Call on legislature to support winwin tax credit for small businesses
State lawmakers should move quickly to include a proposal aimed at helping small businesses help themselves through advertising tax credits as part of the biennial budget.
Wisconsin is home to more than 130,000 small businesses which employee one or more people. They are the businesses that keep downtown areas vibrant, support community events, sponsor youth sports and provide employment opportunities for people of all ages and across the demographic spectrum. Wisconsin’s small businesses have been put through the wringer in recent years with COVID, supply chain issues, labor shortages and spikes in inflation. A new Republican-backed proposal seeks to provide small businesses relief through tax credits for advertising expenses.
This proposal is being championed by State Representative Todd Novak of Dodgeville, with the idea enjoying bipartisan support.
The bill creates an income and franchise tax credit for small businesses that purchase advertising in local media outlets, including newspapers, broadcast radio or television stations that are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to serve a local community in Wisconsin, or Wisconsin-based internet sites that are meant to inform users of news and events in local communities in the state.
Under the proposal , the credit equals 25 percent of the advertising expenditures, limited to a maximum credit of $2,500. Keeping with its focus on providing help to small businesses as intensely local economic drivers, the proposed credit could be claimed only by businesses with fewer than 100 full-time employees and less than $10,000,000 in gross receipts.
The proposal would put a five-year limit on the tax credit program, from Dec. 31, 2022, to Jan. 1, 2028.
Main Street businesses in all sectors and all parts of Wisconsin have faced challenges on a level never seen before. Local media outlets, most of which are small businesses themselves, are dealing with the same obstacles. Community focused, family-run businesses, including newspapers, are in the same position many retailers, hospitality businesses and small manufacturers are in, trying to keep their businesses stable under difficult circumstances.
The advertising incentive creates a win-win scenario for small businesses that want to advertise and for local media. Similar legislation proposed during the last legislative session garnered bipartisan support among legislators and trade associations representing broadcasters, chiropractors, dentists, grocers, independent businesses, petroleum marketers, convenience stores, restaurants, taverns and newspapers.
Call on Rep. Donna Rozar and Karen Hurd and Sen. Jesse James to support this proposal and encourage members of the Joint Finance Committee to show support for the state’s small businesses.
Advertising works. Making it easier for small businesses to make an investment in effective advertising campaigns will help boost Wisconsin’s small businesses and rural communities, and will provide an economic benefit that will ripple through the state’s economy, increasing economic resiliency on Main Streets across the state.
The Tribune-Record-Gleaner editorial board consists of publisher Kris O’Leary and Star News editor Brian Wilson.
