Urgent! New IRS Law – Just say NO!

September 7, 2010

A R T I S T S U N D E R T H E D O M E

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National Call to Action on a New IRS Law that will Negatively Impact the Self-Employed and Small Businesses

Greetings,

It is very important that ALL artists of all disciplines who deduct their art/business expenses on their taxes, the self employed, small businesses, and small nonprofits, contact their federal elected officials (i.e., their congressperson and two senators) on a IRS tax law change that will have massive negative consequences.

I also strongly encourage people to send in comments to the IRS about the law change (please be aware the IRS didn’t ask for this new requirement).

BACKGROUND:

There was a change to IRS 1099 reporting requirements as part of the recently passed National Health Care Reform Law. Starting in Spring 2012, one will have to report via IRS 1099 forms, not only those they pay over $600 for a service, but they will have to “1099” for any good/products they purchased for $600 or over (this means if you buy a computer, office products from Staples, your phone service, your landlord, you will have to 1099 them). This will be a huge burden and perhaps impossible to fully comply with.

This new reporting requirement will prove very problematic for identity theft prevention on many levels (i.e., if you have a home office or studio and you rent you will have to get your landlord’s social security number to 1099 them, if you buy a used computer from someone off Craig’s list for your business you will have to get their SS# to 1099 them, etc.). Most people will not want to give their social security number out, nor will small businesses, nonprofits or the self employed want to collect that information and be responsible for its safe keeping. Many states now have very specific laws or are in the process of enacting tough laws on how someone has to “store” sensitive personal information such as social security numbers on computers and in hard copy formats.

The IRS has said that any transaction done with a business debit card or business credit card will not have to be “1099ed”. However, many self-employed people and small businesses and small non profits do not use business credit cards or business debit cards (due to the expense/fees and some folks can’t get them).

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HOW TO CONTACT YOUR FEDERAL ELECTED OFFICIALS:

Contact your elected officials and ask them to repeal this new requirement for the self-employed, the small businesses and small nonprofits.

To find who represents you in Washington DC , you can use the free online tool: Vote Smart: http://www.votesmart.org

Note- you will need to know your full 8 digit zip code to find out who represents you: http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp

HOW TO SEND IN YOUR COMMENTS TO THE IRS:

Comments to the IRS are due by September 29, 2010. Please be aware that the IRS will be moving on this issue sooner than the comment deadline and urges comments to be submitted much sooner than the deadline. Please be aware anything you submit will be made public- so be careful with any info you do not want made public (i.e., your home phone number etc.).

How to submit written comments to the IRS:

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=225029,00.html

and the PDF directly: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-10-51.pdf

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It is very important to TAKE ACTION on this issue and to encourage others to do so.

I include links to recent news articles on the new law at the end of this email.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Bitetti

Artist & Activist

Co-founder of ArtistsAlliance.us, ArtistsUnderthedome.org, HealthcareforArtists.org & the Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition.

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LINKS TO NEWS ARTICLES ON THE ISSUE: