WASHINGTON, DC ?" On Monday, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) introduced an amendment to a tax extenders bill currently before the Senate that would create and expand small business tax incentives. The incentives are targeted at helping small businesses invest in new capital and hire workers.

A member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Sen. Thune has proposed redirecting unspent portions of last year??s $862 billion stimulus bill to fully pay for the proposals in his amendment. The National Federation of Independent Business endorses his amendment.

"Small businesses are the economic engines that drive job growth, both in South Dakota and across the country," said Sen. Thune in a press release. "My amendment creates new incentives in the tax code and expands existing ones, making it easier for small businesses to purchase new equipment and hire new workers.

"Last year??s stimulus bill was slow and untargeted; much of the money remains unallocated. My amendment would allow Congress to redirect taxpayer dollars in a more effective manner by targeting them at small businesses with a mixture of short-term incentives and meaningful, permanent tax relief that will provide certainty and incentives to invest and hire. True job creation doesn??t happen when the government adds jobs, it grows when small businesses are given the incentives to thrive."

Sen. Thune??s amendment would create new incentives for small businesses to more easily pay off large expenditures for manufacturing equipment and other physical capital. The amendment would also eliminate capital gains taxes on small business investments and allows for a 20 percent deduction for small-business income.

Small businesses create 60 percent to 80 percent of all new jobs. However, less than 1 percent of the $862 billion stimulus bill was dedicated to small-business tax relief. Since enactment of the stimulus bill, more than 3.3 million jobs have been lost and unemployment stands at an unacceptable rate of 9.7 percent with millions more underemployed or out of the job market.