Senate committee advances tax bill supporting small businesses impacted by COVID-19

The state Senate Finance Committee recently advanced legislation to provide employers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic with critical assistance,

Senate Bill 368 is part of the Prioritize Pennsylvania: Small Businesses initiative unveiled in March, which makes significant reforms to revitalize Pennsylvania’s economy.

The bill would allow employers to take net operating losses against future years for up to 20 years and allow small businesses to take a net loss against other sources of income and “carry back” losses to previous tax years.

This provides relief at the same level as the federal government and would give small-business owners the same tax strategies as large corporations.

Sens. Camera Bartolotta (R-Greene County) and Judy Ward (R-Blair County) introduced the bill.

“Because small employers typically do not have access to large amounts of capital to manage losses, it is critical that we allow them to use tax strategies to survive the pandemic,” Bartolotta said. “Senator Ward and I introduced the bill to provide immediate relief to cash-strapped employers so they can continue to help with Pennsylvania’s economic recovery.”

“Big corporations were already given an unfair advantage in the past year when the governor favored them over smaller businesses that could have more easily followed social distancing and other COVID-19 guidelines,” Ward said.

The bill moves to the full Senate for consideration.