Kamala Harris pushes for 10x boost in new small business tax break

Simone Del Rosario: Presidential candidate Kamala Harris wants to 10x the tax incentives new small businesses get. 

In a campaign stop in New Hampshire Wednesday, she highlighted her desire to spur 25 million new small business applications in a four-year term if elected. 

To put that in perspective, so far, entrepreneurs have filed a record-breaking 19 million new small business applications during the Biden-Harris administration, according to Treasury analysis. 

Kamala Harris: They aren’t just building a business. They’re pursuing a dream. They’re building a better future for their employees and for the people they love in their communities, and by extension, they’re building a stronger middle class and a stronger America for us all. And so all of this is why as president, one of my highest priorities will be to strengthen America’s small businesses, and here I am in New Hampshire to announce a few elements of my plan to do that.

Simone Del Rosario: Harris made her pitch at Throwback Brewery, a female-founded brewery on the seacoast of New Hampshire.

Kamala Harris: So here’s the thing, on average, it costs about $40,000 to start a new business in America, that is a great financial barrier for a lot of folks, and it can hold entrepreneurs back. And the current tax deduction for a startup is just $5,000 Okay, so then you got to make up the Delta there. Got to figure out how you can do that. Not everyone has access to that kind of wealth and capital. So part of my plan is we will expand the tax deduction for startups to $50,000.

Simone Del Rosario: The idea of expanding this deduction isn’t partisan. Florida Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan has repeatedly proposed expanding the $5,000 limit to $20,000. It’s a proposal the Trump administration supported. While we don’t have the sticker price for Harris’ plan, Buchanan’s proposal in 2018 was a $2.8 billion tax cut over 10 years, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal. 

There’s nothing small about the impact of America’s small businesses. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, small businesses employ nearly half (46%) of America’s private sector workforce and account for 43.5% of the country’s entire economic growth. 

Harris also said her administration would provide low- and no-interest loans to small businesses while raising taxes on big corporations and the wealthy. 

Harris and former President Trump have been campaigning across the country, attempting to position themselves as the candidate who will grow the middle class. 

In the polls, Harris is chipping away at Trump’s substantial lead in whom voters trust to lead the economy. And as they pitch their ideas to the American people, what may stand out is how much the two candidates have in common.

Marc Goldwein: What’s interesting to me is maybe a lot of the similarities, there’s a tit for tat here where President Trump says no taxes on tips. And so Vice President Harris says, Well, I’m not going to do that either. The Democrats say a $3,000 child tax credit. So vice presidential candidate Vance, Sen. Vance, says, maybe it’s $6,000, $5,000.

Simone Del Rosario: While Harris is in New Hampshire, Trump will be doing a town hall in the battleground state of Pennsylvania Wednesday evening.