Office of Small Business: News and events

Mayor Gavin Newsom continues to champion small businesses as he announced a “No-Interest Business Loan Program” as part of his local economic stimulus plan. Newsom also will make desperately needed credit directly available to businesses in San Francisco though two separate programs.

In the next 30 days, the Office of Economic and Workforce Development will issue a Request For Proposals for community-based lending institutions to administer a revolving small business loan fund. The city will seed the fund with $800,000 in existing federal funds from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. These small and micro loans will be for $5,000 to $50,000 and offered to qualified small businesses.

The city will make available to qualified businesses and enterprises $23 million in no-interest loans. These monies also come from HUD funds and are available for this type of program. It will take 30-60 days to establish criteria to administer these loans. Fill out the SBAC Contact Us form at www.sfgov.org/site/osb_index.asp indicating interest in the business loan program. SBAC will notify you once the program launches.

Business registration renewal and payroll tax statement: Payment and filing deadline for all businesses is March 2.  San Francisco businesses with a taxable payroll of less than $66,666.34 are not required to file a separate payroll tax statement and may renew their registration online.

Commuter benefits program: Effective Jan. 19, San Francisco employers that have 20 or more employees are required to offer a commuter benefits program to encourage employees to use public transit or vanpools. Employees save by using pre-tax dollars for their commute expenses. Employers receive the advantage of reduced payroll taxes. For more information, call the Commuter Benefits Hotline at (415) 355-3727.

Labor law updates: The minimum wage rate is adjusted every Jan. 1 for inflation and will be $9.79 starting this year. The Health Care Security Ordinance’s new expenditure rate for employers with 20 to 99 employees is $1.23 per hour; for employers with 100 or more employees, the rate is $1.85 per hour.

Prop Q exemption for small business: The small business exemption will increase from $167,000 to $250,000 of annual payroll.  That is, businesses whose payroll expenses are $250,000 or less would be exempt from the payroll tax. Proposition Q took effect on Jan. 1 and does not apply to the 2008 tax year or prior years.
For more information, call: 415.554.6134

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