Nelson Calls for Tax Breaks for Businesses Affected by Lake Okeechobee Discharges

The Lake Okeechobee discharges have been an important political discussions these past couple of days with the amount of damage that they're causing to the coasts.

In an effort to assists businesses that may have taken a hit because of toxic blue-green algae, Senator Nelson filed the Toxic Algae Tax Relief Act," which would provide a tax deduction to any small businesses within designated areas pointed out by the Treasury secretary. The bill also defines that a small business is any business that has an "average gross sales under $25 million per year."

In a statement, Senator Nelson explained that "These toxic algae blooms are having a real impact on the local businesses and economies that depend on our state’s waterways. We need to do everything we can to help the small business owners who, through no fault of their own, are suddenly struggling to make ends meet because of these toxic algae blooms."

The deduction that a business can claim entirely depends on the money they earned during the bloom compared to the average income of the business three years prior to the bloom. So, any business owner who earned less than that income is eligible to claim a deduction for the difference.