Congressional Bill Would Provide Tax Incentives for Working from Home
Tuesday March 20, 2007
A bill recently introduced into the US Congress provides incentives for employers to set up telecommuting programs and simplifies some of the US tax code that applies to working from home and home-based businesses. Currently, the US offers no significant tax relief or incentives for companies to institute work from home arrangements for employees, so the bill, if passed, would be a major step in the right direction to spur work from home job opportunties.
Named the Parents' Tax Relief Act of 2007, the bill sponsored by Senator Brownback of Kansas and Congressman Terry of Nebraska includes items of interest to employers, those who work from home and those who operate home businesses. The bill doesn't seem to have a whole lot of support right now and is in danger of being lost in committee, so parties of interest are urged to contact their Senators and House representatives to encourage their support and help the bill get some much-needed attention.
Three important tax relief items in the bill incude:
More Tax Topics
Named the Parents' Tax Relief Act of 2007, the bill sponsored by Senator Brownback of Kansas and Congressman Terry of Nebraska includes items of interest to employers, those who work from home and those who operate home businesses. The bill doesn't seem to have a whole lot of support right now and is in danger of being lost in committee, so parties of interest are urged to contact their Senators and House representatives to encourage their support and help the bill get some much-needed attention.
Three important tax relief items in the bill incude:
- A simplified flat rate office-in-home deduction of either $2500 or the total profit from your home-based business, whichever is less, in place of the current red tape, complexities and record-keeping nightmare of the deduction for the expenses related to a portion of a home that is used exclusively for business.
- An employer's tax credit of $2400 for each employee who begins telecommuting during the tax year.
- Excluding the value of any telecommuting equipment provided by an employer, including computers and broadband Internet access equipment, from a work-from-home employee's taxable income .
More Tax Topics
Comments
Great stuff!
But as an expert on the rise of the virtual economy, which INCLUDES but is not restricted to home-based businesses, it’s time the U.S. Census provided accurate data on this trend.
See my blog at LIVING THE VIRTUAL AMERICAN DREAM for the impact of a Census whose questions on the work place are closer to 1950 than 2008.
Amy Zuckerman
Principal, A – Z International Associates
Amherst, Ma.
http://www.a-zinternational.com
Thanks for the comment, Amy. For those who want to visit Amy’s blog, the URL is:
http://virtualdream-amyz.blogspot.com/.
What got my attention with the survey results was that 77 percent of those over 62 said they planned to operate a home business in retirement. Maybe this site needs to give some attention to the needs and issues that face the folks in that group.
Randy D.