By Palmer Schoening/InsideSources

After seven years of debate and planning, the House of Representatives delivered much-needed tax relief for family-owned businesses. The process now heads to the Senate, where Majority Leader John Thune is confident he can muscle a bill through the upper chamber before July 4th recess.

Family businesses have been waiting impatiently for certainty on tax policy, as many of the 2017 improvements in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act were made temporary to fit within the Senate’s arcane budget reconciliation restrictions. Those improvements are slated to expire at the end of this year, leaving family businesses scrambling to plan for the future. This is the reality for many small businesses, farms and ranches.

Michelle Gallagher, a certified public accountant in Michigan who works closely with many family-owned enterprises, testified before the House Committee on Ways and Means during its 2025 kick-off hearing that “business owners, family enterprises, working families and their advisers are desperately seeking certainty and predictability related to tax policies right now. Frequent or last-minute changes to the tax code create tremendous uncertainty, making it difficult for taxpayers to plan for the future. Without clarity, businesses and families are likely to delay or forgo investments like hiring more workers, increasing salaries, upgrading business equipment, purchasing a first home, or opening a new college savings account for their children, which could stall economic growth and depress job creation.”

President Trump has been clear that he wants this done as soon as possible. Main Street also wants this done as soon as possible, in the right way to provide predictability and certainty. Doing tax reform the right way also means avoiding financing the bill with tax hikes that would be harmful to businesses and could jeopardize Senate passage.

The House and Senate so far have wisely avoided funding their tax relief with harmful tax hikes, such as raising the top marginal rate many small businesses pay and “C-SALT,” capping state and local deductions for small businesses.

House and Senate leaders should focus on providing permanence in the tax code for small businesses with the 20% small-business deduction, the estate tax, and equipment expensing provisions. The Senate improved on the House product by making equipment expensing provisions permanent.

Tax certainty and predictability are primary concerns for small businesses, and the final bill should reflect that.

Republicans in Congress have a golden opportunity to help Main Street succeed and to get the economy churning. It is time to focus on tax relief while avoiding controversial efforts that will dampen the growth of America’s main job-creating engines — small and family-owned businesses.

Palmer Schoening is the chairman of the Family Business Coalition in Washington