Content about Small Business Administration

ARDMORE, Pa. — Thanks to the 100% “bonus” depreciation write-offs created by the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010, many dry cleaning businesses are discovering that capital investments in equipment, machinery and other business assets are more affordable today than ever before. Remember, however, the 100% bonus depreciation write-off is available only for qualifying purchases made by dry cleaning plants and businesses in 2011.

Those dry cleaners that have hesitated or postponed making capital investments because of the recent economic downturn might now want to consider how the combined use of incentives and the 100% bonus depreciation can substantially reduce the cost of capital investments. Even funding those new-equipment purchases is easier—at least for a while.

Provisions in the Small Business Jobs Act may soon ease the Great Recession’s prolonged credit crunch.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Small Business Jobs Act cleared the U.S. House last Thursday on a 237-187 vote after passing the Senate earlier in the week. President Barack Obama plans to sign the $30 billion package of incentives and tax cuts into law today.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Small-business owners and entrepreneurs finding it difficult to get credit will soon be looking in an unlikely place — Sam’s Club. The sister company to Wal-Mart announced this week that it is testing an online program to make loans of $5,000 to $25,000 to qualifying members.

WASHINGTON — The $18 billion bill extending unemployment benefits passed last week in Congress and signed by President Obama adds $80 million in funding to two lending programs of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), effectively extending Recovery loan provisions through May 31.

WASHINGTON — Two stimulus provisions that reduced fees and boosted guarantees on Small Business Administration (SBA) loans — a move intended to boost small-business lending — have run out of funds for a second time.

The original provisions ran out of funding in late November, and the Senate temporarily extended funding through February. The provisions set the maximum guarantees on SBA loans at 90%, and waived fees that the agency normally charges banks in order to promote lending.

WASHINGTON — The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a report that shows the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) oversight of lenders does not adequately reduce loan defaults and losses.

Despite SBA’s improvements to off-site lender monitoring, the agency doesn’t independently assess the validity of the off-site monitoring or effectively conduct on-site reviews of lenders, according to the report.

WASHINGTON — United States Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship chair Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Ranking Member Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, have introduced legislation designed to increase access to capital for small businesses and help create jobs.

S. 2869, the “Small Business Job Creation and Access to Capital Act of 2009,” would increase the small-business loan limit to as high as $5.5 million and extend for a year the elimination of fees and increased guarantees set to expire under the Recovery Act.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department and the Small Business Administration (SBA) are collaborating on a new initiative designed to make it easier for community banks to obtain capital and raise the funding limit for SBA loans.

Under the plan unveiled last week, banks with assets of less than $1 billion will be able to borrow capital from the government at a 3% dividend rate. To qualify, banks will need to submit a small-business lending plan showing how the money will expand their small-business lending.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama launched initiatives last week designed to aid small businesses in an aggressive push to get banks to lend more to struggling entrepreneurs.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has issued a scam alert warning small businesses not to respond to letters that falsely claim to have been sent by the SBA and ask for bank-account information in order to qualify them for federal tax rebates.