Success Stories

Microenterprise Tax Credit Success Story

The Center for Rural Affairs located in Lyons, Nebraska is a leading national rural economic development research center that develops strategic, effective business and policy endeavors that seek to promote economic opportunity for all rural residents. Very early on in their work they discovered that the predominate successful rural economic development jobs program in rural communities came about because of entrepreneurial enterprises comprising 5 or less people otherwise known as microenterprises.

The Center for Rural Affairs and American Communications Group, Inc. have collaborated for decades on an array of public policy initiatives. The Center developed a proposal for a microenterprise tax credit that was targeted at small microenterprise businesses and working with American Communications successfully advocated for the enactment of a tax credit targeted specifically to micro businesses. Heretofore any business tax statutes were developed for and benefited those entities that were larger and predominantly located in urban areas.

The Microenterprise Tax Credit was enacted by the Nebraska Legislature in 2005 and has been serving the interest of micro business located throughout rural Nebraska. This tax policy initiative was the first of its kind enacted in the United States.