The National Cotton Council joined 25 state and national farm, livestock and commodity organizations in urging Congressional repeal of a proposed 1099 reporting requirement.
Under existing law, a Form 1099 must be issued to unincorporated service providers that are paid more than $600 during a tax year.
Under new reporting rules set to start in 2012, a Form 1099 will be required for payments to incorporated vendors and will be expanded to cover payments made for goods as well as services that total $600 or more in a calendar year to a single non-employee payee. Payments made to corporations would no longer be excluded from the reporting requirement.
The organizations sent letters to Senator Mike Johanns (R-NE) and to Representative Dan Lungren (R-CA) saying that under the proposed new requirement, “Virtually all business-to-business transactions will be covered, creating a new major paperwork burden for the farms, ranches and related agri-businesses. The business of producing food, fiber and fuel is a hands-on venture where productivity and competitiveness is compromised by government rules and regulations that turn producers into bookkeepers. Prompt action is needed by Congress to reverse this onerous tax-reporting requirement.”
When the Senate returns on September 14, there will be cloture votes on two amendments to H.R. 5297, the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010. One amendment by Senator Johanns would repeal the new Form 1099 rules and “pay for” repeal by reducing the number of people subject to the individual mandate to buy health insurance.
An alternative amendment by Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) would exempt firms with fewer than 25 employees from reporting requirements and raise the threshold for reporting for larger firms from $600 to $5,000. Credit card purchases would be exempted from information reporting requirements. Under Senator Nelson’s amendment, the changes would be paid for with a provision to repeal the manufacturing deduction allowed for oil companies.