Senate rejects expanded 1099 requirement
The U.S. Senate yesterday didn’t repeal health-care reform, but it did take a step toward getting rid of a provision that would impose a major paperwork burden on small businesses next year. By an 81-17 vote, the Senate passed an amendment that would repeal a provision that requires businesses to file 1099 forms with the Internal Revenue Service any time they spend more than $600 per year in business-to-business transactions. That requirement, which is scheduled to go into effect in 2012, is a significant expansion of the current 1099 reporting requirement, which applies only to payments to unincorporated service providers. The amendment directs the Office of Management and Budget to tap up to $44 billion in unspent funds appropriated for other purposes to cover the revenue that would be lost by repealing the 1099 requirement.