Business Band-Aid The 1997 Taxpayer Relief Act offered small doses of relief.

Hailed as a major tax-reform package by both Congress andPresident Clinton, the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 promised to makelong-overdue improvements to an ailing tax system. But three yearslater, it's clear the law made only a minor difference forbusinesses.

At least that's the consensus shared by most entrepreneursand tax experts. Perhaps it's because the law is actuallyintended to provide more relief to middle-income parents with kidsthan to entrepreneurs running businesses. It created a special taxcredit for each child parents have under age 16 and currentlyoffers a number of education credits and deductions forcollege-bound kids.

Another major cornerstone of the law is a reduction in the toptax rate on capital gains for individuals, from 28 percent to 20percent. (The reduction went to 10 percent for taxpayers in thelowest income bracket.) While it was the first time in 16 yearsthat a new tax law provided some tax relief for both individualsand businesses, the size of that relief-some $95 billion incuts-was relatively small compared to the 1981 tax law thatprovided $750 billion in tax reductions.