Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, on Wednesday proposed policies she hopes will help spur small business creation across the U.S., and also announced a break with one of President Biden’s policies by calling for a smaller increase than he has proposed on capital gains taxes.
For one, she wants to expand the small business tax credit tenfold — from $5,000 to $50,000 — to help startups cover the average $40,000 it costs to launch an enterprise. She’s also setting a goal of receiving 25 million new small business applications in her first term, up from the record 19 million that were filed under the Biden-Harris administration.
As President, one of my highest priorities will be to strengthen America’s small businesses,” Harris said at a campaign stop at Throwback Brewery outside of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Wednesday. “So, first we’re gonna help more small businesses and innovators get off the ground.”
In addition to growing the number of small businesses that are created, Harris said she’s aiming to make it easier for existing companies to expand by cutting the “red tape that can make starting and growing a small business more difficult than it needs to be.”
On the capital gains tax, Harris argued that “when the government encourages investment, it leads to broad-based economic growth and it creates jobs which make our economy stronger.
Harris’ proposal of 28% capital gains tax rate for those making over $1 million is lower than than the 39.6% rate established in Biden’s FY2025 budget proposal. It is currently 23.8%.
With the proposals, Harris is aiming to make it easier for entrepreneurs to grow their shops by eliminating some of the financial hurdles that can make it difficult for founders to succeed.
The proposals underscore Harris’ conviction that the nation’s 33 million small businesses underpin the U.S. economy, by employing nearly all private-sector workers, generating trillions of dollars annually and driving economic growth and innovation, a campaign official told CBS News.
Harris’ tax deduction proposal would also let new businesses wait until they turned a profit to claim the credit, if they so chose, to reduce their tax bill.
The presidential candidate is also proposing streamlining the tax-filing process by developing a standard deduction for small businesses, making it easier for companies to obtain occupational licenses in order to expand, and incentivizing state and local governments to relax regulations that can hamstring small businesses’ growth.
“We will make it cheaper and easier for small businesses to file their taxes,” Harris said, adding that she wants to “take away some of the bureaucracy in the process to make it easier for people to actually do something that’s going to benefit our entire economy.”
Other previously announced features in Harris’ wide-ranging economic agenda include promises to cut taxes for most Americans, build more affordable housing, and ban “price gouging” in the food industry.
Aaron Navarro
contributed to this report.
