The Front Lines

National: Congressman Bob Weygand (D-RI) recently introduced legislation in the House of Representatives to modernize the home office tax deduction. Called the Home Office Equality Act of 1997, the proposed bill would allow administrative, operational or managerial tasks to qualify a home office as the principal place of business and would not require homebased business owners to meet with clients in their homes.

Weygand purposely introduced legislation that deals only with the deduction, unlike proposals introduced by Rep. James Talent (R-MO) and Sen. Christopher Bond (R-MO). Weygand believes introducing the single-subject bill will strengthen its chance for passage. He estimates his bill trims $1.1 billion from federal tax coffers across five years, while the Bond and Talent proposals are projected to slice away $8.3 billion over five years.

Arizona: Governor Fife Symington has signed legislation regarding the status of independent contractors. The Employment Security: Independent Contractors law says that if the IRS determines an individual is not an employee (and not entitled to unemployment benefits), the state's Department of Employment Security (DES) can't retroactively say the opposite, particularly if DES officials have inspected wage records and did not require a designation change.

This article was originally published in the September 1997 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: The Front Lines.