidi Pickman
415-992-4484
hpickman (at) microbiz (dot) org
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) January 26, 2012
After researching bills in Congress, CAMEO – California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity – has found 11 micro-related bills in Congress that will be considered for this session that will help very small businesses. In the same week as Congress goes back to work, economic leaders meet in Davos, Switzerland and one of their four main topics is new models of job creation that includes helping the unemployed become self-employed.
“Never before has so much attention been on micro-business in Congress and the streets of Davos,” said Claudia Viek, C.E.O. of CAMEO. “To have leaders abroad and close to home taking action and discussing ways to foster micro-business, confirms what I’ve known for 25 years – that micro-businesses create jobs and economic growth.”
The founder of the World Economic Forum, Professor Klaus Schwab, writes, “The key to mitigating a catastrophic situation is to provide young people with the capability to create their own jobs: to move from the pure concept of unemployment to the concept of micro-entrepreneurship. This will require fundamental changes in educational systems, nurturing a societal spirit of entrepreneurial risk-taking…”,
Bills that are being considered in U.S. Congress encourage self-employment, provide tax credits for investment, offer access to capital for very small businesses and organizations that provide entrepreneurship training programs. More specifically, the bills would:
- increase business assistance and entrepreneurial training to very low-income individuals and youth entrepreneurs – H.R. 2809 by Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA);
- help low-income business owners formalize their businesses and file Schedule C taxes –H.R. 3571 by Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA);
- amend the securities laws to provide for registration exemptions for certain crowdfunded securities, and for other purposes – HR 2930 by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) and S1970 by Sen. Jeff Merkeley (D-OR);
- increase the percentage of credit union assets that may be loaned from 12.25 percent to 27.5 to its member businesses, as long as certain safeguards and monitoring are met – H.R. 1418 by Rep. Edward Royce (R-CA) and (S. 509) by Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO);
- provide new loan loss reserves and funding for Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) – H.R. 3635 by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY);
- provide tax credits for investment in small business, ease high skilled immigration, collect data, cost-benefit on small business for new regulation – S.1965 by Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA);
- initiate a relending program to start a local farm biz with 0% capital and an 85% federal loan guarantee – S. 1888 by Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA);
- provide a 35 percent tax credit on up to about $30,000 of new investment help new enterprises start and existing enterprises grow – H.R. 2858 by Ron Kind (D-WI) and Wally Herger (R-CA); and
- include three other bills that help unemployed workers to start their own businesses
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Company Information:
CAMEO’s mission is to promote jobs, economic opportunity and community well-being through entrepreneurship training, business coaching and microfinance. CAMEO is California’s statewide Micro Enterprise association made up of over 160 organizations, agencies and individuals dedicated to furthering the fortunes of micro-businesses in California.