Illinois Valley Times

State Sen. Win Stoller (R-Germantown Hills) attended a press conference held at the Peoria Tire & Vulcanizing Company to speak about his SALT (state and local tax) bill.

Stoller listed the opportunities business owners will have from the legislation.

"I want to highlight the broad impact that this bill has. Over 400,000 business owners statewide have the opportunity to benefit from this tax deduction," Stoller said. "We have manufacturers, Realtors, car washes, roofing contractors, catering businesses, our friends in the farming community, carpet stores, bicycles, IT services, blue collar, white collar, there's a long list of businesses that are going to be able to benefit from my SALT bill."

Stoller also took the opportunity to mention how his bill has attracted bipartisan support in the Illinois State Senate.

"One aspect that I am particularly proud of is as soon as I filed this bill, January, I reached across the aisle and lined up two Democrats as chief co-sponsors to this bill,” he said. “In fact, this bill enjoys a large number of co-sponsors from both chambers and from both sides of the aisle. I think it’s interesting if you look at the list of co-sponsors there are some of the most conservative Republicans and there are some of the most liberal Democrats all co-sponsoring the same bill. It’s not very often in Springfield you see that kind of bipartisanship."

According to Stoller, who is a CPA and MBA degree holder, and a businessman himself, the bill would allow small businesses to opt-in to a federal tax cut. He also was pleased to say that “on the Illinois side of this bill it’s revenue-neutral.” He assured that there is no cost to the state “but it allows our small businesses to opt-in just as other states are starting to do, to a federal tax cut.”

“My SALT bill — Senate Bill 2531 — represents an idea from the IRS (who) put out new guidance last fall that allows small businesses, pass-through entities, to have a workaround to a $10,000 cap — the SALT cap,” Stoller underscored his measure. “Most of the time these small businesses organized as pass-through entities, your S Corps., your LLCs and partnerships, they're not taxed as a business, that income is captured and passes through to their individual tax return — that's where it is taxed as business income. That's also where the SALT cap exists. My bill allows them to elect – if they wish – to be taxed as a business at the entity level.”

The bill was largely supported at the assembly from the start.

Senate Bill 2531, now enrolled, would immediately take effect once enacted into law.

The measure awaits final approval from Gov. J.B. Pritzker.